It was tough, oh it was tough. And yet, I was almost expecting it to be tougher than that, based on what I had been reading on various forums and talking to various people. I guess my training had a lot to do with it. And this is not to say that I'm looking down on people who struggle, quite the opposite, I truly admire them for sticking to it. I was also so very lucky to have a pacer with me. She kept me in check, reassured me and didn't say "what? another break?" when I wanted to walk. She would say ok, let's take one. I took a lot of breaks from 35 to 39k. A lot... but to my credit, I was running fast when I did run :)
My garmin also died towards the end, just like that poor 32 yr old runner who collapsed and later died of heart failure. Except that my watch could be revived by just plugging it in, the man is leaving behind a family, maybe a child, a partner, stuff. He doesn't have a chance like my watch did. It really makes you realize just how precarious some of us are. If you have a heart condition and you don't know about it (quite possible I guess), you really take a chance by running a race in such conditions. But nobody can blame us for trying. It's what we do... :)
I will write more about my race, the technical stuff and all that... but right now I wanted to get my first emotions out.
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| I. Am. A. Marathoner |
:-)
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