peachygreen said:
Great race last night. I will say that running a night race has some unique challenges to it. I missed on prerace fuel big time and payed for it with a post race trip to the medical tent with naseau and dizziness. It would have been nice to have portapotties that were accessible from the finish line without having to leave the runners area. I had a one track mind of getting to the bathroom skipping food, bag check and pictures on the way and almost couldn't make it back to bag check. A nice medical staff person convinced me to go to the medical tent as I was very pail and barely able to sit up. Fortunately once I emptied the contents of my stomach I felt much better almost instantly.
I really struggled from the 15k mark on and finished with a 2:51:37 - 14 minutes off my PR from 2 weeks ago.
I'm not really sure why I woke up before 7 this morning. I'm off to find some breakfast and relax this morning.
If you were still in the med tent a half hour later, I may have seen you there.
I truly hope that everyone had a great race last night. I thought Disney did a great job of improving some of the things we didn't like last year, the entrance into animal kingdom, tho narrow was definitely wider (no posts!), there was at least triple the entertainment and characters on course and the corrals seemed to work beautifully. I know I felt much better pace wise and crowd wise starting the race yesterday than I did last year.
But for me, that's where the fun ended. I finished, in 3:22- a half hour off my time last year, and nearly an hour off my expected time. Nearly everything that could go wrong, went wrong for me. From side stitches, to knee pain, too much humidity i wasnt use to, to nausea at the 11 mile mark - even a darn mosquito attacked my right ankle and I hop/scratched for like 5 minutes!. I was incredulous once again this year, but this time not in a good way. I couldnt believe all this stuff happened! I actually made it to about mile 11.75 or so when I finally let myself say to a medic: I'm done. They asked if I was sure, since I was so close, so I asked to sit down. So I sat for two seconds and then I stood up and vomited. It was awful. And then I felt a lot better and they said i could finish the race if i wanted. I did and from there i did ok but basically I walked 95% of the way from the 15k to the finish. Which is fine, if you are walking like you are intending to walk a race. This walk was more of a omg, get me out of my misery walk.
Silver lining: I ended up getting a coveted photo with jack sparrow and with darth vader. I probably look like I'm about to puke but I got it!
Also, I hate the half strength powerade- I'm 99% that's what did me in. It was EXTREMELY weak. As soon as DH showed up at the med tent and I had some of the salty tortilla chips, I instantly felt better. And i do know this about myself- i need salt. I trained with full strength powerade and never experienced this on any of my long runs. I learned that I definitely need to either bring my own, or some other sodium.
I'm just so disappointed today. I haven't even put on my medal yet. My "support team" says they are proud of me and its not all about the race but I can't shake the feeling that I am somehow not cut out for this and have no business doing Tink and Princess next spring.
So sorry to be a downer today. I know how awesome it does feel to finish the race and be really happy about it (last year was AWESOME for me, even tho the same sickness hit but not until much later in the night after the race). Congratulations to all who ran/walked last night! Watching some of your costumes and just watching the determination of everyone may have been the only thing getting me through!
Anyone hoping to take a nap before the race? I'd like to, but might be too excited for that to happen.
