RnR NOLA Recap and Lessons!

After a rough patch of over two years of hamstring injury NOLA was to be my first real comeback race. I had high hopes even through being sick with what I'm sure was the flu making me miss my last couple big weeks of training. Come race weekend despite travel I still had these hopes.

Saturday we walked a lot and hit the expo (in the end walked over 7 miles on Saturday, yikes!) Grabbed lunch at this hole in the wall place that served me a mixing bowl size salad that was amazing! We hit the grocery store for my required sweet potato before our team meeting. The team I coached was running the half while I ran the marathon to support CCFA! After eating my sweet potato for snack we headed to the team dinner, GF pasta and salad. But why? I never eat this prerace, again not following my own advice!
My Team!
Sunday morning came with a later than usual wake up thanks to staying 2 blocks from the start. I ate, rolled and dealt with GI issues (thanks to eating out and I'm sure getting gluten). The weather was perfect to start. 60 and just a slight breeze. I drank my UCAN and headed to the corrals only to see people cheating their way in, Covering the first 2 from corral 22 to get into corral 2 is not right!
Matt and I at Lafayette Square
We were off! I felt great and decided just to run what felt good. I started running with a couple guys who had a 3:30 goal, figuring this would keep me from running too fast! At 5K we were at 23:42 Oops! We only kept getting a faster pace 10K 46:39 7:31 pace... 10Mile 1:16. Then it all fell apart...

Around mile 12 the half turned off and we headed our own way. Another runner caught up with me and we chatted about my Ragnar socks. He was planning Ragnar TN and happened to be from Mobile (my grad school location!). He was going for a 3:20 and told me to run with him but I just didn't feel right. Soon we hit the half point and still on pace but falling fast! 1:43 7:54 pace. It was getting hot, the results of GI issues and walking 7 miles the day before plus not sleeping were catching up. I took my UCAN in hopes of getting that energy back.

Soon my feet felt awful, realizing later we were running on concrete that was hot and angled was not fun! I was having trouble breathing and still coughing as a result of being sick earlier. I could go on with everything that went bad, this race was going the wrong way quickly! I had a decision to make: try to push through this and get back to my goal potentially resulting in injury or more problems or just have fun with the run ahead. I chose the second, time goal gone!

Mile 21 selfie!
The last 6 miles ended with a run/walk, heavy legs, tight chest and no idea of finish time  (until today!). I only looked to see so I could honestly post this recap, on race day I didn't care and couldn't focus on time... 3:59:01 and marathon #29 is complete!
After party with 2 of my runners
Matt soon finished and he and I agreed, Rnr races are great until you stop running the half. The first miles were fn, filled with spectators, bands, cheering, music and more. But as soon as the full marathon was alone this all disappeared. The last part was along the water which was beautiful except full of construction! RnR races are great but I think I'll stick with the half next time.
The medals matched the cathedral!
We headed home Monday back to reality. I knew I hadn't truly run a marathon because I felt great, by Saturday I was running 10 miles at 8-8:10s thanks to speedy friends. For a short time I considered another quick turn around marathon since I had trained but with our crazy schedules I decided to just run the 50K and save the marathon for fall. I'm looking back and not making excuses for the race but realizing a lot was out of my control and some things were dumb like walking so much and not eating like normal! 

How do you deal with races not going as planned? 


Comments

  1. Deborah BrooksMarch 16, 2016 at 2:50 PM

    It is really hard on your feet and knees to run on concrete! Looks like you had a pretty good finish despite not everything going your way

    ReplyDelete

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