Recovery

Thank Yous:

Thanks for all the comments on my race report. I'm always overwhelmed by the support that I get from the interwebz. I appreciate you all taking the time to send me a message of shared disappointment, congrats or encouragement. It means a lot.

Thanks to my Coach who was the perfect mix of excited about my PR and understanding of my disappointment of race day. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it many more times, but it's awesome to have a coach that I not only respect, trust, admire, and like ... but that also gets me and what I'm trying to do. She's really the best.

Thanks to The KoB. Of course, he's kinda forced to listen to me drone on and on about me and my training. But, he never acts like it's annoying or makes me feel like I'm a self-centered brat. Thanks for answering my questions and ALWAYS giving me the... "ask your coach," when I ask your opinion about whether or not I should run a race or whatev. Thanks for all the training runs and the encouragement, and the 26.2 miles of holding my water and shotblox, and well... everything, ya know?

Thanks to Jeff and Melissa for not only carting mine and The KoB's asses around all weekend in Birmingham, but also for being supportive and just generally awesome people.

Thanks to Cheryl for being an awesome team-mate on this Run Bitches team we got going on. I'm am not surprised in the least at how you kicked ass at the race. I'm so psyched for you and proud of you!

Thoughts on Puking:

To be honest... I'm kinda over the whole thing. I'm over talking about it. I'm over thinking about it. I'm over people asking me what I think it was... But, to address a couple questions that came up in the comments, I'll get over myself and answer them.

My thoughts? I think I was just nervous as shit. Interestingly enough, I was never really nervous about the pace I had to run (a sign of good training?). But, I was nervous about everything else. At the start, I was nervous about my corns hurting (they didn't really end up bothering me all that much, btw!), at mile 9 I was nervous because I had to pee, at mile 13 I was nervous because I stopped to pee, at mile 14, I was nervous because I had sped up after the pee stop. I mean... I think the basic answer is that I had a nervous stomach. I can't really explain why I KEPT throwing up. But, it's clear that everything I put into my stomach that morning never got digested. GROSS. So... I guess it had to find a way out somehow.

My other possible explanation? Running fast is a whole other ball game for my stomach. Sure, I had practiced my pre-race routine and I had practiced fueling, but I never practiced that and THEN gone out and ran race pace. So, my idea is to maybe test fueling and pre-race food before a Tempo/Marathon Pace run in the future.

It wasn't food poisoning because I was totally fine after I threw up after the finish line and stopped running.

Future Plans:

Of course, I was on marathonguide.com on the way home. But the choices are just not good ones. And it's not a good time of year for me to jet off another weekend to run a redemption race. So, I've signed up for a 5K and a 10K and I'm going to keep running and try to keep my fitness up and run the occasional workout and hop into the occasional race. But, there is no redemption race planned. The KoB and I have plans to run some races later this spring/summer... so, if I can keep my fitness up till then, then maybe I'll let it ride for one of those races. But, I could also just become a lazy bum. TBD.

Recovery:

I only ran 15 miles last week and I enjoyed the break. I've been sleeping in and working a lot and I made this DELICIOUS meal. I spectated a race that the KoB ran. And got all the business of talking about the race to friends, acquaintances, etc over with. I'm not really sad. And all I can say is that I have a fire in my belly. And if nothing else.. I have faith that my legs and head can run the pace I want to run for a marathon right now. My coach and her training plans, they are right on target. And I'm making hella progress and am optimistic about my racing future.