No Super Woman

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? :)

Quickest way to get yourself to your marathon weight

Food Poisoning.

Came down with food poisoning early Monday AM (the reason why I haven't been blogging this week). Combined with sucky kidney shizzle, I was not a happy camper. I did not now my body was capable of this amount of puking. Fan-freaking-tastic. Lost quite some weight because of it. Weight wise this is pretty amazing considering this Sunday's planned marathon. Energy wise...that's a whole different story. Finishing would be a gift and something to be grateful for. Let's just leave it to that. 

The course takes you along a beach. There's no shame in hopping onto the beach to work on my tan, right? ;)

Did you ever get food poisoning pre race day?

Wednesday Quote

Borrowed this quote from the PunkRockRacing website (quote by IronMan Ron himself).

"A day when these shortcomings may be all you have left to hang on to. When you’ve put yourself out there and given all you have for all to see and in those final moments, as you make your way down that finishers chute, you realize that it’s the people who waited who control those final moments of your journey, for it is them, not you, who provide the energy... to finish. We literally float across the finish line, lifted by the spectators and for that moment in time, for that one second, we are more than ourselves. We are greater than the sum of our parts. We’re that person we’ve always wanted to be. We are heroes, champions, winners and gods, if only for a split second in time… A stupid, wonderful microsecond of time.

You’re alive. Prove it."

Enough said. Love it.

That little voice inside

Lately, I've been dealing with this little guy - he keeps telling me that there's no chance in hell (pun intended) that I'll be race ready for that race this summer. The one I really really really want to do. The one I've been dreaming of. The one I've had nightmares of. The one I don't even dare sharing, because I'm afraid that will jinx it. Three and a half months left to regain my sanity and confidence. All while this little guy keeps telling me that my training schedule sucks. Big time. Even though I'm following a known plan (well, at least I try - if my body lets me).

The little b*st*rd (sorry...) just won't listen when I tell him I'm training my butt off here. I do need some time to take care of my body, though. All he wants me to do is train train train. And run a zillion miles a week. Just when I decided to push the 'train hard, but do take some time to smell the flowers and hear the birds' button. That red caped mini makes me feel bad about myself. And let's face it. Even though I can't run a zillion miles a week, running zillion miles a week still wouldn't shut him up. It would never be enough. And yes, there are other runners out there - training for that race - that are logging many more miles a week. I know that, little monster. There's always someone out there that is way better prepared than you are / has logged more miles in training. I've learned to accept that (well, okay, I'm still working on that).

There we go again: how many 30 miles / 50K long runs should I do in training? How many 50-mile / 80K races should I do preparing for that race? Or would doing several 50-mile / 80K races be too much? How many miles should a back-to-back weekend hold? 50? Or more? Or less?

Okay, Zen...

I guess what I really need right now is another little monster telling me to relax, to chill out, to exhale. Or a Mojito. A Mojito might work too.

And even more Koning van Spanje Trail pics

More pics of Lordie in his first official long distance trail race. I'm that awkward mom showing way too many pics of her kid. And I'm aware of that. But somehow, that doesn't stop me. Sorry. ;)

Pre start:

En route:

"Dear Mr Photographer, I'm so over this slippery sh*t."

Finish line:

Okay, I promise I'll stop bugging you with Koning van Spanje Trail pics. For now. Maybe. ;)

Foto Friday - working that 'Anton' crush

Wise guy. Not bad to look at either. ;) TGIF and enjoy your weekend runs!

Redefining 'Muddy' - Koning van Spanje Trail recap

After the whole one 50 miler (80K) and two marathons in three weeks thingie, I figured it would be a wise call to take it easy for a while. My right knee is kind of wonky and bugging me, so - fun runs and training for the fun planned this summer for now.

The perfect race came along - the Koning van Spanje Trail 31K / 19.5 miles (about 700 meters / 2,300 ft elevation) - Garmin said 32-ish K /20 miles. Due to The Knee I probably should have hobbled around my home town for a bit, but since I got the chance (this year's Koning van Spanje trail only) to participate with my dog, I figured: heck yeah, ef The Knee!

So, early yesterday morning running buddy Carlo picked me up for the 2-hour drive to Southern Holland. Earlier that morning he'd already picked up Bjorn, who was going for the 11K trail race.

Getting the bib was as speedy as I'd hoped. Met up with some fun trail runners before the race and chatted away the minutes till the start. My dog Lordie could not have been more excited. :) Because of him (and The Knee) I'd decided to take it slow and to let Lordie decide at what pace we were hobbling along. The course was hilly, and due to the days and days of rain (and the rain on race day) extremely slippery. 24K in the race Lordie decided he'd had enough. My guess: the slippery trails made him one tired doggie (fyi - he's used to running 30-40K on weekends). So, for the rest of the course, we hobbled along. I did spent some (okay, quite some) time pulling King off down hills. Slippery slippery down hills. He did spent some time just standing there on the trail. Poor little thing. Took us 3:52 to finish - made it a nice long slow run for me. Finishing with Lordie was priceless. It doesn't get happier than that. :) 

I'll just let the photos (photo courtesy Bjorn Paree and Trail-running.nl) do the rest of the talking.

Before the start:

En route:

Oh yeah, it was that slippery...

Finish line!!! Can you say 'kick ass rock star dog!'? :)

With Jo at the finish line. Why she isn't covered in muddy mess is beyond me. :) 



The one that can not be paced

Yesterday was the first warm day of the year. Loved the sun. Loved the temps. However, did not love to race in these temps. Especially not after this week's hard interval work outs.

But, John tricked me into it. I didn't really have plans on yesterday's national holiday (Queen's Day), so when he suggested to run a 10K, I figured: 'Why not?'. It must have been the wine I had the day before, because it's no secret that I'm not a fan of 10K's. I'd rather run a marathon. I'm too slow for 10K's.

With a 12 PM start, the temps were already right up there. The sun was working its way through my pale skin. It only took me 500 meters into the race to undress myself. What else is new? The heat was bugging me, then my sucky kidney started to act up (ouch...peeing blood is one of the wonders a sucky kidney makes you experience...woo-hoo!) - add 'no wind' to the picture and sloggin the thing out was the way to go. John, my sincere apologies for boring the heck out of you and for not respecting the pace. :) Thanks for man pursing my handheld, though. ;) Managed to slog the thing out in 48:18. Which makes it a little slower than a HM-pace tempo run. In this heat. I'll take it. Did get me 1st in my AG and 4th Female overall. I guess all the speedy chicks were enjoying the weather. ;)

Some pics (John's wife Ans took those - so - photo courtesy to Ans). Yep, how to mess up race photos 101 - how to flash an entire town.

Yep, blinded by the (orange) light and blinded by the white. ;)

Checking if the girl behind me I'd just passed, wouldn't pass me again right before the finish line.