The Anti-Running Runner

Yes, we finished! When I left off, Alyssa and I were halfway done. We had gotten water twice so far, and we both felt pretty good. At Mile 14, we saw a porta-potty and both decided we needed to use it. There was no line (always nice) and it was clean. Afterward, we got water at the station and went over one last small bridge heading inland.  The next two miles, we went through some neighborhoods with lots of shade. Although we had none before, I hadn't felt overheated. I think the temp at that point just broke 60. I took my first nibble of Shot Blok at the Mile 16 water station. Just before Mile 18, we hopped onto the Pinellas Trail heading north back toward Clearwater. The full sun quickly warmed us up, but I wasn't too hot. I mean, it was still at least twenty degrees cooler than the last marathon. And all that water I drank the day before helped, I'm sure. But poor Alyssa was feeling it. I should mention that she didn't really train for this race...

At 6:30 AM on Jan 19th, hubby dropped Alyssa and I off at Coachman Park. A ride to and from any race is such a blessing. Alyssa and I have decided it's essential for a marathon. We don't recommend driving yourself if you don't have to. A side trip about my pre-race eating habits: I have finally learned what works best for me and my uber-tender running stomach. It tells me loud and clear what it does and doesn't like. The problem? During long runs when I haven't eaten the way my body wants me to, what I have often felt is motion sickness. At least, that's the closest thing I can compare it to. Once in the fall during a late evening run with Hea (18 miles), it felt like that creature from Alien was about to burst through my diaphragm. Mainly because I ate a sea salted almond around mile eight. Body rejected. It should've been an unsalted almond, but now I can't eat any type of almonds before or during a run. The other thing I've learned is tha...

To pick up where I left off... Around mile 11, I started feeling it. I'm convinced it was full-on 85 degrees at that point, it was so hot. That same feeling I usually get around mile 18 came and I was already struggling. Alyssa promised to stay with me, and we slowed the pace. Jenni went ahead on her own where she experienced those heat stroke symptoms I mentioned in Part I. It felt like a really long two miles to get the halfway mark. In my mind, I kept thinking, We have to do this again. Ugh. And then we were introduced to the sand pit. That's right. A sand pit. Not hard sand, but a half-mile stretch of really loose sand that none could go around. The only answer was through. Shoes sank in, making it almost impossible to run through it. We sort of skip-walked through. At that point, I realized that I was not happy. I was struggling before, and now I was getting angry. Because the website made absolutely no mention of the half-mile long sand pit that we would have to go t...

Completed marathon #3: X-Country Marathon in Alafia River State Park Nov 17, 2013 Started with hubby, Alyssa, Jenni, Hea, Mike, and Zach. The course was two 13.1 laps around the park. Completed half due to injury: Hea Completed half due to no desire to finish this ridiculously unfun trail race, plus didn't care whether he ever finished a marathon in his life: hubby That means we lost two out of seven people in our group alone. There were likely a lot more DNFs at this race. I imagine there are worse marathons. The Sahara Desert Marathon, for example. The hills in places like San Francisco make it difficult to even compare to the X-Country Marathon in Florida. There are inclines, not hills. Therefore, I resisted titling this post Worst Marathon Ever. It was my worst ever, but there are so many factors contributing to why some races are tougher than others. This one was tough, first of all, because it was 85 degrees and humid. Total fluke. No one's fault. It didn...