Hot Dash 10 Mile

The stats:

Race: Hot Dash 10 Mile
Finish time: 1:08:57
Finish place (women): 13th (of 1,060)

I was pretty consistent start to finish – nice to see

The recap:

The true recap starts Tuesday, when I brought Greta into the clinic for a fever and came home with an antibiotic that would treat a double ear infection and pneumonia. Poor little thing!

She needed to be out of school until mid-day Wednesday as it needs to be 24 hours after a fever/first dose of antibiotics. It made me ever-so-appreciative of my job and how flexible it is. Honestly, I think I am the luckiest person in the world: not only do I love what I do, but I can fit it around family things that come up, running, appointments, etc. There are some jobs that say they are “flexible”, but frown on you when you actually use that flexibility. Not at Bethel. Plus the staff is so nice & understanding! Did I mention that I truly love finance and numbers as well? *So lucky* 🙂

I digress!

Thursday I tried to do a short 3×2 minutes at goal race pace (I thought 6:45s sounded good), and although I hit my paces on average, I worked SO HARD for the last one. Uf! My lungs were not strong enough! But, overall I felt fine, just weak lungs.

Thursday also found Nathan down for the count. 102.6+ fevers, aches, cold sweats, all of that nasty flu stuff. I didn’t come within 5 feet of him, banished him to the spare bedroom, and was crazily diligent about disinfecting any surface that he might have touched.

Friday Nathan stayed home from work again, which is very unlike him. He was as sick as I’ve seen him in a very long time. I ran for an hour, nice and easy. My legs were tired from yesterday, but I was still healthy!

Friday night we watched “Room” (which is excellent, I would highly recommend it!), and when going to bed Nathan could tell his fever was increasing. He took his temp: 99.4. He then took mine: 99.6.

What?!? Granted, I didn’t feel amazing… was this the start of whatever monster virus took down my other house mates?

Saturday I woke up, without a temp, and dressed to race! T & M picked me up and we navigated our way through snowy and icy roads in route to Minneapolis.

I had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast (~200 calories) at 6:40, a Generation UCAN Cinnamon Swirl bar at 7:45, and sipped on Cocoa Delite flavored UCAN up until 8:30, which is ~45 minutes before race. I’ve found this timing to work best for me, as I don’t digest quickly and UCAN takes a while to raise blood sugar to peak levels. I didn’t feel the need to take anything during the race, and didn’t even feel hungry until 1:00. Likely that’s because my stomach was a little upset with the race effort, but I’ll note it anyway. Maybe too much before hand — or it’s just a reminder that UCAN fuel lasts and lasts! Total consumed: ~450 calories.

[Random aside, if you’ve been considering trying UCAN but haven’t, read my review here and email me for a discount code!!]

Originally my goal was top 5, as there was some prize money on the line, but my lungs didn’t handle the warm up well. I decided to try to find “comfortably hard” instead – about marathon pace. The other goal was to NOT BURN MY LUNGS. Ever done that? Been sick, went hard, couldn’t stop hacking for days?

I so clipped along, mile after mile, looking at my watch too often to see where I was at. On the one hand, this was a little hard and I really “doing well” – unlike the times you are “doing well” and think, yeah, this hurts, but it’s worth it!. On the other hand, I know I suck at these long/hard sustained efforts so told myself that I either stick with it now or do it by myself later on (gasp! that would be awful!). I furrowed my brow and my feet clomped forward. I vowed to refrain  from watch checking for a while.

Until .23 miles later. Ha. Then I got better. Guess I needed one last look.

I crossed in just under 69 minutes, which I later found out is exactly 6:52s – what I need to break 3 at Grandma’s! I’m really impressed my legs easily found that pace – and excited that I can hold it for 10 miles (while sick!) this early in the training cycle.

I cooled down to 16 miles and then called it quits. My legs and body hurt. I was supposed to do 20, and I hate not doing what was on my plan… but I also knew the effort was already in for the day. That’s what counts.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this race to anyone. The course is great, atmosphere is very fun with a lot of Minnesotan-themed things: hot dish at the end (which I missed! I’m so bummed!), lumberjack costume awards, MN themed photo booth. I’m putting it on next year’s race calendar!

Cool photo op! I also missed this… hmm… Photo courtesy of tcmevents.org

Fast forward to Sunday. Workouts: 8 AM, 4 PM. Nothing much to note. Well, actually, yes there was… read to Monday’s doc visit.

Monday: I ran 10 miles with Craig and did 10 strides and drills afterwards. Woah, Nelly! I need to do more strides. I am one old, slow woman! I thought about Worlds that had just happened – and how FAST those mid-distance folks are. I have some serious “raw speed” ground to regain!

I drove to a neighboring town for a doctor visit for two reasons. Reason 1: I’ve been having bladder issues the last few weeks, getting a little worse with time. As in: if I have the urge to pee during a run, I almost need to bee-line to a bathroom, or the woods, asap or I pee my pants. I peed my pants twice on Sunday. Once during the morning run when I was with someone (luckily right at the end, and I don’t think it was noticeable). Embarrassing. Reason 2: I’m coughing and feel like I’ve become a little worse.

The doc hears my cough focuses on Reason 2. Apparently I have pneumonia and a sinus infection. So, yep, I did the 10 mile race with pneumonia. That’s probably not recommended. Very glad I decided to take it easier.

Reason 1: We are still a little mystified and she wonders if it will go away in time. I don’t have a UTI, and the only thing abnormal about my urine sample was a protein reading of 1+, but that’s just because I had run 2 hours prior. They are going to culture it anyway.

So – there you have it! I’m now on an antibiotic and inhaler. Here’s hoping my bark gets better quickly, I have a lot of work to do! Grandma’s is just 12.5 weeks away!

PS – TNC had a fabulous day! For women, AO killed it in the 10 mile, notching a huge PR in mid-65 and $350! LB *just* missed the 70 minute barrier, which is amazing since she is running on very tired legs right now. SC ran a personal best stand-alone (she is a triathlete) 8k, just a few months after slow healing stress fractures. SK, an out-of-state athlete, ran her first 10k after a break from collegiate running and placed 2nd for women! 2ND!
For men, JL notched a big PR in the 10 mile and found himself racing with “the big dogs” for the first time, finishing 8th in mid-57! It’s always fun when an athlete realizes they’ve become fast… even though they don’t see it/think it!
Think we are set for a really great year!

Other randoms, just cuz:

I love this picture. And yes, this kid has a serious tummy on her!

Breakfast for dinner. If you haven’t made my Long Run Waffles, do so this week! We topped it with fresh fruit: blueberries, strawberries, oranges, apples and banana’s and real maple syrup that we won at the Maple Syrup Run (which will be my ultramarathon this year!). Add 2 hard boiled eggs for protein and you have one nutritious and very easy supper! And one 1 1/2 year old that eats all of it faster than we thought possible!

We picked up a sample of beet juice somewhere. Who knows where. She pointed to it in the fridge so I decided to try it. It’s supposedly very good for you. Well… it tastes like… beets. My advice: don’t buy it unless you love beets. Greta loved it, though, so had a funny looking Joker grin 🙂

She’s saying, “Why are we taking a picture? I want more beet juice!”

Anyone else race this weekend? How did it go?

Any good racing-while-sick stories? I know A.H. has one… 🙂