Random Inspirational Quote

Chicago is a big fun city and I enjoyed spending a couple of busy days with Nathan's family experiencing it together.  I drove up Saturday and met them out our hotel close to Midway and hopped the train to go downtown for expo/packet pickup.  It was a solid 1 hour ride downtown.  We saw a bunch of the sites when we got off at the wrong stop.  Soldier Field is very cool.  Lots of decent pictures.  The expo was crazy and fun and we went through fairly quickly to get back and off our feet.

Race morning we left around 5am to give us plenty of time for transit.  We met some cool new folks in our travels and missed our stop at Roosevelt when the doors shut very quickly.  Got down there in plenty of time for me to take about 4 bathroom breaks... more on that.

Sat around a bit shivering and made our way next to A corral.  I jogged for about 5 minutes and we made our way in to the corral around 7:10.  Cool to see the Amer.DevPrgm elites getting loaded into the elite corral and here the elite-elites announced.  A seemingly decent morning weather-wise. About 55 degrees and a bit windy.  Away we went - I seemed to be in about the correct place as we started clicking off 6:15-6:20 pace.  Feeling decent and into a good group with not too many annoying chatty folks.

My troubles start at about 8 miles and get worse.  Energy levels plummet and shortness of breath.  A comparison of splits between timing mats and GPS data are a bit conflicting:

GPS:

Another epic fail.   :)

So, the answer to why I have been crushing everything else up to half marathon in races and doing pretty well in long runs in training, yet, can't put together a good marathon? 

A random acquantaince through the QuaffON! group stuff clued me in to a little thing I have heard thrown around and never really paid much attention to:  iron deficiency.  I literally randomly bumped into her today as we were exiting the 27th mile party at Grant Park.  Of course, I went straight to whining/complaining about low energy/shortness of breath, and hating gels when she asked about my race... SO I read up on it online (so now I'm an expert, right? )  - lots of coffee and bathroom stops race morning and lots of coffee in the regular diet during training.  Shortness of breath, dizziness at times during and after the race, and low energy level for seemingly no reason.  I mean, come on! Mile 8? After a good training buildup, proper taper and PR at every distance this summer?  Some other factors to consider:  I have gone vegan, cut out eating Total cereal religiously every morning (100% DV of iron), and drink lots of coffee all the time (like 3 cups a day).  It all adds up it seems.

Got my free beers out of the deal, at least.  I admit, after 4 months of not drinking and being dehydrated, the Goose Island IPA tasted like piss. :)  So now, it looks like I no longer consume caffeine, either.

Off work today for Columbus Day.  Off running today also.  Nice to sleep in and take it easy.

OFF

Lunch run - easy 3 miles.  Legs feel decent.

PM after bed - 3 miles easy - 26 min.  Lower caffeine in-take has me cranky.

AM before work - TM at gym - easy 30 minutes - 3.6mi. 

Lunch easy jog with co-worker - 22 minutes for 2 miles

AM TM easy run - 30 min. w/ hill sstrides - 3.7 miles

Lunch run with Karlei and Greg - 2miles easy

AM Marathon up near Indy, Fort Ben  - about an hour drive from the house.  This is a good race - scenic course, well run, nice course set up with water stops, etc. that is being taken over by the competing company owner of the Indy Monumental Mar., I think.  The full marathon is going away next year, and will be a half marathon and 5k only.  Found somebody selling their bib cheap, to boot.  So, really didn't want to miss out. So, 6 days after Chicago, I am running another marathon :)

Went in with a conservative mindset, and with a plan to test out a nutrition plan only drinking sports drink.  Its a pretty hilly course, and I planned on taking the climbing portions extra conservatively, also.  Aside from the bathroom break at mile 11, the nutrition and gut issues went pretty well, but, were likely due to much cooler conditions (37-45 degrees).   

I was surprised to find that the sports drink kept me enrgetic, and full (enough) feeling.  Don't know if the bathroom break was avoidable.  I really crashed hard in the last 10k, but, I'm chalking that one up to the recent marathon.

Splits

Almost toughed out the sub 3 hour again... :)  On to the next one.  IMM on Nov. 7.  Hopefully, I can just keep on going... seems to have worked well so far... (JK)