A while back, my friend talked me into running the Kaiser Half Marathon. There was actually a group of us that decided to run that race, so we'd all been fairly diligent about training. I had to skip out on a 10 mile run a couple of weeks before the actual race, but I'd been pretty good up to that point. All in all, I felt like I was doing a halfway decent job of training, so I was shooting for 2 hours or less. And seeing as how that was roughly the midpoint between my San Jose time and my Vegas time, it seemed like a reasonable goal.
On the morning of the race, I got up early (side note: why can't there ever be a race that starts at 10AM or something?) and got all ready to go. I had opted for picking up my race packet that morning, so I actually had to be there even earlier than most people. Given that, I figured I'd skip breakfast at the house and grab a banana or bagel somewhere near the start line. They generally have something for the participants, and it'd save me a little bit of time.
I drove the short distance to the start, but I didn't see anything as far as food went. I actually had to walk back to my car to drop off my wallet, but I didn't see anything along the way. What's more, a lot of the nearby stores were closed, and by this point I didn't have too much time anyway. Great, I had to run 13 miles on an empty stomach.
While this was slightly distressing, I've actually done equally stupid (or stupider, depending on who you ask) things when it comes to running. I was in a similar situation in Vegas for that run, so I ended up running that race with no breakfast. In fact, a friend at work gave me one of those, "hm, I think I've heard this story before ... didn't you learn your lesson the first time?" lines when I was relating my tale (she didn't actually say that last part, but it was strongly implied). I've also run 13.5 miles without any water for a training run. Not my proudest moments, but I will say there is a little bit of peace of mind that comes with knowing that I've survived similar predicaments before.
Anyhow, we started running, and since a couple of us were gunning for a sub-2 hour time, we set a pretty quick pace. They didn't have any signs with the time along the way, but they did have people with stopwatches calling out time every 3 or 4 miles. That meant we really didn't know how fast we were going at the time, but we calculated it afterward: we were running roughly an 8 minute mile. That's actually pretty fast for me, but we were keeping it up without too much trouble for the first 6 miles or so.
And then, skipping out on that training run & the lack of breakfast caught up with me. By about mile 8 or 9, I was definitely feeling it. In fact, my running partner had taken off ahead of me. I think I hit the wall. Well, I figured I'd just keep running for as long as I could go. If I absolutely had to, I'd walk, but only as a last resort.
So, I shuffled/ran slowly for another 2 or 3 miles. I have to admit, it was discouraging to see people I'd passed catch up & pass me. At that point, though, I was concentrating far more on finishing. See, by this point, I was at about mile 10, and I pretty much told myself I was running the rest of the race no matter what. Call it pride, call it determination, call it stupidity - I wasn't walking.
And run I did. Again, I wasn't breaking any speed records, but I ran the whole thing (minus anytime I stopped to get water; I can't run & drink at the same time without choking or spilling most of it). My finish time (gun time) was something like 2 hours and 4 minutes or something like that. That was roughly my Vegas time, but I figured I'd run slightly better than that because we weren't at the front.
When I looked it up a little later, it turns out my chip time was actually 2 hours and 3 seconds. 3 measly seconds. I missed my mark by 3 effin' seconds. I'm not saying it would've been a given, but I think a banana = 3 seconds of energy. Heck, a cracker probably would've been enough to get me under 2 hours. Organizers of this race, I have a suggestion for next year's run ... *grumble*
So, as with most of these postings, the morals of the story: 1. Don't skip breakfast the morning of a long run, it's not the greatest idea (in fact, the next time I do so, you're allowed to smack me), 2. don't underestimate the motivating power of pride, and 3. I'm *still* a horrible pace setter.
On the morning of the race, I got up early (side note: why can't there ever be a race that starts at 10AM or something?) and got all ready to go. I had opted for picking up my race packet that morning, so I actually had to be there even earlier than most people. Given that, I figured I'd skip breakfast at the house and grab a banana or bagel somewhere near the start line. They generally have something for the participants, and it'd save me a little bit of time.
I drove the short distance to the start, but I didn't see anything as far as food went. I actually had to walk back to my car to drop off my wallet, but I didn't see anything along the way. What's more, a lot of the nearby stores were closed, and by this point I didn't have too much time anyway. Great, I had to run 13 miles on an empty stomach.
While this was slightly distressing, I've actually done equally stupid (or stupider, depending on who you ask) things when it comes to running. I was in a similar situation in Vegas for that run, so I ended up running that race with no breakfast. In fact, a friend at work gave me one of those, "hm, I think I've heard this story before ... didn't you learn your lesson the first time?" lines when I was relating my tale (she didn't actually say that last part, but it was strongly implied). I've also run 13.5 miles without any water for a training run. Not my proudest moments, but I will say there is a little bit of peace of mind that comes with knowing that I've survived similar predicaments before.
Anyhow, we started running, and since a couple of us were gunning for a sub-2 hour time, we set a pretty quick pace. They didn't have any signs with the time along the way, but they did have people with stopwatches calling out time every 3 or 4 miles. That meant we really didn't know how fast we were going at the time, but we calculated it afterward: we were running roughly an 8 minute mile. That's actually pretty fast for me, but we were keeping it up without too much trouble for the first 6 miles or so.
And then, skipping out on that training run & the lack of breakfast caught up with me. By about mile 8 or 9, I was definitely feeling it. In fact, my running partner had taken off ahead of me. I think I hit the wall. Well, I figured I'd just keep running for as long as I could go. If I absolutely had to, I'd walk, but only as a last resort.
So, I shuffled/ran slowly for another 2 or 3 miles. I have to admit, it was discouraging to see people I'd passed catch up & pass me. At that point, though, I was concentrating far more on finishing. See, by this point, I was at about mile 10, and I pretty much told myself I was running the rest of the race no matter what. Call it pride, call it determination, call it stupidity - I wasn't walking.
And run I did. Again, I wasn't breaking any speed records, but I ran the whole thing (minus anytime I stopped to get water; I can't run & drink at the same time without choking or spilling most of it). My finish time (gun time) was something like 2 hours and 4 minutes or something like that. That was roughly my Vegas time, but I figured I'd run slightly better than that because we weren't at the front.
When I looked it up a little later, it turns out my chip time was actually 2 hours and 3 seconds. 3 measly seconds. I missed my mark by 3 effin' seconds. I'm not saying it would've been a given, but I think a banana = 3 seconds of energy. Heck, a cracker probably would've been enough to get me under 2 hours. Organizers of this race, I have a suggestion for next year's run ... *grumble*
So, as with most of these postings, the morals of the story: 1. Don't skip breakfast the morning of a long run, it's not the greatest idea (in fact, the next time I do so, you're allowed to smack me), 2. don't underestimate the motivating power of pride, and 3. I'm *still* a horrible pace setter.
Maybe we can start a series of starvation runs.
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