badgerland striders 1/2 marathon

badgerland striders 1/2 marathon - august 23, 2014

time = 1:50:35 (1:51:12 last year)
pace = 8:26
placed 11 in my age group (40-44) out of 66 (9 out of 61 last year)
placed 65 in women out of 441 (58 out of 408 last year)
placed 226 overall out of 838 (226 out of 792 last year)

weird to get 226 again this year. also weird that i ran faster and placed lower in my age group...

awesome striders' medal

there's some fast old ladies out there.

so i did a couple of things different for this race which proved to be disastrous. i used a new nuun which has caffeine in it.  not sure if that contributed to the problem or not.  i'm guessing not but it's hard to tell at this point considering the disaster that i call my stomach.  i stupidly opted for an aleve which is an nsaid. i haven't taken an nsaid since ragnar and we all know how well that worked out.  basically, nsaids wreak havoc on my intestinal tract.  i also took an imodium assuming that they would cancel each other out yet i'd reap the benefits of both.  yeah, um, not so much.

the products i use that are beneficial and wonderful are:

• x2 performance - 1 2oz bottle
• 2 capsules of sports legs
• 1 tablet of nuun in my water bottle

i'm going to assume that the nuun was fine and that my gut problems completely stemmed from the aleve.  

my splits

so... the run.  the race started out and i was supposed to be running it as a training run.  i decided i was going to keep it slow, steady, and run at a comfortable pace.  i decided on 8:20 as a good pace and began there.  i kept it there and ran.  at mile 2 my friend jim from the LPTR group passed me, and admittedly it was all over for the "training run" at that point.  oh, who am i kidding... i was never going to be able to contain myself and run this as a training run.  so jim passed me and i spent the next mile catching up to him.  we ran together until about mile 4 when i realized there was no way i was going to make it any further without peeing.  thankfully there was a port-o-potty conveniently up ahead at which point i ducked off to go.  moments later i was off again.  interestingly enough mile 4 was my fastest mile at 7:48.  i could see jim ahead of me and spent the next couple of miles catching up again.  i think i caught up to him around 6 or 7.  we then ran the rest of the race together which was really great.  it was around 77 degrees with 95% humidity.  very foggy and so wet!

my stomach started letting me know how uncomfortable it was around mile 10.  by mile 11 i had to take walk breaks.  i wasn't sure i was going to make it to the end without hitting a bathroom which was so disappointing!  thankfully this course is almost completely flat so it goes very quickly.  

jim stuck with me the whole time bless his heart!  it's pretty awesome that even with the walking we still managed really good splits!  i'm disappointed with the last 3 miles, but it really couldn't be helped.  i just keep thinking about how i could have shaved at least a whole minute off my time if i had not had the stomach issues!  what a stupid idea to take the aleve!  admittedly, if jim had not been there to encourage me on i may have walked that whole last mile... or stopped at that last port-o-potty.  i'm so grateful that he was there.  i finished strong and with a PR from last year.  so... good enough for me.  next year i'll do better.  

this is such a fun race.  the weather was so gross that i just was so happy when it was over.  they fed us sausages, potatoes, and of course beer.  i don't drink beer so whateves to that.  they also had the standards... bananas, water, some sodas, and oranges.  the start and finish is at the estabrook beer garden which wisconsinites really love (obviously).  

my poor toes

i've been running in my shoes for over 300 miles now.  this is notable because when i got home today and got my shoes off i realized just how badly i need to replace them.  ugh... blood blisters.  i will be losing a nail for sure.  my poor toes.  runners toes... oh yeah, so hot.   yup... those are my toes fresh out of my shoes.  don't worry... i have since lanced the blisters and painted the nails so they look presentable.  geez louise...