![\"Dec2-5\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Dec2-5.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRace Issue #1 – Tired, didn’t get good sleep.<\/p>\n
Life has handed me a lot of stress this year, but especially over the last 4 months.\u00a0 And even more especially over the last few weeks.\u00a0 Between late night whiskey stress relief sessions and being kept up late thinking about work and stuff, I was really banking on getting some awesome sleep once I was away from it all.<\/p>\n
Then, our hotel ended up being right next to a bar that had live music until 10pm Friday and Saturday… and we may as well have had front row seats.\u00a0 And the beds weren’t that great.\u00a0 I managed to get probably 8 hours at least between tossing and turning on Friday night (about 12 hours in bed), but I was lucky if I got 3-4 the night of the race with a 3am wakeup call.<\/p>\n
Race Issue #2 – The weather.<\/p>\n
I was perfectly comfortable in my tank and capris by race start.\u00a0 That’s not a good sign at all for the day to come.<\/p>\n
And, weirdly enough, I never felt that hot after the first hour or two, but I could tell my system was being over-taxed when I felt out of breath running 10-11 minute miles (when I was running) on the second half of the course.<\/p>\n
Race Issue #3 – Wasn’t super excited for the race.<\/p>\n While I wanted to treat it like a training run, I should have been jazzed to do a supported long run with thousands of my closest friends.\u00a0 No nervous energy, no “yay its m-day”, I was just like “ok, guess I’m going for a long run now”.<\/p>\n Race Issue #4 – Everything felt off at the get go.<\/p>\n Something felt not-right even at the easy 5 hour pace.\u00a0 I’ve started races too fast, and I don’t think I did this time at all.\u00a0 In fact, I started slower than I expected to want to run.\u00a0 Did not help.\u00a0 Nothing ever got better.\u00a0 I tried to convince myself that I’ve run 20 miles feeling shitty before, but that only got me through about mile 12.<\/p>\n Race Issue #5 – Potty stop tanked my pace 15 seconds per mile.<\/p>\n I knew I needed to use the restroom about mile 1, but not urgently.\u00a0 I waited until mile 8-ish where I thought I could jump right in but there was still a little wait.\u00a0 I was at 11:11s when I stopped, I was at 11:26s when I started again (which is below the pace I needed to be to break 5 hours).<\/p>\n During the race I had convinced myself I needed to go, but if I waited the urge may have gone away.\u00a0 I think I may have subconsciously just wanted a break from running.<\/p>\n Race Issue #6 – Tried to catch back up with a 5 hour pacer or Zliten.<\/p>\n I made the call that I was going to pick up the pace to try and get back with someone.\u00a0 I needed that motivation to keep going.\u00a0 Those were probably my fastest miles of the day, and I think that if I would have taken it a little slower, it might have been better for me.\u00a0 I don’t think it caused the crash bang boom, but going a little slower may have delayed the inevitable.<\/p>\n Race Issue #7 – Never caught back up.<\/p>\n I could see the Galloway 5 hour pacer up in the distance, (maybe a third of a mile), and my pacer was in front of that, and Zliten was in front of that.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, by that time, I was so mentally thrashed I broke.\u00a0 I think there was some unintentionally strong gatorade that made me queasy that didn’t help, but it was more than that.\u00a0 I just let it slip away and in the next 3 miles, the 5:15 and 5:30 pacers just blew by me.\u00a0 I didn’t care.\u00a0 That evoked nothing but a “whatever” response from me.\u00a0 I was done.<\/p>\n Race TRIUMPH #1 -Not giving up<\/p>\n Knew I had 0 chances at a PR, but I didn’t take the exit at 13.1 (which would have gotten me a finish and a medal and credit for the series).\u00a0 I knew I had some more lessons to learn that day so while I constantly regretted it on the course, I made the turn away and kept going (for like, over 3 more hours of torture).<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n