Well yet again it's been a long month since my last post. Since then I've done a marathon, sat around during my off time, and did one heck of a muddy run. Oh, and to top it all off I had a birthday, found myself a little sweet little lady, and finished my senior paper.
First, everyone's probably wondering how the Des Moines Marathon went. Well to be brutally honest it was horrible. Much, no all of the problems I had in the race were due to the fact that there was no food, no gels, on the course as the race directors had promised. For someone like me who plans their long runs around food, to be without food totally depleted all chances I had to run a good race. I ran fine until around mile 15 when my body just started to fail because of a lack of fuel. Luckily around mile 19, my sister handed me a few Clif bars. (I had seen her at mile 11 and complained that there wasn't any food.) After getting some food in me, I was able to walk slightly less than I had already been doing. However the last 10 miles were mostly walking. A few times I would start running and get dizzy because of the lack of food. My finish time was 4:15:17. My half marathon splits dramatically show how my body was breaking down. The first half was 1:45:50; the second half was 2:29:27. A second half that was 45 minutes slower than the first. Safe to say it might be awhile before I do the Des Moines Marathon again.
Since the marathon I really haven't done much running, biking, or anything. I rode the bike once on the rollers and I also went out for an eventful ride the night before my birthday. Hoping to get in a 3 hour ride I went an hour earlier than I did for a 2 hour ride. However I forgot to factor in the time change and got stuck out in the dark. Accepting my defeat I sat at the Kwik Trip in Cresco, 20 miles from Decorah, called around and finally got picked up.
I also haven't been doing much running as of late. The two ones I got in were pretty good ones though. The first was a 'Turkey Trot' 5K that we did for my Wellness class last Wednesday. For not running a whole month before then, I did fairly well coming in 5th behind some cross country guys. This past weekend I ran the Living History Farms XC Race out in Des Moines. It's definitely not a race to go fast. It's all about getting cold, wet, muddy, and having one hell of a time doing it. Now four days later, my shoes are still attempting to dry. I guess that makes sense considering one fell off in some creek mud. If I remain in the Midwest the Living History Farm XC will be an end of the season tradition.
Well I'm gonna get to bed early for once, something that my senior paper hadn't let me do. Tomorrow I'm planning to start training for next season with a morning bike ride. Then I'm heading home for Thanksgiving, some R&R, and, alas, to do some homework. Happy Turkey Day everyone!
