Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Post CIM Thoughts

Good Spirits! 
I have tried not to think too much about CIM this past Sunday. I stuck vigorously to a training plan in hopes to break a 3:30 marathon and what resulted would be hopefully the most unpleasant marathon I'll ever experience. I had a great race up until mile 17 or 18 when things drastically went south in my stomach. I actually puked 3 times on the side of the road. This began at mile 22 and if you're familiar with CIM you'll know that the crowd thickens right at about...mile 22. I may have discouraged many people this past Sunday from every attempting a marathon - a PDA (public dis-service announcement) if you will. 

The cause of this is most likely an electrolyte imbalance. I've seen this happen twice in 50 mile runs (previous shit show) but never a marathon. The weather was probably about 55 degrees at the start and rose from there. I was sweating like crazy and had salt crystals caked around my eyes and I only had water and GU&GU(Roctane) gels for nutrition. Last year, in much colder weather, I still had GU(Roctane) energy drink, as well as the GU gels. Totally my fault for not thinking about taking that with me on this run and I suffered the consequences. 

After the race we had pizza and beer (or bubble water) back at Kevin's place (the place he's graciously allowed for me to call home for several months). Having so many great people over at the house after the race really made me forget about the crappy run I just had. And honestly it didn't really feel like that bad of a day. I remember saying to Kevin in those last couple miles (he joined me in my stagger to the finish from mi. 24) "Today was a good day... other than this part". I think I spotted more people that I knew as spectators this year than previous years. There's got to be a reason I keep coming back after 5 years! 


My 5-time finisher mug picked up Friday previous to the race. Had it not been for this mug sitting at home I may have called it a day! 
Boston 2015 is where I hope to see a redemption run!