This event didn't go the way I had planned. I had originally thought the race was going to be the 15th, and didn't find out it was the 14th until the afternoon before the race as I was on my way to "Happy Hour" at a friend from work's place. I have to admit that I was pretty stupid to drink 3 margaritas and 2 beers that evening, but I honestly don't think that is the reason I got so sick during the race. Jude didn't drink, and she got sicker than I did. We did eat a bunch of things people had made and brought to the party, but I think food poisoning only takes a few hours to hit you. I dunno.

ANYWAY...the race for ME started when Sandy came to the finish line very concerned because Jude (my partner for the race) had been throwing up since mile 7. She was a good half mile behind Sandy, so I ran as fast as I could to go help her. She was looking terrible and kept throwing up. I tried to talk her out of pushing to finish before the cut-off time and to take it easy, but she wasn't going for that. I really have to give it to her for sticking with it.

Once we got her to the finish with no time to spare, I took off. I had plans to run this race with a friend, but told him to take off with Sandy's partner because I didn't want him to be disqualified with me if Jude didn't make it to the finish on time. Admittedly, I took off too fast. I wanted to catch Robert and being the excitable person that I am, was pumped from being concerned about Jude.

The first half of the race was pretty nice. I walked as fast as I could during all the up-hills, and ran on the flats and downhill sections. Sandy loaned me her Garmin, which was great. Being able to check out my pace while running/walking was awesome! I need to get me one. At around mile 4, my stomach started churning. Nothing bad, but I have a caste-iron stomach and this was new to me. At the first aide station, I only took water and moved on. I was pushing as hard as I could to catch Robert. By mile 8, my stomach felt TERRIBLE. Every time I tried to full-on run, my stomach would wrench. Drinking water was also giving me problems. Since stomach problems were new to me, I couldn't decide if it was better to just get sick, or to try to hold it in. I decided to try to keep it in me. My thinking was that if I got sick, it would just open the flood-gates and I would end up worse off.

Right at the 10.24 mile mark there was an aide station and Robert was there! I had made it there just under 2 hours. We were stoked that I had caught up to him and that we would get to run the last leg together. Even though I was hoping to finish the course in under 3 hours, I kept him at the aide station far longer than he probably wanted. I just didn't feel good and was trying to rest a bit so I could eat something. It wasn't going to happen though, so after sucking on a couple oranges, we took off. We kept our pace between 10:30-11:30 per mile. The last 2 miles were complete Hell for me. Robert was going at a strong, steady pace. He looked great! I, on the other hand, just wanted to finish.

I have to say that I gave it my all. I was completely spent after this race. I haven't been good at pushing myself lately, and wanted a race that would do that. Well, I got it!! I even looked back at the course after passing the finish line and said "yep, everything is back there on that course. I have nothing else to give". This is definitely something I would like to do again!!!!

Nothing!! I felt I ran the race as smart and as hard as I could. I took what the day gave me and made the best of it.

BEFORE the race I could have taken better care of myself with what I ate and drank, and could have trained better. But I didn't so I have no excuses.

Stood around for a few minutes talking to friends and waiting for Sandy's partner to come in. I wanted to go home and crawl into bed!!!


I felt sick.