awful race weekend. no PR but i got a PW
i think God is telling me that 2018 should be a break from marathons. learn to admire the shorter distances- maybe a spring/fall half and a few 5ks sprinkled throughout he year.
i woke up sunday (race morning) with a pounding headache, achey legs/back, fatigue. wasn't sure if it was nerves or if i caught some sort of a virus. what are you to do at that point anyways, when you flew to run the race? i told myself i'd go easy, absolutely no expectations, just enjoy the race
my headache persisted for the ~2hrs we had to hang out at the corral. i started running at 8am. felt out of breath at mile 1. this has never happened to me before. if there had been a half marathon race going on simultaneously, i would have stopped then. if i had seen my boyfriend cheering in the crowds, i would have walked off the course with him
i realize now it was the wrong decision to keep running but i kept running. or more accurately, doing the marathon shuffle for the last hour. with 400m left to go, a man asked me, "are you alright??". i didn't understand why he was asking me that. dude, im almost at the finish line. well, as soon as i crossed, i started to projectile vomit everywhere. like, 4 times repeatedly. all of the water/gatorade for the last 4+ hours. my body was so dehydrated. felt too nauseous to eat
i had a fever the next 2 days. feeling better now, feeling stupid for running. live and learn
out of all 6 of these marathons, the 2 worst experiences have been chicago, one of the easiest/flattest courses in the world
. i am officially retiring from ever running the chicago marathon again!!