And it sucks. Instead of hitting the wall they should call it getting run over by a Mac truck!!
The first half of my marathon went more as less at planned, I came in just over 2 hours at the half-way point. Around 26kms I started having issues with food, I didn't want to eat anything, and I literally had to choke down Gatorade.
Anyway things got worse as the race went along, and I had to run -walk from 30K on. The Sun started beating down, and even the bands and cheering weren't helping. Around 38K I was feeling dizzy and I went off to side to stretch. I continued to walk and around the 39K mark I chucked my cookies. Nice. The poor spectators with their lawn chairs and umbrellas looked repulsed. Welcome to the marathon.
What caused it? I don't know. I think I didn't give myself enough taper time. I ran a full four weeks ago, and then a half two weeks ago, and then the full today. I felt recovered, and my first half was fine. My second half was dismal. When I was sick, they tried pull me off the course, but I refused and stumbled into the finish line. I strangely felt better afterwards. Anyway, I finished in a disappointing 4:48:and change.
I am not going to see this as a failure but as a learning experience. The marathon distance must always be respected - I know I can turn this disappointing result into a positive.
On the up side, I did finish my seventh marathon and it was the toughest personally for me yet. I had never experienced this "wall" thing before. I have always been tired on the home stretch, but never questioned if I could even walk it out. Also Hubs finished his 5th of 5 marathons in a row. He ran this marathon in his Paint Shop coveralls to raise money for cancer research. He completed his run in 4 hours, 17 minutes. I will post a full race review later. Thanks for reading!!
7 comments:
Thanks, Marci, for your words of encouragement. They mean a lot.
You, too, should be congratulated. It's not easy to run a marathon, let alone one four weeks after another. You are a force to be reckoned with.
Congrats and keep on running.
Oh my friend, I hope you are feeling better now. There are a lot of GI issues going on lately...plus it was as hot as Hades towards the end....I walked 39K to 41K, it was hot!
Take great care of yourself and we will catch up later this week.
Hope you and Hubs enjoyed your stay in Ottawa...well other than upchucking on the way to the finish line...you still did really well!
thanks for all of the encouragement this week, please stay in touch,
Congrats Marci & Hubs!!!
I heard a lot of people had a rough time in the heat today. Congrats on toughing it out! I hope that you recover well!
Congratulations on toughing it out!!! I'm impressed :)
CONGRATS chica!! Way to stick it out! I can only imagine how brutal it was :-( But you finished, and that's all that matters, right? ;-)
Congratulations! What a month you have had and you should be proud.
Those last few KM's must have been ROUGH. Kudos to you.
Now take a break!
Hi Marci
I've written this exact same post race report before. Not enough taper and too many races combine to make the second half of a marathon much tougher than the first. As a matter of fact, my race last weekend was really tough because I just wasn't fresh. And like you said, you really have to respect the distance.
Congrats on finishing number 7 and you are so right in that we always learn something. You probably learned that you are even tougher than you might have thought.
I know for me it is such a humbling distance and it will never be in any way shape or form easy.
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