Disappointing

Nearly a week later here is my race report:

Woke bright and early noticing that I had a slightly upset stomach (not just nerves but a bit sore feeling). I took my resting heart rate (as I couldn't get back to sleep) and it was 169, higher than the usual 156, but I just put it down to nerves. I hadn't had the colonscopy (as they had postponed it) so I was feeling reasonably confident of a PB - apart from the stomach and the heart rate.

Getting the family ready to go (J was running the 10k too) was a struggle. I had hoped to get to SWR in time for the start of the half to see a friend start but D (my 14 year old non-runner son) was grumpy at having been woken early and didn't want to go. G made him but he dawdled and we set off about 15 minutes later than planned. G was driving my car (the non 4WD) and got it bogged on the front lawn which is very boggy due to all the rain we've had this year. A quick change to the 4WD and we were finally off.

G dropped J and I off and went to find a park with about 10 minutes till race start. This year they had decided to have racing chips so I was madly trying to get J sorted and then myself so that I could make another pit stop at the loos. We were ready about 2 minutes before the gun!

The race started and J took off like a rabbit. I told him to run his own race and not to worry about me. I could see him for about the first two minutes then he disappeared from sight until we passed each other after he turned around.

I felt okay for the first half, I was aware of my stomach feeling uncomfortable, but I was chugging along. I got to the turn around in 27 minutes - If I could just maintain my pace I could beat my previous time of 54.49.

I'm not sure what happened in the last half. I wanted to negative split, but every time that I tried to speed up I just couldn't sustain it. I followed a young woman and we kept changing places, then I followed a tall man and tried to overtake him in the last kilometre but I just didn't have any oomph left. Both of them beat me.

My final time: 55.24 (J's time: 53.21). I missed my PB by 30 seconds but I just couldn't do it.

Some reflections:

• I really didn't train well for this race. Partly because of the wet weather we have had this year and partly because I thought I was having a colonoscopy two days before, up until a week before the race.
  
• Did no speed work and not enough long runs.
• I lost 1 and a 1/2 kilos in the week before the race - with no change to diet ( a bad sign)
• My resting heart rate has consistently been high for over a week now and the weight has stayed off, not sleeping well either. it looks like my remission from Graves Disease might be over which would explain it all. Graves causes a nigh heart rate, muscle weakness and general fatigue.
  

Yesterday I ran for the first time since Sunday and my heart rate shot up into the 170s very rapidly, it even reached a new high of 187 (on an uphill but not pushing hard at all).

Yesterday's run: Distance: 7km, Time: 45.47, average heart rate: 172.
Last time I ran this distance (about 2 weeks ago): Time: 42.44, average heart rate: 160.

I am going to see the doctor in over a week's time (she is very hard to get into at this time of year). In the meantime I will take it easy on my runs and walk when my heart rate gets too high - I did notice yesterday feeling very breathless on the hills and at one stage I could feel my heart rate becoming irregular and a generally heavy feeling in the chest. Not happy but what can I do?