THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

Run for your momma 1/2 marathon

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Location:

Wichita,KS,

Member Since:

Sep 14, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

marathon pr: 2:59:49. Saint George 2011

Praire Spirit 50 mile winner 7:36:30 2013

I accidentally ran 100 miles in November 2013. it was hard. I threw up a lot. decided to do a better job next time

I did it again on purpose October 2014--Heartland 100 winner and CR 17:38:37

Heartland 50 winner May 2014

Psycho Wyco 50k winner February 2012

Short-Term Running Goals:

Run enough to hold off the middle-age spread

Long-Term Running Goals:

~~Sub 3 hour marathon--SOMEDAY!~~ Done!

New long term goal: ....run enough to feel kinda like I did when I was fit

Personal:

I was a single mom. Two times over. We all survived, despite the fact that I make atrocious decisions. Then, I met a man I didn't deserve. And he loves me so much. And I love him. We lived in sin and bought a house for two years then hired a judge and officially got married(to our great delight and also the delight of our mothers), then a month later he was diagnosed with cancer. Well we survived all that and he's 100% fine now. But, we're really out of shape and really busy with kids and jobs and running just isn't my priority and there's so many other layers to all of it, but I'm running anyway. This is my failure blog now. Just to log that one run a week if I snag it.
Somehow that matters and I want that run recorded.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Mizuno Waverider 12 Lifetime Miles:						333.61
Nike Air Pegasus Lifetime Miles:						507.20
Pink Pegs Lifetime Miles:						595.58
Pink Nike Avant Lifetime Miles:						624.04
Crappy Asics Lifetime Miles:						146.72
Adidas Adizero Mana Lifetime Miles:						113.32
Blue Avants Lifetime Miles:						653.33
Crocs Lifetime Miles:						18.08
Lunarfly Lifetime Miles:						468.47

Sat, Aug 08, 2009

Race: Run for your momma 1/2 marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:38:49, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1

Total Distance

13.50

That was tough. We arrived the night before with our whole family and friends to camp at the lake and drove the course. Right away I realized this was not a regular 'ol road race. About 2/3 of the race is on gravel, rocks, and dirt. And the hills, oh my. Up, down, up, down. Steep little monsters. Tons of them.

Areas of rather treacherous footing. After driving the course I realized I would not be getting the time I wanted, but I would at least race for place. So....fast forward to the morning of the race.

Woke up, had my 1/2 cup of coffee and a little gatorade, ate a banana, and off to the start. Taped my foot although the PF is mostly gone. Felt okay, jogged around a bit to warm up. The officials wished us luck, said a prayer, and we were off. This wasn't a big race at all--115 runners altogether including the relay runners.

1. 6:57 mostly flat on gravel but not too rocky. Feel good and comfortable

2. 7:17 still not too bad drink a little water at the aid station at the very end because wow it seems hot

3. 7:19 Stomach is a little queasy after that water but I'm pretty much okay

4. 7:36 Get onto some pavement in the town of Marion but a lot of uphill. The queasy is turning into nausea so I just dump some water over my head to keep cool at the aid station because I can't drink anything

5. 7:30 I am nauseated. not good.

6. 8:11 headwind. rocky gravel. hills. footing is not so good. so nauseated.

7. 7:49 on a deeply rutted road, if that is what you want to call it. trying to pick a smooth ride and keep my ankles out of the ruts. See my sweet husband cheering for me! I grab a cup at the aid station thinking it is water and dump it over my head to keep cool and sure enough it is warm, sticky, orange gatorade running down my hair and face. Nice. I catch a taste of it and almost start heaving. My husband has a lovely picture of me dumping the gatorade over my head.

8. 7:40 Starting to get back to the lake. I am hot and thirsty but too sick to my stomach to drink

9. 8:07 Hills hills hills. steep little monsters, 12% grade per my garmin data. up down up down up down I am crawling slower and slower up these things

10. 7:48 Struggling. Survival mode. Don't care about anything but finishing. I don't dare look at my watch because I'm afraid to know how slow I am going.

11. 7:53 Struggling. Nausea. up down up down

12. 8:23 My legs just die. done. We go down into these rocky alcoves in the lake and back up. Big rocks and the footing is treacherous. My foot is killing me. I get passed by 2nd place here and she takes the lead. I don't even put up a fight. She keeps looking behind her and I want to wave her on and tell her not to worry I am not going to catch her. up down up down

13. only. 81 per my garmin it measures this course as a bit short. time is 6:15, 7:42 pace. I try to look good crossing the finish line and promptly walk over to my husband, lean on him, and retch. Ugh.

Recovered a bit and went and talked to the girl who won. She was really sweet. Her feet were stinging from the rocks, she had worn racing flats not realizing what the terrain was going to be like. She beat me by 36 seconds. Third place was 10 minutes behind me.

Honestly I am pretty disappointed in myself with this race. I wish I knew why I was so nauseated. Not hydrating for the entire race was probably not helpful but I couldn't drink. And boy, do I need to learn to run hills. I stink at hills. Today my foot is much better but my quads are a mess. Stairs are rough on me today. On the upside, the flat, certified 1/2 marathon in Wichita next month on pavement is going to feel like a walk in the park compaired to this thing and boy do I plan to FLY and redeem myself. All the volunteers at the race were great and they had lots of aid stations for me to dump water over myself. I got a bottle filled with skittles and a pacifier for my age division award :). It is a race to benefit the mothers of young children so a cause I am all about! I like the blue shirt and the breakfast afterward was great. I couldn't eat much but my husband ate it! Had a blast camping all weekend with the family and friends. We tubed and boated on the water, grilled, ate smores, and sat around the campfire and talked. The kids had a BLAST!

New Blue Asics Miles: 13.50

Weight: 0.00

Comments

From JulieC on Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 20:25:59 from 71.32.226.154

April, you were running great, you were on unknown rocky, hilly terrain and kept at an awesome pace!!! You should be proud. If you ran the race down Hobble Creek here in Utah you would probably get under 1:25!!! Your aerobic base is awesome, hence the nausea as you pushed the hills. Not total collapse as would otherwise happen if you weren't in shape. Love that you threw up!! That is a sign of a truely great race for you. Also, sorry about the gatorade incident, but it was funny to read about, cause that is one of my worst nightmares at any race. And you lived through it, speedily. Words of wisdom? Keep on runnin', you are so going to get faster and faster :D Your time was fast, really.

From Burt on Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 20:35:45 from 98.167.151.26

April, your pain and misfortune is my pleasure and entertainment. I know it's not right, but dumping gatorade on your head...that's down right gut busting. But hey, you did great, really. I mean, even when you felt like you were dying, you were still hitting sub 8:30 miles. And that's fantastic. Good job!

From seeaprilrun on Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 20:42:56 from 68.102.148.130

Heehee I can laugh about the gatorade incident now. I'm sure the people at the aid station were wondering what on earth I was doing. My throwing up was actually just dry heaving there was nothing in my gut to toss.

From Eric Day on Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 23:09:46 from 189.169.133.203

I been waiting for your race report since yesterday...

A 1:38 of a trail HM is super time, specially for your first HM. You have set an excellent time and I'm sure it will fall very soon.

Hope you are proud of yourself. All your hard word is paying off. Super !!!

By the way, did the gatorade of your head quench the heat? (Couldn't help myself)....

From marion on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:03:29 from 71.213.117.77

I have been waiting for your report :) What an adventure! You really did great! That had to be horrible to feel SO sick! (I did love the gatorade story!)

From Burt on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:42:23 from 68.76.197.194

Eric - usually your English is better than most of ours, but that first sentence makes you sound Mexican for sure.

From Tracy on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 13:57:08 from 173.24.32.153

Wow! What a great race report! Although you struggled throughout this, you ran such a great race. And you're right. Your next race on roads will be a breeze.

You're my hero!

From Sasha Pachev on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 15:27:00 from 192.168.1.1

Nausea could be from the Gatorade not going in, or it could be from the fact that your aerobic fitness is still behind your neural drive. So you can drive up your HR really high, especially in a long race as you have plenty of time. And, to compound things, when HR goes up high Gatorade does not go in, so you can get a double hit.

Do you know the same of the girl that won? If you do, look her up on Google, Athlinks.com, and MarathonGuide.Com to get an idea of what kind of runner she is. This would give you an idea of what your effort was worth.

From ChrisM on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 15:42:57 from 81.155.127.250

Sorry to hear you had nausea problems, but it sounds like you can take a lot of positives out the run, as even with the problems you were only 30secs off the lead.

If that's your first half you should be pleased with the time! I'm sure you'll improve on it with more training (and a flatter course).

I find in road races just improving your endurance (run more miles, do long runs with a decent pace at the end etc) will make you stronger over long hills, you don't necessarily need to do specific hill training.

From seeaprilrun on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:48:08 from 68.102.148.130

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and advice. I checked on the gal who won her name is Megan Smethers and she ran a 1:34:05 1/2 marathon in April 2008, but her 5k and 10k times that popped up are slower than my pr's. She ran a smarter race than me, I think, and had gas at the end when I did not. There are a few things this race makes me want to experiment with--such as at what pace/effort I have troubles with nausea and continue to expand my aerobic base so this is not a problem and also before my next 1/2 on September 20th I would like to know how hard I can run and still get fluids to stay down. Oh, and the biggest lesson, look in the cup before dumping it over my head:)

From Sasha Pachev on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 14:31:24 from 64.81.245.109

Megan is a 3:24 marathoner (Lincoln 2008). Who knows what kind of shape she is in now, I could not find her half results this year. Athlinks gave me 500 server error, so I had to rely just on Google. I did notice that she runs a lot of trail races. Which would mean on this kind of course she would have the upper hand on you. In any case, I think given a normal course and a little bit more time for base building you can go under 1:30.

Yes, and I have dumped Gatorate on my head on more than one occasion.

From JulieC on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 16:06:04 from 71.32.226.154

I have total faith in your abilities. You are not even near your peak. The nausea could also be from the heat. People dropped like flies in Chicago marathon from unexpected heatlast year.

From Burt on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 16:20:36 from 68.76.197.194

I looked Megan up on Athlinks and the last half it shows her doing was 4/20/08 in Lawrence with a time of 1:34:05.

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