my third half-marathon
It’s been a few weeks since I ran my third half-marathon, but I thought I would tell you about it anyway.
Going into race day I was training pretty hard (although I tapered). I wanted to break 2 hours but doubted I would. Everyone around me told me I could despite about 87 percent of them not being runners.
Race day was pretty warm and windy. I couldn’t get into the coral I wanted because of the thousands of people everywhere, but I wasn’t too far behind. I ran in front of the 2 hour pace bunny till about 14km, when he passed me. That got me pretty down for about 2 km, until I pulled my shit together and picked up the pace again. I wasn’t going to break 2 hours, but I would get my personal best. Then, at 19 km the calf cramps started. I don’t know if I didn’t carb loas enough or if it was too hot for me and I ran out of the stuff that makes you not cramp up or what but that was unbelieveably painfil. I was in tears and making really horrible noises. And then I picked up the pace. I was almost done, and I was sure as fuck not quitting now. Every now and then one calf muscle or the other would cramp, and I would power through each time.
I shaved 2 minutes off my personal best, and was 7ish min away from breaking 2 hours. Afterwards, I had a celebratory breakfast for lunch by myself at a local cafe. Then got to see my best friend speak ata conference, AND go have beer on the patio. What an amazing day.
June 9, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Great job on pushing through. I remember a particular marathon that does not have many people in it. I was all alone on this one back country road and from a distance I could see this dude laying in the middle of the road twitching and yelling. I tried to help but he didn’t want to. The thing I remember about his cramps was that I could see his calves moving all over the place like that guy in “Alien” who had an alien pop out of his stomach. THat is what his calves looked like. You did awesome. I take electrolyte caplets to avoid cramping and hyponatremia. I take 4 per hour. They are the hammer nutrition ones.
Good job on the PR.