Post Race Thoughts

It’s been a while since I’ve talked to my blog. I’ve been busy with other stuff in my life, and not really feeling very well.

On the way home from the Duke race, I was coughing. I’ve had a dry cough and congestion in my chest off an on since August, so I went to the doctor. He said I have some very mild bronchitis and gave me a Rx for antibiotics. That didn’t really help. I was really wiped out for about a week after the race. I’m feeling better now fatigue-wise, but still have the congestion in my chest.

I don’t blame my poor run split at Duke on my congestion problems. I had some really good training runs before the race, with this all going on, so I should have been able to run better on race day. Here are some reasons that I’ve come up with for my poor run, in order of what I think had most impact…

• I misjudged the fatigue slowness factor. I thought if I could train for 6 miles at race pace in the middle of a really long run, I would be able to do the run at that same pace. If I was just doing a 1/2 marathon, I probably could have made that pace. But not after a 56 mile bike. I think you have to add a minute to your training pace to get your long course triathlon run pace.
• Negativism. The first half of my run actually wasn’t too far off pace. I did it in 1:07. Then I let negative feelings get me down. I think that had a huge impact on slowing me down. I will not make that mistake again. I will keep positive thoughts in my head during races to lift me up.
• I may have gotten low on electrolytes. I switched to Hammer gel during the run because that is what was offered at the aide stations. That was my plan all along, and I had even trained with Hammer gels on a 3 hour run.? But the other day, I compared the sodium and potassium content of Accel Gel, Gu and Hammer. Hammer has very little. Accel Gel has the most.
• I probably swam too hard. It didn’t feel like it at the time, but later that day I had very sore core muscles (see below pain report).

Pain during and after the race:

I thought I’d share what kind of pain I experienced for this race.

During the race, I was completely fine until about the last hour. My feet started to hurt. Even tho they scrape the gravel off the run course, there’s still alot of stones embedded into the dirt that really wear on your feet! My lower back really ached as well. Probably due to bad posture on the run as I fatigued.

That evening after the race, my core muscles were killing me. Very sore muscles along the sides of my torso from my armpits to hips were extremely sore. I must have been using my core properly in my swimming (yeah!), tho in retrospect, probably swam too hard. I have no regrets about that swim, tho, because it was truly my favorite part of the day.

The next day my legs were sore. Particularly my right leg, sort of to the right and behind the knee.? My knees also hurt, under the kneecap, which is the bad kind of knee pain. I did alot of hill running prior to this race, which is hard on the knees. I am taking it easy now to let them heal.

I had some awful chaffing on my chest where I had stuffed the Gel packets into my tri-top.? ? Not a good plan to keep Gel packs against your skin for 3+ hours.? Luckily, I didn’t notice the pain until I got home and took a shower – then it stung like hell!
Overall, the pain was not nearly as bad as after doing the 2006 Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon. I was limping around from sore leg muscles for a week after that race.

Oh, one more note – I was not terribly tired after this race. This makes me think I didn’t go hard enough somewhere along the way. If I’m exhausted after a race, then I know I gave it my all.