Train-n-Tri: Surf City 2014.....It was Sick!

Another name for this blog post could have been - Shit Happens.

Or in my case.....the run goes on..

And that again, could be a play on words.

Before I start my recount of the Surf City Half Marathon 2014, I need to publicly apologize to a person I know, but will not name in order not to cause her further embarrassment, and say, NOW I totally get how you could poo your pants and keep moving forward until you cross the finish line!

Sorry I gave you coupons for

these....

Okay, that's my apology.

The Surf City day started out early.

Pretty much before the sun was up. We left my house at 5 a.m. and parked the car within the hour. Then we sat there and stayed warm because our corral didn't start until around 8 a.m. We enjoyed the sunrise and watching people walk to the starting line 1.8 miles away. We figured they must be running the marathon.

The sunrise at Huntington Beach was gorgeous!

Orietta and me

The sun was out, but it was still chilly.

Me, Marc and Orietta.

Orietta was my guy's replacement runner.

Here's my blog that explains why I was running this race to begin with and why my guy was not when it was his idea.

http://train-n-tri.blogspot.com/2014/02/surf-city.html

We found our corral and waited...

and waited...

okay, that pic didn't turn out.

and waited.....

and finally, the horn went off.

And we were running. Marc stayed with Orietta and I for a while and then he dropped off.

Orietta was hanging back with me and we were running about 10:30 a mile. I could tell it was hard for her to have so many people passing by her. She is used to being the passer, not the passee.

I would have tried to go faster for her sake, but I just wasn't feeling it. So, after holding her back for five miles, I sent her on.

I kept a pretty steady 10:41 mile to about mile 10 when I felt a little whoozie.

Yikes. The last time I felt this way during a run was during the half marathon run at the end of Vineman 70.3 when I ended up having food poisoning so badly that I ended up in the hospital.

http://train-n-tri.blogspot.com/2013/07/vineman-703-good-bad-and-ugly.html

My blog about Vineman.

Nah, that wouldn't happen two times to me...would it?

At about 10 1/2 miles, I had a couple of stomach cramps and thought maybe I should stop by the next porta-potty.

I held on the best I could, but my body had other plans.

And by the time the porta-potty was in view, I knew it was too late.

If I stopped, it was going to take me quite a while inside that little box to clean up....and every second inside that box was going to add onto my finish line time.

Since now I only had about 2 miles to go, I figured that would be about 22 minutes.

Sorry if this grosses you out, but I figured it would be better to run with a little poo in my pants and wait until AFTER I got across the finish line to change into my clean clothes, then to stop and try to clean up, THEN run some more to get over the finish line and THEN change again.

My reasoning seemed to make sense to me.

So I ran on and enjoyed the scenery.

There was a pod of dolphins out in the ocean.

I concentrated on them for a while.

Then I found myself running behind two women that were about my size and were running about my speed. I decided that I would just draft off of them all the way to the finish line.

I just kept following their shoes. When they went to the left around someone, so did I. When they went to the right around some, so did I. Maybe they were trying to shake me. I was hoping I wasn't putting off an odor.

But even if they were trying to shake me, I was going to stick with them to the end.

And then they pulled over to the side of the road and started to walk.

"What are you doing?" I asked them.

They looked at me kind of shocked.

"Come on, you ladies are pacing me and we only about half a mile to go," I urged them. "I've been drafting off you."

"Okay," one of the said and thankfully, they started running again.

I hope I didn't scare them, but I took my place right behind them and let them lead on.

After about a quarter mile, I assured them that I would get out of their way at the end and NOT be in their finish line picture.

When the finish line was in view, I moved to the right of them and sprinted.

After running over the last timing mat, I got my surfboard medal, my bottle of water and my bag of nutrition and started walking the 1.8 miles back to the car.

Luckily, I was the one with the car keys.

I looked for Orietta as I walked, but there were TOO many people to find anyone.

The first couple of beach bathrooms had a line, so I kept walking. I mean, after running with dirty pants for a few miles, what was a little more time walking in them.

Finally, I came across a bathroom with no line.

I won't go into details, but I cleaned up and walked on.

The walk seemed to take forever and I was getting goosebumps and a headache.

The lifeguards had put out an easy-up about a mile down the walkway and I stopped there and bought a cup of coffee. As I pulled out the $10 bill I had been carrying in the back zip pocket of my running capris, I did refrain from smelling it before handing it over. I'm pretty sure it had escaped being fouled.

They didn't have enough change so they insisted I take two bananas and a bottle of water.

When I got to the car, I changed into my CLEAN clothes, turned on the car, the seat heater and the car heater. I was so cold, even though I was wearing my wool pants and jacket.

I ate two bananas and drank the water and waited for Orietta and Marc.

This is how I really felt.

Okay, I am sporting my SunRype gear and my new medal, but that picture is NOT going to make the activeambassador page.

This picture maybe would have, if only part two of "shit happens" hadn't happened.

I managed to drive Marc, Orietta and myself home.

But I have no pictures of us celebrating or them with their medals because I just didn't feel like taking pictures or celebrating. Almost as soon I REALLY got cleaned (hot shower), and settled in to watch the Super Bowl,the real intestinal issues started.