Yeah, the title pretty much sums up my weekend. It was hell. But, I learned the lesson that every runner must learn to fully understand... don't change your diet before a race!
As I mentioned many times, the Tulsa Run (our local 9.3 mile race) was this past Saturday. I was beyond psyched to run it and set my first PR for a 15k race! But, that didn't happen as planned.
I have been told (and read) many, many times to always stay with what you know the night before a race. Don't change your diet, don't change your routine. It causes stress on your body and may result in not favorable outcomes. Well, I didn't listen. On Friday campus only had cold food at the caf so we trekked across campus to the Union Center to get lunch. I hadn't had Subway in a while so I went there to get what I would have gotten in the caf - tuna on wheat with a ton of veggies. Ate it with staff and walked back to my office.
Left work and Eryn and I headed off to the Expo to pick up our race packets and look at what everyone was selling. I made some super awesome purchases - totaling under $30 in all! These shirts and some stinger supplies...
Needless to say, I was on cloud nine when I left and feeling great. Sadly, that didn't last long.
We were both starving so we decided to go to a local pizza joint in town. Put in our order (exactly the same thing) and sat down to eat. The food was amazing but about half way through I started having stomach pain. I thought that was odd but figured it would pass.
Got home that night and watched some tv to relax before going to bed. Stomach started really hurting - like something was just sitting in there and not happy. Figured I'd do what I usually do - go to bed early and then when I wake up it will be gone. No worries.
Went to bed at 9pm, fell asleep right away and woke up around 7.30am and the pain was worse. I felt nauseous and didn't really want to even walk but I told myself "you are going to do this! You paid $40 and you promised Eryn you'd be there." So I got up, dressed and went out the door to meet her so we could meet everyone for the race.
Eryn wanted to warm up for the race by jogging the five blocks to the site from where we parked. As soon as I started I thought I was going to throw up. Not a good sign before a race. I kept it together and let her know that we'd be running the race separately so I didn't keep her from a good time.
We started out and I began with a 10 minute mile pace. Made it just past 1 mile and a bit and couldn't do it - which depressed me even more because it was the same course we did the previous weekend and I rocked that! I ended up running maybe 3 miles total and walked the rest as fast as I could. Sadly, I spent most of the "race" doing my best to not throw up and keep moving. I just wanted to cross the finish line and not feel like a complete failure.
I finished around the 2 hour mark. I still haven't looked up my official time - too embarrassing. After the race we went to the massage booth and I asked them to look at my legs. They said my calves were extremely tight and were surprised by that.
I went straight home and ended up sleeping for about 14 hours on and off for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday I realized I was for sure sick - food poisoning we suspect (from Subway since Eryn never got sick). I am just now starting to feel human again. Last night was my first attempt at eating more than cereal for a meal.
Of course people have yelled at me for being so "stupid" for attempting the race but when you put your mind to something like that, the last thing you want to do is give up before you even try. Yes, me attempting was probably not the smartest thing in the world and it more than likely made me even more sick, but at the end of the day, I did it. I crossed the finish line and finished the race. Just not at a time I am happy with.
All I can do at this point is learn from my weekend (and missing Halloween sadly) and go back to what works for races. This weekend will hopefully get me back on track. We have a "mock marathon" for training - we pay $5 and they give us a sneak peak at what we'll be running in 3 weeks on race day. Hopefully by then I'll be back to normal and can achieve a decent PR for my first marathon.
Wish me luck!
As I mentioned many times, the Tulsa Run (our local 9.3 mile race) was this past Saturday. I was beyond psyched to run it and set my first PR for a 15k race! But, that didn't happen as planned.
I have been told (and read) many, many times to always stay with what you know the night before a race. Don't change your diet, don't change your routine. It causes stress on your body and may result in not favorable outcomes. Well, I didn't listen. On Friday campus only had cold food at the caf so we trekked across campus to the Union Center to get lunch. I hadn't had Subway in a while so I went there to get what I would have gotten in the caf - tuna on wheat with a ton of veggies. Ate it with staff and walked back to my office.
Left work and Eryn and I headed off to the Expo to pick up our race packets and look at what everyone was selling. I made some super awesome purchases - totaling under $30 in all! These shirts and some stinger supplies...
Needless to say, I was on cloud nine when I left and feeling great. Sadly, that didn't last long.
We were both starving so we decided to go to a local pizza joint in town. Put in our order (exactly the same thing) and sat down to eat. The food was amazing but about half way through I started having stomach pain. I thought that was odd but figured it would pass.
Got home that night and watched some tv to relax before going to bed. Stomach started really hurting - like something was just sitting in there and not happy. Figured I'd do what I usually do - go to bed early and then when I wake up it will be gone. No worries.
Went to bed at 9pm, fell asleep right away and woke up around 7.30am and the pain was worse. I felt nauseous and didn't really want to even walk but I told myself "you are going to do this! You paid $40 and you promised Eryn you'd be there." So I got up, dressed and went out the door to meet her so we could meet everyone for the race.
Eryn wanted to warm up for the race by jogging the five blocks to the site from where we parked. As soon as I started I thought I was going to throw up. Not a good sign before a race. I kept it together and let her know that we'd be running the race separately so I didn't keep her from a good time.
We started out and I began with a 10 minute mile pace. Made it just past 1 mile and a bit and couldn't do it - which depressed me even more because it was the same course we did the previous weekend and I rocked that! I ended up running maybe 3 miles total and walked the rest as fast as I could. Sadly, I spent most of the "race" doing my best to not throw up and keep moving. I just wanted to cross the finish line and not feel like a complete failure.
I finished around the 2 hour mark. I still haven't looked up my official time - too embarrassing. After the race we went to the massage booth and I asked them to look at my legs. They said my calves were extremely tight and were surprised by that.
I went straight home and ended up sleeping for about 14 hours on and off for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday I realized I was for sure sick - food poisoning we suspect (from Subway since Eryn never got sick). I am just now starting to feel human again. Last night was my first attempt at eating more than cereal for a meal.
Of course people have yelled at me for being so "stupid" for attempting the race but when you put your mind to something like that, the last thing you want to do is give up before you even try. Yes, me attempting was probably not the smartest thing in the world and it more than likely made me even more sick, but at the end of the day, I did it. I crossed the finish line and finished the race. Just not at a time I am happy with.
All I can do at this point is learn from my weekend (and missing Halloween sadly) and go back to what works for races. This weekend will hopefully get me back on track. We have a "mock marathon" for training - we pay $5 and they give us a sneak peak at what we'll be running in 3 weeks on race day. Hopefully by then I'll be back to normal and can achieve a decent PR for my first marathon.
Wish me luck!
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