Running on Empty?
So this weekend was D-day for me and my battle with this Half Marathon.
It's interesting what stress does to you... even when you don't really think you're building something up (like a running race). This week i've felt totally out of sorts - was 'resting' prior to race day, but wound up feeling almost depressed with the extreme lack of endorphins (is this what really unfit people feel like all the time?) particularly the tail end of the week - was probably a combination of the lack of endorphins, a busy work week, (Thank GOD!!!), a bit too much internal pressure to run a good time and having nothing to do outside of work other than read, which in itself is frustrating when you're busy - you wind up doing the whole: work, eat, sleep thing. Anyway to cut a long story short, today dawned, prayers were answered for no wind and cloud cover for optimum conditions.
So after my standard 5 or so trips to the bathroom for nerves the bloody big cannon went off and so did I, along with 12,000 other runners (9,000 of them in the Half Marathon).
Alas there are no photo's of the during because I was in the nasty habit of passing people whenever Mez tried to take photo's of me (to be fair that was something that happened most of the way - which is always good for the ego, but also amazed me at how most people go out really fast at the beginning and then die off towards the middle or end!). So you just have to put up with photo's of post race, i'll save you the unpleasant reality of the horribly sweaty ones..
. these are after about half an hour of feeling like i was going to die of exhaustion, dehydration and heat stroke.
The race itself was ok... the sun had burnt off most of the cloud by the time the gun went off so it was a bit of a stinking hot day - up in the mid 20's at least... fortunately the route was through a lot of tree lined streets and parts of Nottingham, and there were plenty of drink stations (mostly sprayed all over rather than down the gullet). Went pretty flat out and thought i wasn't going to be able to maintain my pace but was happy with both stamina and the result in the end... Was spurred on (which was a fantastic help) by a loving and excited wife with only a couple of miles to go, which gave the impetus for a strong finish despite the weary body.
Might be nursing bilateral calf strains for the next few weeks though as they started twanging with about 4 miles to go (which of course got worse the more I ran, and especially as i picked up a bit of extra pace towards the end.) Such is life. I'll have a bit of empathy for my patients this week! My time? 1:27.57 - was the official gun time but my chip (which measures your exact individual speed from the start line to the finish) time was 1:27.30. Placed 166 out of th
e 6843 that finished. Thanks be to God for a physique that allows me to run fast. 1:30 was the much strived for goal so i'm now officially FOR doing a bit of training (it worked for me)... Completely aside of professional opinion of course!!!
Ughhh check out the ugly 'commemorative wall panel' - a woollen crochet job! Awful, will definately collect dust in an unlooked in cupboard somewhere.
Hope your weekend has been most excellent. Take care wherever you are.
It's interesting what stress does to you... even when you don't really think you're building something up (like a running race). This week i've felt totally out of sorts - was 'resting' prior to race day, but wound up feeling almost depressed with the extreme lack of endorphins (is this what really unfit people feel like all the time?) particularly the tail end of the week - was probably a combination of the lack of endorphins, a busy work week, (Thank GOD!!!), a bit too much internal pressure to run a good time and having nothing to do outside of work other than read, which in itself is frustrating when you're busy - you wind up doing the whole: work, eat, sleep thing. Anyway to cut a long story short, today dawned, prayers were answered for no wind and cloud cover for optimum conditions.
So after my standard 5 or so trips to the bathroom for nerves the bloody big cannon went off and so did I, along with 12,000 other runners (9,000 of them in the Half Marathon).
Alas there are no photo's of the during because I was in the nasty habit of passing people whenever Mez tried to take photo's of me (to be fair that was something that happened most of the way - which is always good for the ego, but also amazed me at how most people go out really fast at the beginning and then die off towards the middle or end!). So you just have to put up with photo's of post race, i'll save you the unpleasant reality of the horribly sweaty ones..
. these are after about half an hour of feeling like i was going to die of exhaustion, dehydration and heat stroke.
The race itself was ok... the sun had burnt off most of the cloud by the time the gun went off so it was a bit of a stinking hot day - up in the mid 20's at least... fortunately the route was through a lot of tree lined streets and parts of Nottingham, and there were plenty of drink stations (mostly sprayed all over rather than down the gullet). Went pretty flat out and thought i wasn't going to be able to maintain my pace but was happy with both stamina and the result in the end... Was spurred on (which was a fantastic help) by a loving and excited wife with only a couple of miles to go, which gave the impetus for a strong finish despite the weary body.
Might be nursing bilateral calf strains for the next few weeks though as they started twanging with about 4 miles to go (which of course got worse the more I ran, and especially as i picked up a bit of extra pace towards the end.) Such is life. I'll have a bit of empathy for my patients this week! My time? 1:27.57 - was the official gun time but my chip (which measures your exact individual speed from the start line to the finish) time was 1:27.30. Placed 166 out of th
e 6843 that finished. Thanks be to God for a physique that allows me to run fast. 1:30 was the much strived for goal so i'm now officially FOR doing a bit of training (it worked for me)... Completely aside of professional opinion of course!!!Ughhh check out the ugly 'commemorative wall panel' - a woollen crochet job! Awful, will definately collect dust in an unlooked in cupboard somewhere.
Hope your weekend has been most excellent. Take care wherever you are.
posted by Ryan and Mez at
4:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home