Heatwave and Tragedy!!

It was bound to happen, I just didnt expect it to happen on this day and happen so hard!! My running has been non-existant for the past couple of months. A run here and there, a race infrequently. This has been a rough year so far as running is concerned. The birth of my daughter made me rearrange my priorities. Instability at the job is an ever constant battle. My mother's health and near death this past week. DW being on call so I'm primarily responsible for kids getting ready for school and back from school... aka Mr. Mom. So this all leads up to an inevitable bad break during my marathon. I hadn't run for the entire week leading up to the marathon, so I took a very easy 6.5 miler 2 days prior just to loosen up, no biggie. Or was it??

So Friday hits, and I go to work as usual. Get off, race home to pack my stuff and head out for the 4 hour drive to Traverse City. Leave around 630pm, just after rush hour. THANK GOD for my new SUV Acadia... load da fam and off we go. Hit I-75 and why was it a traffic jam going north for a good 50 miles, it was stop and go the entire time. Of course I havent eaten since noon, and just KNEW I was going to stop at a chinese restaurant or something. So it was getting late so Mickey D's it is!! This ordeal took 6 hours!!! We check in after midnight. The inlaws were up there for vacation, so we dropped the kids off at their room, but keep the baby. So we are tucked in and get to sleep close to 1am, alarm set for 5am, because a friend got our race package for us (and she kept our free race shirt... I'm going to ask her about that) so we had to get to her before the 7am start.

We get to the start and get our bib and chip, I start a brief warmup and my legs feel heavy and I am SORE. Did that 6.5 miler do that? It WAS my first run in over a week, though. I also had my training shoes, because I didnt want to blister my feet like my last marathon in my racers. And the starting temp... 70 degrees!!! So... sore heavy legs, heavy shoes, warm temps, poor training... this ought to be interesting!! I was starting with a couple guys that wanted to run 3:30:00 so I decided to help pace them. Gun goes off... first mile 8:47 which is ok, its just getting started. I wanted to be at regular pace by mile 5, and so I was at mile 3. Mile 7 I get a weird feeling... I gotta pee, LOL, I totally 4got about that before starting. So mile 9ish, theres an old deserted barn on the side of the road, I veer off and handle biz. Its hard re-starting from a complete stop.

The next 2 miles started to be tough... started getting weird chest pains, kinda like when i was in college where I just KNEW I had a heart attack... this was weird. So at the half, I just take a walk break to see if it would subside. Took some "gatorade" if thats what you called it, and tried to continue. My heart was beating superfast and the chest pain continued, I was actually getting a little nervous. Maybe my electrolyes were off, because I do tend to sweat a lot, plus it was like 80 degrees then. So I start Gallowalking... around mile 15, I'm like this is it!! I got a weird hot and chills type of feeling. My body was saying "something aint right", but my mind was saying "you better not quit". Everytime I started to run now, my calves got crampy like somebody squeezing and twisting them. I tried walking the aid stations and drinking plenty, but that "gatorade" was just 'not right'.

Mile 18, I'm at the point where I'm saying "this is not fun, i'm never doing this AGAIN!!" There was a lady on the side passing out pretzels, I grabbed a few because I knew my sodium was low. Stuffed them in my mouth and... I COULDN'T CHEW IT, I HAD NO SALIVA!! So I had to go another 2 miles with this stuff in my mouth to the next aid station to down it with water. Within 5 minutes the cramps were gone. So I start jogging again. 2 miles in, the cramps start to return, so I took a Gu and took some Coca Cola from a stand where the PLAYMAKERS running group was manning. I aint NEVER had coca cola taste so good and feel so good going down in my entire life, than right there!! There was this guy with "1st Marathon" tatted on his back, so I push him on, because he was struggling too. So I get to the last aid station somewhere after mile 24 and I chug like 16oz of fluids!! It was THAT hot out. Then just decided to suck it up and run the last 2 miles...

Mile 25 the cramps start again. So I'm altering my gait to not put pressure on my calves. Its a SLOW embarrassing site. I figure I'm almost there but it hit me with a vengeance. I walked the next mile with my head down in disgust. With the last 600 meters left, a guy from the Running Fit Store comes up to me and MAKES me run it in, lol. He hypes up the crowd to start chanting my name... so I had no choice but to run (trot) in. I thought I was going to die and my legs crumple! I FINALLY hit the blue and red mat at 4:43:10... well over an hour longer than any marathon I ever ran!! ALMOST 5 HOURS RUNNING THIS CRAP!! Quite honestly, the ONLY thing that made me finish was that if I did, I would be granted entry into the Marathon Maniacs group for meeting the minimum 3 full marathons in 3 months.

So here it is one day later, and my body is feeling BEAT UP. I aint never ran for so long in my life. I respect the people that ran Chicago Marathon 08 where it was 90 degrees. I'm DONE with full marathons until the fall when its cooler. I just need to focus on training again. I have been initiated into the "Respect the Marathon" club... LOL. Have I lost love for the full? Not really, but I wont be running anymore in the heat!! Anything over a 10k in the heat is a no-go 4 me, but I'll be recovered in the next couple weeks, but in the meantime, I run on...