Idaho Wine Run Recap

No PR and what a painful lesson

My goal in starting this race was to set a PR. I was only trying to shave 5 minutes off and felt very confident. My plan was to take advantage of the aide station for water and food, since they were going to have it. Sadly, this was a mistake. Oh, they did have water and food, but it was not enough for me.

I started off great with a great pace (which included running up the big hill in the first mile). I was feeling really good. Sadly, around mile 6, things started to go down hill. I around mile 8, I switch to run 6, walk one. Sadly, this become too much for. I kept trying different run/walk combos, but It was just getting worse. I just had no energy and my stomach was cramping. It was around here that I realize my problem. Although there was water to drink, they only pour the cup about 1/4 full. I needed a lot more water than I was getting. I ended up walking from mile 10 to mile 17, At the 1/2 way point, I sat down and just drank a lot of ice water. I also took more salt tablets. However, after the next aid station (mile 15), I drank a lot and ate grapes. Then I felt worse. I had a headache, dizzy, cramps and a full stomach from all the water I just drank. It was here that I really considered dropping from the race. I was in bad shape. Had the lady in the car come by at that point, I would have dropped from the race. However, she did not find me for another mile, at which point I was feeling much better. I think I finally go enough water and was getting re-hydrated. I even did a little running here. The best part during this part of the run is a bunch of really cool classic cars drove by. It was great to see. There were lots of great cars.

I managed to catch up to Michelle and Ryan Anderson. Michelle was also doing the full (Ryan had paced the 2 hour 1/2 marathon group and afterwords, ran back out the course to find his wife and walk with her). Michelle was in a bad way when I caught up to her. The day, although the temp was only 86, the sun just beat down on us and made it much hotter. It was hard on me and it was hard on Michelle. I walked with them until about mile 18. Here Michelle said she had had enough. So I started off again and Ryan, after talking with his wife, started off with me. (It turned out that Christie pushed Michelle into finishing the race.)

Around mile 20, I started doing more running. My original plan was that after I started walking around mile 18, I was going to push myself into a run/walk rhythm. As it turns out, I was actually able to finish this marathon that way, so that is a good thing.

My final time is not a new PR, in fact it is the opposite, my worse time. But that is ok. I had fun and I learned a valuable lesson that I have to work on (Hydration). 

Time: 6 hrs 51 minutes