Girl All The Bad Guys Want

2010 CARLSBAD HALF MARATHON RACE REPORT

RACE DAY EVE

Michael and I drove up to Carlsbad and picked up our race numbers. It was nice to have a clear day, especially after all that rain all week. With all the people milling around the venue, I was really happy to find one of my running blogger friends! Look! It's Penny!

Me and Penny near the Labrador Rescuers, the charity she raised money for.

After retrieving our race numbers, Michael and I 'trolled the venue for socks, then went to PF Chang's for lunch. Nothing more report on, just another pre-race day, and followed our usual protocol, with nothing out of the ordinary.

RACE DAY

Michael and I arrived at the crack of dark to the race venue, at the Carlsbad Mall. We couldn't figure out why there was no traffic, but it was only due to the fact that we arrived extra early (about 5:30 AM). The mall was open so we used their restrooms. When we first went inside there were no lines, in fact, we were just about the only ones in there, but that soon changed with in the rise of the sun and more people arrived. Yes, there were port-o-potties, but it was much nicer inside the mall, and worth the wait once the lines became long. Michael and I just waited in the car until the sun came up, did a second round at the restroom (in line) then went to the starting corrals, and found a few of our friends.

Michelle and Jane huddling to keep warm! It was about 48 degrees at the start.

Say cheese!

Wave 4 corral

Then we were off. Everything was going OK. I had some brand new tunes on my iPod that I wanted to try out, and were songs I wouldn't normally select for myself, yet were refreshing.* I wasn't pushing hard, but had a decent, consistent pace that would have lead me to a 2:15 half marathon finish.

With all the biblical rain we had last week, it was nice to have a crystal, clear, crisp day for the race. It was absolutely GORGEOUS running along the beach.

I'm somewhere around mile 4 or 5. I took my camera out to get a shot of the beach, but a really nice lady said she'd take my picture. Still feeling good here.

I ran with many track club friends for a while, here and there. It's such a boost to see familiar faces. I was doing well until I hit mile 10, and then everything just sort of fell apart. I had been good about taking water from the volunteers along the route, and I had my own electrolytes, I never pushed myself hard, BUT... I suddenly felt like I wanted to throw-up. I kept taking sips of my electrolytes and had water at every hydration table AND kept running, however, I felt my 2:15 slipping away, especially when the the 2:20 pacer went past me. No problem. I just wanted to finish running, not walking, so I did, but it wasn't pretty. Those last 3.1 miles were the longest ever.

I ran through the finish line, and they even said my name over the PA system asI went through, but most of us had our names on the front of our race numbers. FYI, the song on my iPod when I ran through was "Girl All The Bad Guys Want."

The medal - One of the prettiest finisher's medals I now own!

I must have looked like death warmed over because a volunteer rushed up to me and asked me if I was OK, handed me a bottled water and escorted me to the medical tent. I sat there for a while as they asked me a few questions about my general health and symptoms. I mentioned something about feeling like I wanted to pass out and throw-up, so they helped me to a cot, where I immediately had the shakes, they gave me a mylar blanket, and also gave me some sweet tea to sip on.

While I was laying there, shaking, there was a film crew filming me and another lady being treated. I'm not sure what they were filming for, perhaps the Tri-City Medical Center, sponsors of the event, but it felt weird knowing they were filming us and we were NOT at our best.

The shakes were an odd thing. The only other time I've had the shakes like that was after giving birth. The nausea passed a little, and a half hour later Michael found me and I got up to walk around the finish area, but I wasn't in a state for socialization, which was a bummer because that's a part of the post-race I love. I even remembered my camera this time, but I just didn't have it in me to do much of anything. I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and zone out.

We found a place to sit near a band, then Michael went to the car to get my jacket. I just kept scoping out places to hurl if I needed to -- but never did. Everyone kept asking me where I got the mylar blanket, since they really weren't giving them out to everyone. In the mean time, Doreen from the track club kept me company and to make sure I was ok. She was awesome. Eventually we were joined by her daughter and husband Mitch.

Soon Michael returned with my jacket, we said our good-byes and went back to the car intending to leave right then. The traffic leaving was so bad that we barely made it from where we were parked to the next lane of parked cars. We decided to just stay in the car in the parking lot and wait. I slept in the back seat while Michael ate a sandwich. I'm not sure of the time frame, but I'm guessing it was at least a half hour waiting in the car before it looked like we could leave. On the way home the coughing began and some asthma kicked in.

Once we made it home, the conundrum was "do I ice because that's what you're supposed to do after a long run, or do I take a hot shower because I feel like crap and am about to cough up a lung?" Screw the ice.

Hot shower
Jammies
Hot tea and other liquids
Tylenol
Bed

Michael picked up some Chinese food and brought me some egg flower soup. I just stayed in bed, watched a Leonardo DiCaprio movie on TNT and zoned out.

This morning I have a bad cold. It's pretty much the same cold that kept the kid out of school for three days last week. It's the usual, low fever, runny nose, congested chest, achy every thing cold. No wonder I tanked at mile 10. I wasn't feeling bad prior to the race, just SOME lingering cold symptoms. I've run a marathon with a cold before, and did OK. I guess this cold was more over the top, I suppose. I can't pin-point what caused the major wall hitting at mile 10 (other than the cold decided to manifest itself then) since I did nothing out of the ordinary. It is what it is, and that's OK.

I'm feeling OK about the race because I surpassed my Las Vegas half marathon time, and that was my goal for this race. Not a PR, but it's all good.

Official Results:
Overall: 4491 out of 7105
Women: 2394 out of 4394
F 50-54: 95 out of 251
Age/Grade: 53.80% Place: 2512
Finish: 2:22:30 Pace: 10:53
Tag Time: 2:22:30
Gun Time: 2:31:37

Michael PRed with a 2:40:32!

Wednesday's Song:
The Stairs - INXS - Barbie2be

PEACE

*I checked out the celebrity playlist section on iTunes, and used Christian Siriano's Playlist (sans the Maraiah Cary song he had), along with songs from my own past playlists.