I really had a goal time going into this race. I put on a lot of mileage this past winter, doing a marathon training cycle to prepare for this day. My goal was a 1:55 half marathon. This was the email I sent to my sister whom I update with my training and races, as her and I ran Chicago together and we've been keeping up with this crazy running thing since.
Hey Con,
So this past weekend was the WPS ½ marathon. I woke up at
5am, had my pre-race breakfast of egg-white, rye toast w/ almond butter and my
almond milk. Plus 2 – 16oz glasses of water. Did my yoga poses surya namaskara
b aka sun salutation b, did the foam rolling and I got dressed. I was wearing
the merino wool long sleeve shirt that Kev gave me and my Adidas running shorts
and my Brooks cadence’s. It was a cool morning at 7C but I was feeling really
good. My goal time was 1:55. I arrived on site early and got my bag checked,
there were so many people on site it was hard to find anybody but I did run
into some of my dragon boating friends. I went into the first start corral and
was met up with Osty and Tyler. There was no gun, but police siren to get the
marathon going.
Osty and Tyler took off at a 5:10 pace right off the hop, I
kept myself at a 5:30 pace which I think is like a little over 9min/mile
pace…not the fastest but it’ll get me to my goal time. The weather really
started to heat up but like I said that merino wool long sleeve is a god-send,
I really have to thank Kev for sending me that….it kept me warm when it was
cool and it dried up and kept me cool as the heat started to pick up. The
course is all winding down the Assiniboine, Wellington, Wolesley and WestGate
(Portage Ave) and back to Assiniboine park. I was doing really well and kept a
great pace, I was running along with a work friend of mine, Rob Grantham and by
mile 7 I was thinking I was going to nail this. When mile 9 came, which was the
turn going over the Moray bridge and then back to Assiniboine park…things went
bad.
I suddenly had this crazy feeling in my stomach. Like I wanted
to puke and crap at the same time. I was struggling to get back up over the
bridge and my pace was actually slowing the f’ down. Rob kept asking me if I
was ok…my breathing was good, my leg’s weren’t tired, but my stomach…holy crap
(is almost right). Rob asked if he can take off cuz I was slowing him down, and
I felt bad and told him to go for it. This was around mile 10ish…when he left,
I kept pushing myself to go..but my damn stomach was hurting, not in that
stitches sense but like that pukey feeling and nausea. So I stopped…if you look
at my pace chart, you can actually see it drop to zero…I stopped walked for
about 5 mins and then picked it up and started running again. There were a lot
of people cheering us on and there was this one guy with a Boston Marathon
jacket who saw my name on my bib (the WPS puts your name on your Bib number
which is sooo cool) and said, “Ruben, it’s less than a mile to go!” And that’s
when I picked it up again…I told myself to f’ it and just run…if I puke…I puke
running, only if I had to crap my pants would I drop out of the race. I
sprinted the final mile and did it in 5:30/km which I’m happy about. I heard
Sean scream out “Go Ruben!” as I was making the turn to the finish and sprinted
all out beating the 3 people I was chasing and got 2:01:40!!!!!!!!
Dammit…I was happy/sad/mad and resigned all at the same
time. I guess the stress of the run and the HOT sunny day messed me up as after
the race I got home and had a huge headache and had cold sweats throughout the
day.
Anyways Cher and I talked about the race and what could be
the cause of my stomach pains. At the time we thought it could’ve been what I
ate the night before. I had quizno’s sub, which I’ve eaten a lot of times with
no issues before. But then I thought back a bit more and I think it’s the
anti-biotics that I’m on. The past 2 weeks my left molar has been killing me. I
went to the dentist and they found that I had an infection in the nerve. Don’t
know how I got it as they told me I had no cavities and my teeth looked good
asides from me still having my wisdom teeth. So they prescribed Clarithromycin,
an anti-biotic to fight the infection. Plus…I got a root canal and they had to
up the dose of the anti-biotics because when they did the root canal they
discovered the bone in my jaw line holding the tooth is degraded (WTF!!!) and
that the AB’s will help heal everything. I’m still feeling the dull throb of
the root canal but the pain is subsiding. So I looked up what the AB does and
it’s side effects.
“Its most common side effects are gastrointestinal:
diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting, facial swelling. Less common
side effects include extreme irritability, headaches, hallucinations (auditory
and visual), dizziness/motion sickness, rashes, alteration in senses of smell
and taste, including a metallic taste that lasts the entire time one takes it.”
I think this explains why my stomach just turned on me
during the race, as I was putting a ton of stress on my body running and my
immunity system was probably very low so the AB’s had a field day with my
body…it also explains why over the past 2 weeks, my training runs were really
slow, I felt very off and I just wasn’t the same during everyday things and
running. Partly because of the AB’s and the tooth pain…could barely chew my
food…really learned to love soup.
So, it was the big almost...my goal time was staring me in the face. I took 2 days off to be pissed and mad and to feel sorry for myself. After that, I took a week off and stopped running, I'm using the disappointment to fuel my desire and training for the upcoming Manitoba 1/2 marathon this father's day. I learned how running can provide such personal freedom, but can also crush you emotionally especially with all the time, mileage and PAIN it gives you. Make no mistake, if you take marathon training seriously, once you get that cardio base down, it all becomes pain management after that because you start pushing yourself to get a bit faster...always faster.
Obligatory Pace Chart
| 1 | 5:16.0 | 1.00 | 5:16 |
| 2 | 5:13.6 | 1.00 | 5:14 |
| 3 | 5:27.1 | 1.00 | 5:27 |
| 4 | 5:36.3 | 1.00 | 5:36 |
| 5 | 5:23.7 | 1.00 | 5:24 |
| 6 | 5:26.2 | 1.00 | 5:26 |
| 7 | 5:28.1 | 1.00 | 5:28 |
| 8 | 5:17.7 | 1.00 | 5:18 |
| 9 | 5:32.2 | 1.00 | 5:32 |
| 10 | 5:23.6 | 1.00 | 5:24 |
| 11 | 5:32.3 | 1.00 | 5:32 |
| 12 | 5:50.9 | 1.00 | 5:51 |
| 13 | 5:38.6 | 1.00 | 5:39 |
| 14 | 5:56.4 | 1.00 | 5:56 |
| 15 | 5:51.9 | 1.00 | 5:52 |
| 16 | 6:10.9 | 1.00 | 6:11 |
| 17 | 6:19.3 | 1.00 | 6:19 |
| 18 | 6:18.7 | 1.00 | 6:19 |
| 19 | 6:44.9 | 1.00 | 6:45 |
| 20 | 6:20.9 | 1.00 | 6:21 |
| 21 | 5:31.3 | 1.00 | 5:31 |
| 22 | 1:22.0 | 0.29 | 4:39 |
