#6 - Bad Influence (maybe not) and a First on PYP 50k

Was sick and not feeling very good the entire week prior to the race with the kids sick at home. I was even contemplating not racing and or just going up and doing 2 or maybe 3 loops, yeah right. You know, you would never think that the good and successful runners on the circuit could be such a bad influence, but they are. They make you run the entire race! and go faster than you want to as well!

Its not like I broke any records on the race, roughly 5:50 I think but not sure because I forgot to stop my watch at the finish line due to me throwing-up right after I crossed the line (more on this later). But having everyone running around you makes you want to keep going, even though I really didn't want to. However the worst loop by far was #3, which seems strange because you would think #4 would be it. I started to feel much better after the first 5min of the 4th loop and I kept a constant, albeit slow pace up until the "incident".

At some point on loop #3 I knew I was drinking too much water since I usually take a sip every 10-15min, I was doing double that. For some reason I didn't put 2 and 2 together and I did not double up on my salt/electrolyte intake. Not sure if it was the sickness or what but I needed electrolytes and I was just doing water, it wasn’t hot either. It was weird that I felt a surge of energy on loop #4 for basically 90% of the loop and when I got to the last hill (or maybe second to last) just 2km from the finish I could feel the water in stomach and felt really bad and all of the sudden and I just threw-up big time for about a minute (it was just water and the 2 pieces of orange I had just eaten) but it was a projectile. I felt better almost immediately but then I started to feel my legs cramping, good thing I only had 2km to go so I just jogged lightly to the finish line only to throw-up yet again after I crossed the finish line.

In any case, I felt better after with no cramping and I really wasn't in pain for the rest of the weekend so all in all it was a successful long run with some minor issues and it was good to know that I made it through 50k with a cold and not feeling close to 100%. It was also important to have the experience of throwing-up during race and being able to continue.

I’m having some thoughts on the Sulphur 100m just for the sake of staying on my feet for a long period of time. I would purposely walk a lot of it, at least 50% if not more. I could see myself walking a loop in 3:30-4hr so 14-16hrs for 80k and run/jog the other 80k in 10-12hrs. Just a thought for now and I will noodle on it for a couple of weeks.