Guess who's back?

Well it's a new year, so I figured I should climb of my shell and get back to the swing of things. So I'm back!

I have taken quite the hiatus wallowing in a bit of self pity, now the holidays are over, goals are coming, and it's time to get back. Over the next few weeks I am going to discuss a few things:

Marathon- recap/where did I go wrong?
Injury- Mental as well as physical struggles
Comeback & Looking toward the future

Today I want to talk about the Marathon- where did I go wrong?

I'm writing this ~ 6 months after and I feel like I can break it down perfectly for what was good/bad and ugly about the race.

Saturday morning: Fly into Portland, (possibly Mistake #1) rented the car and drive to Eugene. My husband did the driving while I hydrated with my normal electrolyte drinks (possibly Mistake #2), lots of water (many bathroom breaks along the way) Once we got to Eugene, we went to lunch- salad with a huge pretzel (not sure why this has been good luck the last 2 times so I went for it again!) again, lots of water!

Dinner was Salmon with mashed potatoes and a few broccoli pieces (trying to keep the fiber low at this point)

The forecast was LOTS OF RAIN, so I went to buy a hat (not normally in my training) and some spray to try to keep my feet semi-dry.

Morning: Beautiful, couldn't ask for better running weather. Overcast with 30% chance of meatballs ... or rain normal Oregon stuff...

Started off quite strong (too strong? Mistake #3?)
Mile 8- I was going right around what I wanted, and slightly than I had intended but I felt so good it was hard to back off. I turned in my long sleeve to my hubbie, and continued onward.

Mile 15- Here is where I started to feel it. Weird stomach pain. My mile/min started to decrease a bit, but I figured it was just a bump in the road and it would subside.

Mile 16-22 I watched my mileage average starting to increase, just felt awful and cramped. I saw quite a few people go down at this point but I pushed on. I started seeing spots and feeling faint - just trying to push on at this point.

Mile 23- My cheerleader was here to greet me again- but he knew something was wrong. I had to stop :( I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or pass out. The spots I kept seeing were getting bigger and my stomach was in knots. Here is where I made a deal. My BQ was out the window... boo hoo!

Time to focus, not die and get through the race. I set a new goal of breaking 4 hours (UGH so angry) but whatever I felt like death and had 3 miles to go... I did a run song, brisk walk a song until the last 1.2 miles that I ran. My other must was running into the track of University of Oregon. WOAH. I mean, hey runners let's geek out a minute...

I would be running where this guy did? All the sports history.. yeah SUCK IT UP and FINISH STRONG. So that's what I did. I wanted to stop, cry and bang my head against a tree... but I kept running. I finished with my new (stupid angry goal) but whatever came in under the clock of 3:58. My brother, sister in law and husband all greeted me along with the rain. It waited that whole time, so sweet. So for my 3rd best marathon time... I guess I can't be SO pissed but loosing ~ 20 minutes from my last one and feeling awful, that was a bummer. Let's quickly review...

Mistake 1- Flying too close to the start of the race. (Extra dehydration?)
Mistake 2- Turns out my drink was expired. I used tablets and broke them into my drink.
Mistake 3- Promised myself I would start slow, which "I did" but I should have looked at 9-9:30 and I was more in the 8:30 range...

So lots of mistakes, but hey I was in awesome shape so I can just do another one in the next few weeks right? (see post coming up... Injury- Mental as well as physical struggles)

@runningproject