Rats

Well, for the second year in a row, I have a very "MySpace Like" photo in a bathroom mirror from a cell phone camera following my half marathon. I am actually quite disgusted with myself over my time. It's 15 minutes over what it was just last November. That's more than a minute per mile, but most of that has to do with me slowing down to a crawl after mile 8. For one thing, it's much hotter today than normal for this time of year and that equates to about 25 degrees warmer than when I ran last November. It's crazy that weather can affect you that much, but it does. Second....I had more stomach issues today after taking gel. I slowed down to walk at a water stop and took the gel and water while walking then started to run again immediately. All of a sudden I felt like I ate 12 tacos at Taco Bell and wasked it down with 10 Iron Cities! My stomach felt loose and queasy for the remainder of the race. I'm really disappointed, but it will help me train for my next one. I think I need to take the advice of what I read about not trying to do anything special about food the day before. Just do what you do. In retrospect, I don't do anything special the nigth before a training run of 10 miles so why do anything different for this race? Phooey. Oh well, even though I finish at the back of the pack for my age group....I have to keep telling myself that: A. not too many casual runners even run half marathons, and B. over 16,000 people entered the race and only a little over 13,100 even finished. The far left of the road had golf carts with runners going back to the start all day. I really wish they would include the people that didnt finish in the age placements......but I don't know why I care.