I dont even know where to begin this, I was feeling incredibly awesome and prepared the first 3 weeks of sept and then the past 2 weeks I have felt very off. I got that blister and then my foot had been hurting pretty bad because I would run funny to avoid hitting the spot. It was a stressful 2 weeks and my body does not handle stress well at all! So I dont know if they played an affect on my tanking of this marathon. I am trying so hard to be strong and positive about my performance today (not that I want anyone to do bad but I do find comfort in the fact that majority of people struggled and were off their goal times, sorry that is very selfish) but I am definetely struggling mentally with it. Its hard when you put so much time, effort and money into preparing to run a race and to feel so prepared and not have it happen. I know there are other races but to wait for the next one to come is hard, I am an inpatient person. Also since this is my stompin ground everyone around here was waiting to see if I could break 3 and I was so confident (and still know I very capable of running sub3) and now I just feel embarrassed that I didnt.
Did not sleep well but felt rested and was excited to go although I felt I was lacking the excitement an adrenaline I have before a race, esp SG. My hamstring started to act up again on thurs (stress) and I was worried about that and my foot with the rain and possibly re rubbing that blister (happy to say my foot or hamstring did not bother me at all, that is a very postive thing!).
Felt ok the first 10-11 miles not great but ok, and was only 1 minute off my pace chart. I was just waiting for the downhill where I could take off but at 11 started to feel a little sick and my legs were not feeling fresh, Andy and his posse passed me here. JamesW came up on me at 12 and we hung together til after the half. Hit the half in 1:32 (off now by 3 min) but still know I can negative split, but I had no go whatsoever. On my favorite part of the course past diamond into SC I can usually hit a couple 5:50'S there but i think I was in the mid 6's. Could not stick with James. Started feeling severly sick to my stomach. Dashed behind a car at mile 18 and then could not get my shorts up cause they were so soaking wet. After this my pace continued to slow and slow. Felt like i was running in slow motion, my breathing was great but my legs felt like dead weight. I felt so heavy because my clothes were sopping wet and so much for lightweight racing shoes! My thoughts are now to just finish , sub3 is way out the window and I am really thinking at this point I am going to be high teens or twentys. See tom ahead of me (he passed earlier back after andy I think) and just try to keep in view. Catch him and then notice my shoe is untied, try to tie it decent but fail (hands are numb and shaky) and it unties shortly after, I would have left it alone but these laces on my racers are long, learned I will cut them next time. Well I failed again on tying my shoe lace, my hubby is at mile 23 and I call him over to tie my shoe for me cuz i cant bend over again, super sick to my stomach. He told me after I did not look like my usual running self and believe me I didnt feel like it either, I felt like it was not MY body. I caught tom again and then he sped up or i slowed down at the last mile. I was more than ready to finish but with no PR. Ran straight the bathroom, found my family, talked to just a few people, told my hubby to go get my clothes and I needed to get home fast. Felt so horrible, cold and very sick. Got home hopped in the shower, quickly got dress and then alternated between laying on the couch and the bathroom floor. SPent most the afternoon throwing up hammer gel and endurox and then just a lot of dry heaving and that hurt. Also other stuff that I will spare you the details. My stomach hurt so bad!!!! This is not the first time, I have spent many post races like this.I know my salt dips too low and have had no problems this year but obvisoulsly today I didnt. I think its because I took IB profin this week for my foot and every time I have taken it close to races this happens so now I know I HATE that stuff and will never use it again. I know better but i overlooked it and thought i would be ok. My splits for the second half are so embarassing for myself I wont even post them. I did have a great time hanging out with Josse, her sister Ericka, Michelle and Jody and going to the blog get together. Thanks guys and congrats to Jody for having an awesome race and hitting her goal almost perfect!! So glad she had a good first marathon!
Update: After my very emotional breakdown this morning (i have a great husband who sat and listened, consoled and comforted me while I sobbed like a baby!) I am doing better and I started to think about Deena Kastor and Paula Radcliff that trained for 4 years for the olympics (paula for her second bad race go around and deena breaking her foot) my race now does not seem that bad. I am sure they had similar thoughts of "of all days, why today?" I will take my little 'ol SG marathon anyday over the feelings they went through after their olympic race. | 