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? :)
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's sweet of you. :) And you're right: no fuel at all - that's the problem. :)
ReplyDeleteNo Superwoman! Yeah right, just not this time.
ReplyDeleteBut 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!
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDeleteWell, 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDelete