When the world went into lockdown last March 2020, I stopped writing anything in my blog. It would have probably been therapeutic to use this outlet but I honestly couldn't get up the motivation to do anything else 'online' with the rest of my everyday life unfolding on a screen at the time. As I was behind in recapping races when the pandemic started, I still have races on the road to 40 in 40 before 40 that need a replay. So I'm kicking it back to late 2019 to cover these off [Marathons 5 (Thailand) & 6 (India)] - and make space to recap upcoming races that seem to actually be sticking on the calendar again. (Fingers crossed!) Marathon 5/40: Thailand Bangkok Marathon Sunday Nov 17, 2019 12AM (yes... it started at midnight) 2019 feels like a different life at this point. When I arrived in Bangkok to take on my 5th marathon of this self-imposed challenge, I had been traveling for 9 weeks straight, having only been back in Tokyo 2x for two days each. In addition to the back to back BQ marathons I ran in late Sept and early Oct in Germany and Belgium, I had been to Singapore, across Europe and to the US twice for recruiting trips. I had also popped down to the Bahamas for a cruise with my best friend (so funny to think I was on a cruise mere weeks before the pandemic started!) and had met Erik in Hong Kong for a friends wedding. I mostly loved the travel but I wouldn't say it brought me to this particular marathon weekend feeling fresh. Erik and I also tacked on a few extra days to this trip for some time at a couple Phuket resorts. (We "won" a silent auction package at a charity event and cashed in!) We arrived in Bangkok early afternoon of Sat Nov 16th, 9 hours before the midnight race start. It was 91F degrees (33C), in the shade, when we landed and humidity immediately soaked our clothes. We went straight to the expo and I picked up my bib on the way to our hotel. I kicked back the rest of the time, hydrated, took a short nap and just generally tried to figure out a strategy for a race that starts in the middle of the night in suffocating conditions. I landed on: take it out slow, remember your fuel, walk if you need to. In the end, I was 1/3 on executing this strategy. I walked a LOT because I needed to. It was miserable. In the 15 lifetime marathons I had run up to that point, it was my 3rd slowest (after my first (when I was incredibly injured) and the one I ran/walked for charity...) and by far the worst I've ever felt during / after a race. You may argue that I can't possibly remember the details of these miles nearly two years later. And you're probably right. But I also couldn't remember the details two hours or days after because I nearly blacked out - several times. So here is the breakdown as I remember it and I can say: it was bad enough that I actually did learn from this! The course... Was so gross. Approximately 80% of the course was on a raised highway that runs through the city. No spectators. No trees. And, most detrimental to my purposes on this particular night: very few porta pottys, especially in the first 10 miles. First 10 miles I had eaten my typical PB/banana on toast before the race but given that this was at 10PM my body wasn't understanding what it should do. I went to the bathroom for the last time about 10 min before the start and I could tell this wasn't quite sufficient. But the music was pumping and the gun went off and I settled into an 8:15 mm pace (which was absolutely too fast but of course felt good to start) for the first 5km. At that point I needed a toilet and there were none to be found. We'd already climbed up to the raised highway and there was nowhere to pop off the course for a squat (which I wouldn't have loved to do anyway but I was starting to really hurt). For the next 5km I picked up the pace slightly hoping to get to a bathroom quicker. 8:07 min miles. By mile 7 I was desperate and it took until MILE 10 to have access to a bathroom. I had to jump the median and use the toilet intended to those at the turnaround point another 3 miles later. Note that mile 10 still only took me 10:29 and it included that bathroom stop. I have never been more happy to see a toilet. Through the 16th mile Mile 11 was bliss. Nothing like a near miss to make you feel light and fast. I went back to an 8:30 pace but was starting to slow with each passing mile. By this point, I hadn't taken in enough fuel as I'd been so desperately trying not to lose things out the other end. And I could feel the lack of oxygen in my legs having run too fast for the humidity soaked air while I was trying to get to a bathroom. It felt like a slow fade and mile 15 took me 10:29 and I couldn't quite understand how my legs were going to keep moving forward. I called Erik at mile 16 as darkness started to spot my vision. I told him things were going to be slow going and I wasn't feeling well at all. He told me it was okay - to take all the time I need. I stumbled through that mile in 14:30 and a guy, seeing me veer into the cement wall along the highway slowed, stopped, and became my guide through this particular hell hole for the next 10 miles. Walk, 'run', pour water on your head This guy was seriously the best. He walked with me. Coaxed me to slowly run again, 1/2 - 1km at a time, always letting me walk at the next water stop. He dumped water on my head and pushed fluids - reminding me to take electrolytes I had with me. It was a huge dark blur lasting nearly 2 hours. I ran that last mile in 9:19 pace, the fastest my legs would carry me - so excited for it to be over. Erik was there and I was handed off from the guy who I will always be grateful to for taking care of me over those miserable miles and will stand as a reminder that there are very good, selfless people in the world on the days that I seem to forget it. I finished in 4:27:59, just before 4:30AM. Aftermath It took my body 12 hours to stop cramping and about 24 hours for my kidneys to start functioning normally. The day was full of resting and eating and trying to piece together what had just happened. The good news about blowing up so badly and walking half a marathon is that the typical muscle recovery is quite expedited. 50 hours after I finished the race I was running again along the coast in Phuket and putting the black fog of the race further behind me with every step. The Thailand vacation part of the trip was much more enjoyable. We stayed in two different resorts for two days each to experience different parts of Phuket. We rented a scooter, took a little boat cruise, ran beautiful miles, had massages, and ate fresh, cheap food. It was a very necessary reset from months of hectic travel. Marathon 6/40: India Bangalore Midnight Marathon Saturday Dec 7th, 2019 (it actually started at 10:30PM) TBH, I wasn't looking forward to running in India. This is mostly because I wasn't really looking forward to going back to India, period. My team at work had realigned and instead of reporting into the central US leadership team, I was now part of the regional "APAC" team and reported into a new boss in India. She wanted an offsite with her new team which meant two weeks after returning from my Thailand trip, I was off to Bangalore, India. Stars aligned and there happened to be a marathon in the city I needed to travel to for work, one day before our meetings started. I took a redeye flight out of Tokyo on Friday night that included a long layover in KL followed by an early afternoon arrival Saturday in Bangalore. Not the best 'pre-race' sleep but I was determined to check India off this country race list and didn't want to spend additional time there to make it happen. I was tired from the weeks of travel Sep - Nov and I was also not feeling well in general leading up to this trip. (More on that in a different post, as I determined why I felt so bad, later on.) I worried about my safety as I was preparing for this race - especially since it was at night and I would be managing the logistics to/from by myself. The race was on the other side of the city from where our office (and hotel I would stay in for the work week) was located which would be an hour drive if there was no traffic (there is always traffic). Wanting to avoid that trek in a taxi in the middle of the night alone, I booked a hotel around the corner from the race start / finish (looped course) so I could walk. I don't think it was the safest option of hotels in the area but I was staying there for <24 hours and while there were several small red flags (my 3rd floor room had balcony doors that didn't latch properly, the 'safe' was less than secure, the hotel had very few guests) it was well lit and had friendly staff so I settled in the best I could. I walked over to the race area to pick up my bib and learned that I did not read the scale of the course map correctly. I thought it was one big loop - but the course was actually a small ~5km loop... and we had to run it 8 TIMES! I confirmed that headphones were allowed (thank goodness) and made a quick decision that I would listen to podcasts the whole race to keep myself from going crazy. (First time I've ever listened to anything during a race and don't plan to do it again unless desperate times present themselves again!) I went back to my hotel and found a weird little restaurant next door that just happened to serve a couple pasta dishes. Figured my fueling was so bad in Bangkok, it was worth a try to prepare in a different way this time around. I ate this approximately 5 hours before the race started. I took a nap for a couple hours, got up around 9PM. Drank some electrolyte and prepped a bottle to bring with me (I was not trusting water stops). I ate a Pickybar and walked over to the start (about 5 min walk). The race As I mentioned, I did learn from my experience running Bangkok. And while Bangalore was less humid and wasn't quite as crazy of a start time (1030pm vs midnight, ha!), I vowed to keep it slow and just let my body move at the pace it wanted. Main goal was to feel good at the end. It worked. I felt great the whole time. Miles fluctuated between my slowest at mile 5 (8:58) to some of my faster miles at 17, 23 and 26 (8:17, :15, :18). There was one climb on the course so after the 8th loop, it totaled just over 500ft of elevation. I took my Gu as planned (400 calories throughout the course) and drank my 20oz electrolyte consistently. No emergency bathroom stops. I discovered that this race was part of a running festival, the looped course was designed for easy relay exchanges, and the majority of the runners were part of these relays. So it was a pretty desolate field after 2AM and the beat up streets were empty. Thankfully though, they were lit up with flood lights and I didn't need to worry. It was almost peaceful. I cruised into the finish with the last .3 at a 7:06 pace for an average of 8:31 mm and a finish time of 3:44:21. Finish line Results were never posted to a site (that I can find) so I don't actually know how many people were in the field. I think I was the 5th woman? But when I finished there were actually very few women that seemed to have run. I finished at 2:15AM and was told that the finisher medals were "delayed" in transit so I was waiting around with others to get that medal and get out of there. While I waited, I was stopped by a local news agency and interviewed for TV! I also don't know how to find if this ever aired but it was fun to talk about my 40 in 40 before 40 challenge. Medals finally came and it was a mad dash to truck to get one thrown at me. I was definitely jet lagged + tired from the race and the middle of the night situation because I just realized the medal I was given was for the HALF marathon. Oh well. It's done - Strava shows it happened! A few of the race volunteers seemed concerned I was walking off the course alone at nearly 3AM but I assured them I would be okay getting to my hotel. The course really did run right past the hotel and it was still lit up. I showered, slept a few hours, took in a somewhat gross free breakfast and ordered a taxi to take me to the hotel on the other side of the city for work. It was nice starting my day with 20K+ steps as the rest of the day was very lazy! The hotel for work (Sheraton) was luxurious and I had a huge soaking tub I took advantage of immediately. The rest of the week I was still feeling unwell and the stress of work presentations didn't help. I took it easy - only running on a treadmill one day later in the week. Food was fantastic the rest of the week though and it was wonderful to connect with some of my co-workers/friends that lived in other parts of the world. Looking back, now knowing COVID was looming weeks after this trip, I'm so grateful I was able to toe the line and finish running 6 marathons in 2019.
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AuthorA Midwest girl gone global. I choose happiness everyday: I run, eat well, travel, and love completely. Archives
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