Front Runners Pride Run

This morning was a big morning in our house (or apartment, if you want to be all technical). It was Drew's first NYRR race and my last NYRR race in order to qualify for the NYC Marathon in 2011! Again, to be technical, I still need to volunteer for a race, but I'm all signed up to volunteer and I'll be ready to qualify for the marathon by the middle of next month!

Drew and I woke up around 7, ate something and then walked to the Park to get ready for the race. It was definitely nice and warm by the time the race started at 9. The NYRR website says that it was 73 degrees, but with 71% humidity, it felt warmer than that. Drew and I both wore our really awesome new technical t-shirts that we got from doing the race. I was a little bit bummed when I got to the race and realized that even though I really liked my new shirt, they must have run out of women's shirts because I was definitely wearing a men's and it was a little wider than I would have liked.

After waiting for a bit through some talking and National Anthem singing, we were on our way on our 5 mile run around the Park. Because of the heat, it seemed like there were more water stations than usual and Drew and I stopped at the first two water stations and had a couple of sips of water. I'm not sure whether or not that helped or hurt me, because after that second cup of water, I felt really sick.

My stomach just started churning and it was not good. Shortly after that I just looked at Drew and said, "I feel like I need to throw up." Mainly, that meant that I had already been swallowing some back (sorry, gross, I know, but this is a workout blog and gross stuff happens). He kept telling me I should just throw up, but I couldn't make myself do it.

After my stomach started revolting, I decided not to drink any more water (although who knows if that made it better or worse?). I was so perplexed by what was going on since I didn't do anything differently this morning than I had any other morning before a race. Also, with my stomach in knots, I knew that I couldn't make it the whole way running. I ended up having to do a run/walk mixture instead.

I was really bummed out by that because I wanted to finish up these NYRR races on a good note and not with a bad taste in my mouth (literally!). Even though we ended up walking a fair amount, we still finished with a decent time, I think. I felt bad for Drew because he now has a slow pace for NYRR races, but I know if he does some more, he'll go back to something speedy!

My favorite part of the race was that despite me feeling sick and having to walk and telling Drew to go ahead and run his own race, he stuck with me the whole time, which was really nice. I was so glad to have such a strong support system with me, especially while feeling under the weather!

After the race, we grabbed some Gatorade and popsicles from the volunteers and headed to Whole Foods to get some breakfast supplies. Once I stopped running, I felt a whole lot better and was back to normal by the time we left the store. I'm guessing that it was just a fluke, as I haven't felt like that the other times I've been out in the heat and humidity recently.

Here are the official results. As we were reaching the finish line, we ended up sprinting to the finish. I'm hoping that there are some good pictures of us reaching the finish line! (Poor Drew, he ended up finishing a second after me!).



Running
Time: 52:30
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 10:30/mile
Calories: 547
Maximum HR: 198 (93%)
Average HR: 179 (84%)