Let's talk about how that was an epic fail of life. Also: why Thai food is a really bad pre-run food choice.
I really can't give any excuses about what happened on Sunday. It was entirely within my control and I didn't follow through. I have definitely learned some lessons for the 1/2 marathon in May (i.e. what not to do).
I didn't get to run the week leading up to the 10K, only a 6k on the Tuesday. Meanwhile, I'd been sitting on my butt studying all day and night for the week with little activity other than short walk breaks to save my sanity. In addition, the weather has taken a wicked turn for the worse - my last run was in sunny warm 17+ degree weather. Race day, I woke up to a temperature of NEGATIVE ONE. The night before the run, boyfriend wanted to order Thai for dinner because he had a groupon that expired on Saturday. Ok, I figured, I'd order something noodley and not spicy so that it would be kind of like a pasta dinner (traditional pre-race food). I also drank an insane amount of water in an attempt to flush out the sodium/water-retaining properties common to Thai takeout. Also guzzled more water the morning of the run to keep hydrated.
At the start line, I was feeling good. Within the first 2k, suddenly I was bombarded with EPIC stomach cramps and crazy pain in my sides. Very bad. I had to stop and walk a lot. Like, a lot. I ran 3 minutes, walked 3 minutes, and even at that, my running was barely faster than a walk. By about 5k the cramping had worked it's way out and I was doing a bit better (still some cramping, but I could actually move and breathe properly). Amazingly by this time, I was only a few minutes above my 5k goal time (normal 5k takes me about 35-36 minutes, I did it in 39). Decided to keep running slower than usual to avoid a re-cramping situation.
I finally crossed the finish line at a humiliating 1:20:29, the slowest 10k that I have ever run. I later found out that a friend of mine had been waiting at the finish line to see me cross (I didn't know this ahead of time) and waited until 1:15:00 before heading out. She figured that she had just missed seeing me in the crowd. I nearly cried with embarassment as I told her that no, I was actually still 5 minutes away. As I reluctantly told my dad (who picked me up) about my time, he looked at me in disbelief and said "... it was only 10k, right??". Thanks dad.
My knees were also hella swollen by the end of the run. My left knee has had all kinds of problems before but has been well-behaved over the last few weeks. After the run when I stopped to stretch my quads, I couldn't actually reach my foot behind me because my knees couldn't bend that far. I think I need new shoes. Not cool.
I was bummed out. That's not true - I'm still very bummed out. And I'm terrified, because in 5 weeks I will be expecting to run DOUBLE this distance. 0___0
I'm going to try to use this experience as a learning rather than dwelling on all the things I did wrong. But I'm really struggling with it, because I had really had such high hopes for this run. I should be realizing that 10K is a huge accomplishment, that many people could never cross in 1:20 in their wildest dreams, and the fact that only a few short years ago, I couldn't run a kilometre without feeling like death.
And yet, I'm bummed out.
:(
The photos from the race just came out yesterday. I will soon post a photo and yes - some education! There will soon be a post about running technique so that you, dear readers, don't end with the same unfortunate circumstances and results as I did.
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