Did you hear this crazy story about the 81-year-old guy winning his age group at the Twin City Marathon last weekend after borrowing a catheter...? If you haven't, I know this information takes a little time to digest, but when you got over that, you can read up on it here!
Of course, this makes a great news story, especially because there was some discussion to disqualify him for receiving outside assistance (which they eventually decided not to do), but I felt like that this is a little too much information than I care for... And then I stopped and reflected on my experiences since I started running and racing last year... *
*Oh wow, is it really just since last year that I am doing this running thing... It sometimes feels like a lifetime.
When you talk to other runners about training or racing, you will talk about distances, paces, workouts, drills and at one point what works for you and what doesn't in the nutrition department.
There will be the mention about stomach problems in every possible direction and this is not a case of TMI, but valued as important exchange of experiences and information. When I started out running and logged my first longer distances, I started to have these stomach problems myself and a couple of times, I got so messed up and as a result of it so dehydrated that I passed out. That was scary. Terry runs for 20 years already, but he never experience something to the extent that I displayed. At my next physical, I talked to the doctor who is a runner too and he simply called it "Runner's Stomach" and told me to read up on some stuff in order to adjust my eating behavior in a way that will prevent those harsh attacks in the future. And yes, that worked. I still have my stomach problems as does everyone else, but it hasn't gotten really bad in a long time. And while you are out there with your running buddies, you are talking about this... Every non-runner would probably blankly stare at you and close their ears, but for us it's just another data point in the training log.
On other news:
Tomorrow is the biggest day in the triathlon community of the year. The 31st Ironman World Championships take place in Kona. And according to this, the event even gets televised on Universal Sports, which is not available over our cable... CRAP... Might try to find a live stream tomorrow, but between my race and a wedding that I will attend in the afternoon, there will be most likely little time to sit down and watch anyways...
I have to say, that I have the biggest respect and admiration for Ironman athletes on the professional and age group level. The thought of doing an Ironman race alone is mind boggling to me. In case you didn't know... An Ironman race consists of 2.4 miles (3.86 km) swim, 112 miles (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (26.2 miles, 42.195 km) run. This is crazy!!! The one triathlon that I did was a sprint distance over 10.36% of the Ironman swim (400 meters), 12.5% of the Ironman bike (14 miles) and 15.26% of the Ironman run (4 miles). Even though I am planning on participating in an Olympic Distance Triathlon (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) as soon as next year, it's hard to imagine right now to go any further than this for me. But I kinda trust in myself that when I accomplished the Olympic Distance that I will reevaluate what I think I am capable of.
So who am I rooting for tomorrow?? Of course Chrissie Wellington (GBR) for the pro women. Not only because she seems to be the obvious choice for the title, but because she is a very impressive person to me when it comes to her athletic accomplishments/ carrier as well as in her involvement in international development. Sure thing as well is that I wish Sandra Wallenhorst (GER) to do well in the competition. For the pro men, I am going with my citizenship completely and therefore hope for Andreas Raelert (GER) to snatch the title away from everyone!
Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you do! ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment