This was just a relaxed run to keep the legs ticking over. Nothing to report.
Friday, 6th December, 2013 – Rest Day
Arrived into Lanzarote around 6pm and spent the evening with family who were already here so kept this as a rest day. Still feeling good for Sunday.
Saturday, 7th December, 2013 – 6.0km Recovery Run (5:23/km)
Went out for a run along the seafront this afternoon. It was pretty breezy out which both helped to cool but also to slow me down a little. Not sure how this will work tomorrow...
Sunday, 8th December, 2013 – 19.3km Lanzarote marathon - DNF
Well that wasn't the way it as supposed to happen! After going for a meal last night where I had Chicken Cordon Bleu I woke this morning with dodgy stomach issues. 2 visits to the toilet pointed towards an eventful race in store! I had to get a taxi from my apt to the race HQ and then get a free bus from there to the start. While waiting around at the start area I had to use the facilities once more and things weren't much improved.
I decided I'd stick to my plan regardless so off we went at 9am. The first 5km were uphill and I had accounted for this with my pacing strategy. By the end of this section I was pretty much on track so it was now meant to flatten out for the next 7km. This never really happened though as it was quite undulating so hard to zone in on a consistent pace. By the 8km marker I was beginning to realise that I simply was not in racing form today so I paused at this water station to take a salt tablet, knowing I'd be especially prone to electrolyte/hydration issues with my stomach the way it was.
The next 5km was an out and back section to the same water station and this was getting to be more and more difficult. My HR was not especially high but the effort felt much worse than MP effort. I stopped at the same station to take more water and let the body relax. By now all thoughts of a fast marathon were out the window and I was more concentrating on a strategy to simply finish the run. Worse case scenario I thought was I 'd do the HM course and at least finish one of the races.
Immediately after the 13km station we turned right towards Costa Teguise and this signalled the start of a 5km downhill section to the town. Things should be easier here and I felt it was a good stage to ease back and recover somewhat. The truth was far different. About 1km later I had to pull in to the side of the road thinking I was going to throw up but after 10 seconds I knew it wasn't gonna happen so I rejoined the race. This was feeling physically very sore now as well as my stomach issues, so it was no surprise to me that when I hot the 15km marker and there was a tiny uphill section which forced me to walk that my race was over. If I was feeling this bad since almost the start and it was only getting worse then there really was no point in continuing. Not that it was a mental choice - My body was simply saying no!
After making that decision I still had to walk the 4.5km back to race HQ and even this was a real struggle. I couldn't even force myself into a slow jog on the remaining downhills. I was very relieved to be back at HQ when I eventually arrived. The heat had added it's tuppence worth to factors by now so all it took was a small sip of coke to set me off. I had to go off and find a discreet spot to heave my guts up! In the mix I could see the remains of last night's dinner which I cursed as the offending party.
Oh well, nothing to be done now. That evening I went home and slept for 16hrs solid. Definitely not right! To be honest, with the hilly/undulating nature of the first 20km and the ever-present wind on the course I doubt I'd have managed to get the time I was hoping for anyways so not quite as disappointing as Rotterdam DNF earlier in the year but a pain in the guts regardless!
Week 48 Summary:
RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 46.6 km
DTY: 3,692.2 km
The following week I was recovering from the food poisoning and effort before just relaxing and enjoying my hols until I returned to Ireland. Decided to take the rest of the week off too and start afresh on the following Monday.
Week 49 Summary:
RTW: 0 from 7 days
DTW: 0.0 km
DTY: 3,692.2 km
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