I'm really late getting this race report posted! The race was on Nov 9th. It was 5th half marathon.
I couldn't really have been disappointed with ANY finish. 4 months ago I was so sick that I couldn't even walk without someone holding on to me. I finshed race, not quite a PR, but close. And actually, the PR I did was on a completely flat course and this race was real hilly, so it was probably actually a better finish.
I felt AWESOME at the start of the race. I wanted to take off flying! Fortunately I couldn't. We had to run in one lane and it was so packed! I couldn't do any faster than a 9:36 first mile because I couldn't get past people. I got kicked and ran into. I got on pace though after that and felt great. The early part of the course had a lot more downhill than up. I was thrilled to reach the halfway point right on target for goal pace. At mile 9 I was only a few seconds over goal pace, and really looking forward to finishing. But at that point I really started to feel sick to stomach and it just got worse. At about 9.5 I had to throw up. WTF! I've never thrown up while running!! I think the reason is that since there were only 4 water stops I really had to guzzle a lot. There was one at 8.5 and I drank a full cup. It didn't settle well at all. I had a hard time getting started back up and I was feeling dehydrated. Mile 9 ended up being around 11 minutes, yikes!! I sped up when I hit mile 10 and was closer to goal pace, though I was struggling because I felt so dehydrated. The last mile was horrible. 3 major hills. I was dragging a$$ up them. legs actually felt great, like they wanted to go faster. But stomach had started feeling really sick again and breathing was not cooperating. So mile 13 was pretty slow.
I finished at 209:35 ( PR is 2:09). I did not finish at goal time, but there was not much I could do about the throwing up part. I am considering racing with Nathan pack from now on. No stopping at water stops, and I can just sip and not have to guzzle a lot. I think that will help. I'm really thrilled that I made it this far in 4 months. I was not sure I would ever run again, and when I started running again a 4 mile jog was really tough.
Race report
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