Well, they can’t all be PRs and sunshine, right? And we need the bad runs to appreciate the good ones? I’m very glad I went into this race thinking of it as a “fun run” and not expecting a PR. I didn’t quite expect what happened, though...
Everything started out well. Packet pickup was yesterday. This race had, hands down, THE best swag I’ve gotten at a single race: a gianormous reusable grocery/tote bag, a long sleeve tech shirt, a technical hat, a towel with the race logo, a water bottle, and yankz (shoelaces) with the race logo on them… Plus a personalized bib with your name on it, and a commemorative timing chip (and a medal, of course!). And this morning they were giving away short sleeve t-shirts made of recycled cotton.
This morning I got to the race about an hour early, used the potties, dropped of a bag at the gear drop and got back in line for the potties… though I didn’t make it back up to the front because I ran out of time. Oh well. The race started exactly on time, which was pretty awesome. The weather this morning was good for running… I wore capris, a t-shirt, and my gloves, with a throwaway long sleeve shirt on (that I ditched after about 3 miles). The course was “Pittsburgh flat,” which meant some hills, especially leading up to the bridges – but nothing as bad as it could’ve been.
I more or less stuck with the 2:30 pace group for a good deal of the race. They started out incredibly fast – nearly a minute per mile faster than the goal pace, and didn’t slow back down until around mile 5 or 6. I was a little annoyed, but since I didn’t really have a time goal, I wasn’t too worried about falling behind them.
However, I ran into big trouble in this race of the sort that’s never happened to me before. At mile 5 I took a gel… and immediately threw it back up. And then threw up again. My stomach settled back down and I stuck to water for a while. Around mile 6 I caught up to the pace group and hung out with them. Mile 8 brought some oranges, but they had run out of cups for water. I felt perfectly fine until sometime between mile 9 and 10, when I just completely died. I had absolutely no energy left (probably because I threw up the gel. Duh). The water station at mile 10 was out of Gatorade. I threw up again at mile 11. Then again at mile 12. The mile 12 water station was also out of Gatorade (and can I just mention that the course was still open for at least another 45 minutes after I passed these stations??) At that point, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the last mile. I was still mostly running, but stopped to walk whenever I felt sick or felt like I needed to. You guys can guess what happened again at mile 12.5. I was hurting pretty badly by that point. About a quarter mile later Maria spotted me. Thank goodness for that! She ran with me until just before the finish line and I actually managed to run it in and not collapse. Afterwards while I waited in the food line, she ran ahead and cut in line to get me some Gatorade to drink before I passed out. She sat with me while I drank my Gatorade and ate a tootsie pop and felt well enough to get up and drive myself home.
To be honest – I’m not quite sure what happened at this race. I’ve never had problems with this gel before - it’s the exact same brand and flavors I’ve been using for 2 years since I started training for my first half marathon. I even felt perfectly fine before I took the gel. I don’t think it was anything I ate yesterday (even though I was joking about carbo-loading on Snickers, I actually only had 2 fun-sized ones and no other candy!). And now that I’ve rehydrated and have been able to keep some food in me, I’m feeling fine again. Just a little more tired than I usually am after a race… I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed that it was a fluke. I would still totally recommend the race to anyone thinking about it and will probably run it again next year!
Oh, and despite all of the craziness – I only finished about 3 minutes slower than I did at the Towpath half… I just felt a lot worse in the process! (and if I had only been running 10 miles, I would’ve had a fantastic time ;) )
