2nd One Down....

Yay!  Deseret News Marathon was so amazing!  I actually got to watch a full orange moon set before the race started and then see a beautiful sunrise a few miles into the race!  The course was beautiful coming through the canyon and of course lots of great runners and support people along the way.  The marathon actually only had around 650 runners, the 10K draws the most runners in this race.  But it was mostly so amazing cause I rocked my time, if I do say so myself... :)  I finished in 4:17!  My fastest finish to date!  Yes the course had a lot of downhills, but these downhills were tough.  Hard on your quads tough.  And of course you don't realize it until you have about 4 miles left and your legs feel like you're pushing bricks through mud.  I hit the half-way point at 2 hours exactly and kept my pace up til mile 21 and I could feel it happen...  Started slowing down and by mile 24 there was the wall.  Sun started getting hot, no shade, and I had the worst side stitch ever!  Could not get rid of it.  If not for those last three miles, slowing down so much, I felt like 4 hours was within my reach...  So frustrating but yet I finished feeling so great that I had a new PR!

So I broke a couple of the cardinal rules of running...

1.  I stayed up way too late.  Here in Utah there is a state holiday that celebrates when Pioneers settled here.  They have huge firework shows and one of them happens in the park right behind my house!  So of course we have to have a party!  Didn't get to bed til almost midnight (left the clean-up to my husband & his family - very kind of them!).  And then had to be up at 2:30 am to get down to the area where they bus the runners up to the start line!  2 1/2 hrs of sleep... not so good.

2.  I tried some new supplements on race day.  They actually really helped but I went into it knowing that it could have affected me in a bad way just as easily.  And they possibly could be why I had such a bad side stitch the last 2 miles.  But the new stuff I used I'm definitely going to practice with during long runs coming up and use in my next race. **I'll share my new finds in an upcoming post!

For the most part, it was a great day.  I came home feeling good, took a shower, went to a movie (Eclipse!) and then wanted to take a little nap but couldn't.  I could not get my legs to relax.  Weirdest thing.  It happened after my last marathon too.  They weren't throbbing, it was almost like they couldn't un-flex.  So any suggestions out there?  I did drink a recovery drink right after the race, within a half hour.  I took some ibuprofen when I got home.  I don't know.  What else should I try next time?

Monday morning here now and quads are still feeling heavy.  Hopefully I'll feel like I can run 2 or 3 slow miles tomorrow...  Not much time for rest, but definitely no long run this week.

What race day rules have you broken?  Any great remedies for side stitches?  How bout for muscles that seem like they won't un-flex post-race?  Got a few more races ahead of me and I need all the help I can get!  Hope your weekend was a great one too!