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Monday, March 16, 2009

Baby G's first race



I've run the 3M half marathon every year I've been in Austin, except 2008 (foot injury). This year, I was hoping for a PR, which would mean I'd have to run faster than my 2006 time. The course was rumored to be a bit short that year but I was feeling good about my running.

Well... good until about 3 weeks before 3M. That's when I started to feel fatigued and worn down. In December I'd been easily nailing my targets at the track, feeling strong and relaxed as I ran. The first track run in January (Sun 1/4) felt slow but I shook it off since I'd been feeling so fatigued that week. By the 2nd Friday of January I was toast. I went to the track twice that day to 'attempt' my workout. I struggled both times and had to bag the workout after only completing a couple of my mile repeats, much slower than expected.

That Friday was the day when I knew for sure that something was going on. I'd been a bit dizzy at fast Friday swim the week before but had attributed that to my fatigue and a hard workout. Being so tired on the run was a different story. For me, it's rare to bag a workout mid way through. Strangely enough I felt the urge to attempt it again later in the day, assuming it would be better. Not only was it worse the 2nd time, I started to feel quite run-down and was still pretty wiped out when I got to dinner.

At that point I faced a bit of panic... what if I am pregnant and just messed something up by going to run harder than I should've? That question was my biggest concern for most of January. I was still putting in some good training and worried that I might be doing too much.

By the time 3M rolled around my goal had shifted a bit. Instead of trying for a PR I decided to just go out and see how the day went. Michael joined me mid-way as part of his long run, training for the marathon. When he joined me I was still feeling pretty good but by mile 10 I didn't have the energy I was hoping for. Instead of picking up the pace as planned I struggled to keep myself from slowing down too much. I ended up finishing 10s slower than my 2007 time, 2 min off my original goal for the day. Don't get me wrong, it was a good run but I had wanted to feel stronger at the end.

I went off to work and that's when another huge bit of anxiety hit. Mid-afternoon I went to the bathroom and saw a horrid sight, reddish-pink discoloration. Let's just say I got a bit freaked out at that point. I thought I'd run too hard or dehydrated myself so much that I'd messed things up, it was a horrible feeling. Thankfully after some google searching I discovered a probable cause, I'd eaten a large amount of raw beets and hummus the day before. As a reference, raw beets will effect the color of your urine. Although I'd eaten them before, this was the first time I'd seen the effect of having too many.

Being pregnant is quite a roller coaster at times. It's unsettling to be so concerned about things happening to me and worried that I might have done something wrong. It was even more difficult to keep a lot of the concerns to myself. Although a couple co-workers knew about my beet story they didn't realize why it had bothered me quite so much until I explained myself a month later.

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