AM - 2.4 miles. Andrea and I ran from our hotel down the Ben Franklin Parkway to the art museum, up the "Rocky" steps, then back along the river trail. Physically, I feel fine this morning... like I did a really hard workout yesterday, but I don't have that "day after" feeling like I did after Utah Valley, where slow jogging was a true struggle. My stride felt normal, my muscles don't ache. When I woke up this morning my heart rate was in the normal range (just below 40). I don't know for sure, but I think the physical problem yesterday was electrolyte depletion. When things went south for me, everything was cramping up. My legs, my shoulder, my back, my arms. And it was completely bilateral. Additionally - I got dizzy and delirious. Most of the time after races, I don't even want anything to drink. Yesterday my instinct at the finish line was to stumble right to the Gatorade tent and drink as much as I could (so much that I threw up and then had to start over). I had a girl at the tent fill me up a 24 oz bottle, and as I slowly drank that over the next 30 minutes, I came back to life. As the day went on, I felt better and better... and this morning, I feel downright normal. I truly believe that I was physically in shape to run under 2:19. I mean, its not like I have regressed over the past 5 months! I'm clearly in the best shape of my life. And mentally I was razor sharp going into this. Maybe the electrolyte imbalance was a contributing factor to the blow up. All the evidence I have suggests that might be the case. It was a little warmer yesterday than I expected, and I was wiping some sweat off my head in the early miles. Combine that with the fact that I'm at my lowest weight of the year (or like, since high school) and don't have much reserves... I might have just gone over the edge a little bit and lost a little too much electrolytes. And once that happens, there is no turning back. But I also feel like I need to add that I'm not totally blaming my performance on that, even if it was precisely what happened. I will admit that when it hit me that I wasn't going to run 2:18, I threw in the towel mentally. I had no interest in running a PR in the 2:19-2:21 range yesterday. That really didn't mean anything to me or matter to me at all. It was kind of an all-or-nothing mentality that I had. That is a tough way to approach a race (no "B" goal). But I don't regret it, and if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the exact same way. Now we're off to New York City for a couple days. This picture was on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer today. I'm on the far right:
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