Anyone seen the movie "The Italian Job" that came out in 2003? One of the most memorable quotes was from the guy who was deaf in one ear. He was observing a gate and sees guard dogs, then proceeds to tell Mark Wahlberg ....'the dudes got dogs. I don't do dogs. I had a real bad experience.' Wahlberg asks what happened and Left Ear replies very emphatically: 'I had. A bad. Experience.' Pretty much sums up my race this morning. Rather than setting a new PR, I came away with a PW (personal worst). Ever. All-time. I felt good yesterday. I felt good when I woke up. Felt good on my 2 mile warm up. Gun went off and it went downhill from there. I was shooting for 5:15-5:20 pace throughout and thought that was doable. First mile 5:17. Perfect. Miles 2-4 were each 5:26 exactly. Slower than I wanted but there was plenty of time to make up the difference. Mile 5 in 5:21 and I'm through the first 5 miles in 26:59. Mile 6 in 5:24 and now I'm wondering why I'm continually missing the mark. What gives? Could it be the stomach cramps I've got that are making things tough. I know they're not helping, that's for sure. The wheels start to come off the next two miles; 5:29, 5:36 and my stomach cramps are getting worse. Blah. Mile 8 was slightly better in 5:28 but nowhere near my goal. All of my miles except the first have been off 10-15 seconds. Double blah. Mile 9 slows considerably once again to 5:37. At the aid station between 9 and 10 I stopped for a quick walk to try and finally get rid of my stomach cramps. It seemed to help, but as soon as I resumed running both of my calves cramped as well as the arch in my right foot. Something was off today, that's for sure. I slowly walked/jogged to mile 10 (8:47) and 11 (9:00!) before throwing in the towel. Sort of... My sister was running the half as well. Her first ever half marathon was last weekend in Seattle. After finishing slower than she would have liked and yet void of sore/tired muscles, she quickly signed up for this half marathon as a chance to quickly improve. I turned around at mile 11 and ran back up the course to mile 9 and waited just a couple minutes before she arrived. I ran the final 4 miles with her which was a lot of fun. It was great to see her improve by over 9 minutes with only 7 days between her 1st and 2nd half-marathon. (Awesome Jill! Very proud of you.) Now I'm home and my body feels trashed. Absolutely trashed. Uh....? I ran less than 10 miles at tempo pace and then the next 7 miles in the 9:00/min range and I feel completely worked over. No clue why. By the way--finishing time was 2:02:33. Triple blah.
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