Around the Lake Friday Night Marathon

I did this last night as a training run. The plan was slow and easy. I didn't taper and didn't fuel the way I normally would. It's about 3.2M around a lake and you do 8 laps and a partial before the first. Thankfully the TStorms didn't come but it did rain off and on and it was really humid with a dew point around 70.

The night did not go the way I hoped. Whatever water they had did not agree with my stomach. That's never happened before. I was having severe pains and "issues". I was forced to hit the porta-potty after each lap and burned time in there. Of course this was causing me to be even more dehydrated which meant I had to take even more water which caused even greater pain. They had HEED as well and was taking it too but overall I couldn't keep up and was getting pretty dehydrated.

After the final pit stop I headed out on my final lap and I said screw this, I'm running this final lap as hard as I can. Probably not smart as I ran a bunch of pace miles on last weekends long run. I was just sick of being out there at this point. I was sick of the stomach problems, the pit stops every lap, the dehydration, and the rain was really coming down at this point. I just wanted this thing to be over. So I ran hard as I could.

I finished with a total time of 4:22:25 while losing about 15-20min from the pit stops. Not exactly a fun night but in the end I got it done and can now get back to my training. Of course I still had a 2hr drive back home and it was around midnight when I left. Thanks for reading.

Well I'm sorry it didn't go as well as you planned. the stomach issues don't sound like fun, that is strange that it happen from water.

Now to spin this around the positive thing is that it was a nice long run with a lot of time on your feet. And the purpose of this marathon was to use it as a training running and that is what it ended up being. Like you said you didn't taper, did fuel for it so it was a good stress on your body. You might not think so right now but I'm sure there were be some benefits that come out of last nights event.

Don't let it bring you down move forward and look at it for what it was worth a nice long training run. Good job getting it done.

sorry for the GI problems and overall crummy weather. You did do a good job though, you got a really long run in and you're all the more trained for your goal marathon. I understand the just wanting a marathon to be over feeling and pushing it at the end just to be finished. Your training has been terrific and I know you'll have a great race this fall.

The largest issue in bleeding time was probably the dehydration.

Wow Alex--I'm so impressed you finished the "training run" with all the stomach issues you had, and with the humidity. This one will make you tougher than you already are!!!

Good job on getting it done - under those conditions I'm sure many would not of! I can't believe after all of that and at that time of night you jumped in your car and drove home! I agree that was an impressive time-on-your-feet run.

Just got to reading this sounds dam miserable. But this journey, has its, well journeys.

Stomach issues are just awful and I'm never sure why they happen. I had a similar problem at the Boilermaker, but have not had the issue in quite sometime in training. Glad you were able to tough it out anyway.

Sorry. But a July marathon is supposed to be miserable.

Congratulations to get it done!

Good job finishing up a very tough "training" run Alex. Running a marathon in late July, no matter the hour, isn't going to be easy.
After my miserable time in Boston, I had considered this marathon as an opportunity to get the BQ back, but there was no way I was going to be ready for it. It looks like the conditions weren't optimal anyway.