The secret is out. It might not come as a surprise, but I'm not SuperWoman. Either that or I am and food poisoning is my kryptonite.
Food poisoning and marathoning don't mix. Not for this girl that is. Enough said.
Last Friday I posted a short blog entry about the whole food poisoning thing. The food poisoning bonanza in detail (you might want to skip this part...):
Mon-Wed : no eating at all, just water and lots of vomitting/diarrhea. Throwing up every bleeping 15 minutes is not my idea of fun.
Thu-Fri: ate some crackers, am exhausted after eating one cracker, diarrhea is still going strong.
Sat: ate two sandwiches and some rice. All three of those ended up upsetting the stomach - more diarrhea to come.
Sun (race day): had half a piece of toast as pre marathon breakfast. Which upsets stomach again. Pre marathon diarrhea - woohoo. Was not able to hold down energy gel.
Needless to say that I've lost some weight in the process...
Since I had booked the plane tickets to Edinburgh, UK, already and they were non-refundable (cheapish air fare), and we were looking forward to seeing my Mom's friend in Edinburgh again, I decided to give it a go. I'd just see how far my body would take me and kind of figured it would be a good thing if I would make it half way in. Since my stomach wouldn't handle energy gel I knew finishing was probably not going to happen, not even at a walk/jog pace.
Long story short - I settled into a pace that felt comfortable after crossing the start line. Hit the 13.1 mile / 21.1K point after 1:46. My legs were feeling great - my stomach wasn't. 25K in my legs were running out of me - due to not holding down any energy gel, I could no longer control them and I could feel that I had a fever again (hitting the Wall is a completely different feeling - this was more like a puppet master whopping around the puppet's legs all over the place) - my mom and her friend were waiting at the 16 mile / 26-ish K point after 2:12 hours. So that's where I called it quits. First DNF and still feel awful about it. Feel like such a quitter. Weird, since making it a long slow run till the half way point was something I would have been happy with at the start line. Funny how your mind works...
So, feel free to tell me what a loser/quitter/softie I am. ;)
On a more positive note - food poisoning wise - today is my first 'non-cracker' day! I actually had a sandwich for lunch. Can I get a Woo-Hoo? :)
7 comments:
I think this DNF is completely justified. I think you should have had a DNS....you were pushing your body on no fuel at all. I am suprised you made it that far. I hope the illness/food posioning has run its course and you can start feeling better.
Thanks, that's sweet of you. :) And you're right: no fuel at all - that's the problem. :)
No Superwoman! Yeah right, just not this time.
But only a sensible Superwoman knows when enough is enough. Life to die another day, I'd say.
I'm with Runner Maybe, this race probably should've been a DNS so do not feel bad about a DNF! I hope you continue to feel better!
I agree with the DNS. I had something similar, which I thought was food poisoning, but the doctor said was just a nasty virus. I could barely run 3 miles after a few days of recovery. Your 16-mile DNF qualifies as an "I'm a bad ass" story. Cheers!
Well, you are by definition a Silly Girl... and being upset over this is silly! You pushed yourself, hard, on no fuel. I'm with everyone else.
I don't think many would have started the race and even less would have made it that far. You still did a great job! 01:46 half way...? That is super to me. Rest well now!
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