Sunday, March 15, 2009

LBTT 13 Mile Failure... and then Success!

I first attempted this run yesterday, after I became severely ill from food poisoning... or something. I thought I could still run if I could get my..er... problems under control. Four doses of Pepto Bismol didn't do it. Two doses of Immodium AD seemed to. The second dose was taken only a few minutes before the run started. I met Rick and Karen, but after only a bit over two miles, I was so woozy I could hardly stand up, let alone run, and I'd started to mildly hallucinate. For the first time in my life, I quit and walked back to my car alone.

Today, I was feeling much better, and thought I'd slip out to the same location with the same plan to see if I could pull it off. I had no real pace plans, I was going to be happy if I could just go the distance. Technically, I haven't gone 13 miles since Chi in October.

The first 7 miles were great, I was feeling stronger and stronger, in spite of the fact the last of those were into a bit of a headwind. I gulped some Gatorade at my car, and then went south, continuing the run into the wind. But for the last six miles I was pretty tired, and didn't care about my pace. I assumed I was running high 9s or low 10s, but again really didn't care. Just wanted to focus on finishing.

I've forgotten some of the exhaustion that one experiences when going the distance (and 13 miles really isn't that much, I know). I was just looking for that groove; that zone and hang on to bring in. I managed to find it and even ran a pretty good last mile (the mind has so much to do with my pace... I knew if I hurried I'd be done sooner).

So, I feel somewhat vindicated from my miserable failure yesterday and important lesson learned. And I was very happy to finish!

Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:742 ft
Location:Blue Springs, MOElev. Gain:+0 ft
Date:03/15/09Up/Downhill: [+403/-403]
Time:11:29 AMDifficulty:3.2 / 5.0
Weather:Mostly Cloudy
53 F temp; 63% humidity
53 F heat index; winds S 8
Performance

Distance: 13.00 miles

Time:1:49:45
Speed:7.1 mph

Pace:8' 27 /mi

Calories:1126

Map
Elevation (ft)
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
18' 50+0' 236.8-0.3-9 ft
28' 22-0' 057.2+0.1+13 ft
38' 09-0' 187.4+0.3-13 ft
48' 21-0' 067.2+0.10 ft
58' 27+0' 007.1-0.0+10 ft
68' 15-0' 127.3+0.2-10 ft
78' 11-0' 167.3+0.2+6 ft
88' 36+0' 097.0-0.1-3 ft
98' 37+0' 107.0-0.1+7 ft
108' 40+0' 136.9-0.2+4 ft
118' 36+0' 097.0-0.1-3 ft
128' 24-0' 037.1+0.0-3 ft
138' 09-0' 187.3+0.2+3 ft
end********** ft
Versus average of 8' 27 min/mile
** Insufficient data to calculate this split

Posted from bimactive.com

4 comments:

Rick said...

Nice job! Way to vindicate!

runner-grrl said...

Thanks, Rick! I'm sorry things just didn't work out yesterday. I was afraid to ask anyone to accompany me on this run, as badly as yesterday went. I hate letting people down :-(. But, so happy I was able to bounce back and get right back in there! --Alex

Timaay said...

When you say 'miserable failure,' I hope you didn't personally feel like a failure because you had lower GI problems...

Timaay aka Frankie

runner-grrl said...

Timaay... not not really. It was such an abject failure, I actually realized it wasn't my fitness that was called into question :-). Nonetheless, it made it that much more important to me to finish the following day. Quitting would have been easy... but hard to live with. --Alex