Although I finished, today didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. I even finished 12min past the worst case scenario I had played out in my head. To recap today…
6:00 am, the alarm goes off. I quickly head downstairs to make my usual breakfast of an English muffin and almond butter. I had a harder time than normal eating it but I just accounted that for race day nerves.
6:45 we are headed out of the house and into the city.
7:20-7:35 warm up and social time. We ran into one of my best friends (Bre) who was running the half marathon and of course and had to have a few hugs and some last minute race chat.
7:40 national anthem and pre race speech. This year’s speech was given by a Boston survivor. She was great and very inspirational.
7:45 the race car fired up its engine and the green flag was waved. Kimberly and I got off to our usual quick start but shortly settled in at the 3:45:00 pace.
We made it to about the 10k (6.2mils) mark and I realized I was in trouble. Although I am in probably the best shape of my life, I was having a hard time breathing. At about the 9mile mark I got my first cramp in my abdomen. I was hurting pretty bad but made it through this one with out stopping. I then had about 2-3miles of feeling ok before I really started feeling bad.
Kimberly and I ran together to about mile 14-15 before I told her to go ahead. At this point I was starting to have a hard time breathing as my upper abdomen was constantly cramping. I started walking at about mile 16. I would walk a bit, the cramping would release a bit but as soon as I started up again I was cramping again. This was super frustrating.
Mile 18 things turned for the worst, I now not only was cramping but I was starting to get light headed. I significantly slowed down at this point. I was basically doing a walk/jog now. I saw my family at about 20 and they could tell I was in trouble but they were awesome and cheered me on as if I was in first (marathon fans are the best fans on the planet). Mile 22 rolled around and my dad ran over to me to make sure I was ok, he even asked if I felt like I needed to stop. I knew I looked bad but what I didn’t know was I had gone completely white. I also was not even sweating anymore (for those of you who don’t know me super well, I sweat a lot and super easily). I was what you’d call miserable but I told my dad I was going to finish. That was the last place I saw them till the finish line.
The light headedness and stomach cramping didn’t go away but I managed to tough it out to the finish line. My final time was 4:12:??.
I wasn’t happy with the outcome but had I stayed strong and fought till the end. I hope for a better outcome in my next race!
Kimberly and I at packet pick-up and health and wellness expo Friday evening.
Eat Train Love 365 