Poo on the Holy Half

I'll just get right to the point on this post. This past Sunday I did my second half marathon. Matt and I had been training since January. We both were doing great on our training schedule and our pace continued to increase as we progressed in our training. Although, we were not prepared at all for what hit us on Sunday! Sunday was an abnormally warm spring day, especially for this region of the country. The temperatures reached 85* by the time I finished my race. Until this point the highest it had gotten was in the low 70s, and we hadn't done any long runs above 60*. Needless to say we both bonked!!! So discouraging!!!!!

These are all the runners (left to right: Josh, Matt, Me, Taryn, and Carolyn)

Right before the race began I started to get butterflies in my tummy. Nothing unusual. I've done other races and the same thing happened. Only these butterflies continued for quite a while. This was a smaller race than our last half, but this time it felt so much more crowded (at least at the beginning). The race was on all sorts of terrain. We started out in an asphalt parking lot, then concrete sidewalks, then a gravel/dirt trail around two lakes, and then more sidewalks. All of our training runs were on asphalt roads. It's unbelievable what a difference just the terrain can make. Also this race was seriously lacking in water stations. They were only about every two miles. Pretty rough for such a hot, sunny day. When I got to the first water station, there was a line. So frustrating! I didn't want to "waste" the time while the clock was ticking. Big mistake!. So overall I believe it was the heat along with the lack of hydration, electrolytes and energy that killed it for me.

This is at about mile 5. At this point I was really wishing I was only doing the 10k.

Carolyn and Taryn were very excited about finishing their 10k.

Matt also had a rough race. You can read about it in his post.

My fans found a sign for me to cheer me on to the finish line!

Finally finished! Looking pretty rough and feeling like I'm going to throw up!

We all survived!!

So I've got to learn from the "failures". First thing I learned was never depend on the race to provide the water and electrolytes that you need. Second I'm going to be using some energy gels or goo chomps to refuel during warm, dehydrating workouts and races. 

On to the next event. I've already been bummed for 4 days about this race because I didn't reach my goal, and it went so much worse than I could have imagined. I've got an Olympic Triathlon coming up in June, a century bike ride in September, and probably another half in the fall. I can't let this one race bring me down!!!

So lets get riding. Today was in the 60s and Matt and I took a chill 16 mile ride. Nothing better to brighten the day!!

Hebrews 6:12 NET 

so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.