UH OH

i haven't ran a whole lot since the clarksville 1/2 marathon. i was only scheduled for 3 runs this week, a 3, 7, and 20. i couldn't get the 3 miler in, i was out of town monday, on call tuesday. did the 7 miler on wednesday since i was on call thursday and friday. i had been fighting a sinus infection all week and on antibiotics with a little upset stomach. i was supposed to do 20 miles on saturday. i was so tired after work i had to get a nap in and knew by the time i got up it would be to late to run, so i was going to push the run to sunday. however, i had to take my nephew on a deer hunt (i was hoping he would kill a deer saturday and wouldn't need to go sunday). so we hunted all day (other than going to church). so the run got moved to monday. i went hunting monday until 9:30am. came home and took a nap and got up and got ready to run. it was pretty cool, about 43 degrees. i thought i dressed warm enough. however, the entire run my arms were freezing and my body was cold when the wind blew very hard. i wore my running pants, so my legs were fine. i don't really like wearing those pants. i also wore my saucony shoes for this run, i have not worn them for anything more than 13.1 miles before and they really hurt my feet on that run. i wanted to wear them for the marathon, they seem to have extra cushion, but once again, they hurt my feet on this run. my asics have lots of miles on them, so i was thinking of retiring them. i guess i will have to wear them once more, for the marathon.

i was going to try a gel for this run that i had only used once before. during that run my stomach really hurt me. i thought it was because of the mileage, now i think it might have been the gel.

with all of that background, i will tell you how the run went. i couldn't make it. i felt good. my feet hurt just a little at the begining, but that went away. my gps quit working for about a tenth of a mile at mile 4.5. then, at mile 5.5 i took one of the new gels. then everything went downhill from there. my stomach started cramping bad so i tried to drink some gatorade and that helped a little. i was doing ok, then around mile 8, on some pretty good hills, my right upper leg started cramping a little, nothing i couldn't get past. at mile 10 i took another gel, one that i have used almost exclusively for my runs. i couldn't finish it. i thought i was going to vomit. i had to put the packet in an empty water bottle because i didn't want to throw it on the ground and didn't want to put it in my pocket and have it leak everywhere. the longer i ran the worse my stomach got. at mile 14 i couldn't take it any more, i had to stop. i was going to try to run/walk the rest of the way. but i knew that it would be dark pretty soon and i could not make it to the house even close to the time i was supposed to be home. so i called emily to come pick me up. i kept walking and made it nearly to mile 15 before emily picked me up.

once again, i felt horrible after the run. i felt almost as bad as when i ran my 2nd 16 mile run. i felt "off" the rest of the night and part of today. i am back to normal now. the outside of my feet really hurt. my legs are a little sore, not too bad.

so, this run was a little discouraging, especially being as close to the marathon as it is. however, i think i had a lot of things against me. i didn't carb load as well on friday or saturday as i should have either. i think if i complete the rest of my runs i will do fine during the marathon, sure would have been good to complete this run though. i just have to make getting those runs in a high priority.

thought of the day: "Pain is a part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbeatable, and we need to be taught that" Harold Kushner. pain is definitely something i have felt over the last 6 weeks, but, at least most of it, goes away after a little time.