The Post-Marathon Letdown

It's been 5 days since the San Antonio marathon and I'm having an emotionally downer week. Don't know if it's just life going on, or if there is something else.

Quick recap of the marathon: 

Saturday afternoon: I'm laying down resting my legs for the race. I begin to feel a little sick. Sure enough, I have caught what my 4 year old had, a stomach bug. Within 30 minutes I'm in the bathroom throwing up and everything else that is associated with a stomach bug. I'll leave out the details. 

I am so upset. I haven't been this sick in a couple of years and it happens the day before the marathon? With everything else that had been going on during the week this was just one more knife in the heart. At about 5 that afternoon I found myself talking to God saying, "God, I cannot handle one more thing. You tell me you won't give me anything that I can't handle, so I'm asking  you to please take this sickness away" 

Well, about an hour later I start feeling a bit better. The throwing up stopped although my stomach was still extremely queasy.  By about 9 that evening I was able to have some ginger ale and some crackers. I went to the grocery store to get some Gatorade and bananas and began trying to get some fuel back in my body. Couldn't do much.

I woke up at 4am Sunday and came downstairs. The coffee maker was broken. Seriously? With the way I felt I almost opted to go back to bed. But, I gave it some time, showered and felt a bit better. Had some Gatorade and another banana and I was off to the race.

Ended up at the starting line right before the horn sounded. I had no expectations going in. I fully expected to hit the wall early and have to walk it in, but I was willing to do that. 

The legs felt great in the first few miles although I could tell that the rest of me didn't feel so well. But, long story short, I was able to hold it together for most of the race and ended up with a personal best of 2:58:33. 

My goal had been around 2:53 and I really feel like I was capable of that, but maybe that will come down the road. Boston here we come again!

So, the rest of the week has just been blah.

My CD is out there now though and that's been a relief to have all of that done. 

I really don't have a whole lot to say this morning. Maybe I'll have more later.

Peace.

My blog is back baby!

So, I am starting up a blog again and I'm going to try and do a better job of keeping it updated. I'm six days out from the Rock & Roll San Antonio Marathon. All of the training is done. I've been injury free for a few months now and I'm looking forward to the race. I hate the week leading up to the race. The taper is fine until that point. One week out I start going a little bit stir crazy. But, I do think that it's going to be a good race. The goal is to break 2:55. We will see if it's in the cards on Sunday. So far the weather is looking good for the race. Low of 38 and a high of 66. 

I ran an easy 7.25 miles this morning and finished up with some strides. I've got my last tempo workout tomorrow. 

I have two new ladies I'm coaching now. Neither one of them live in Texas. Both of them are getting ready for the Boston marathon. I love hearing the dread in their replies when I tell them how slow they have to run for awhile before we start adding some speed in! I'm also coaching a new guy in SA who is training for his first half-marathon in Austin in January. I seriously think that I may get just as much pleasure from hearing someone talk about their goals as I do from trying to accomplish my own. That's what I love about coaching. I get a court-side seat watching someone succeed. 

I think that over 300 people completed the training for the marathon through We Run San Antonio. Only a few ended up dropping out due to injury. It's been very cool seeing some of these people who just a few months ago couldn't run four miles all of a sudden running twenty!

My CD is going to be arriving tomorrow! We've got 2,000 copies for the initial weeks and the CD release party which will be taking place at Cibolo Creek Community Church on Friday, Dec. 12th from 7-9pm.  I'm really excited about the opportunities that are going to come about over the coming weeks, months and years. 

Final thought of the day-Sometimes running hard does not make you faster. Sometimes running easy does make you faster.  Sometimes playing loud does not make it better and sometimes not playing it all makes it a whole lot better!