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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Gulf Coast Classic 10k

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a run! The weather was incredible - '70's and sunny - and the course was so pretty. The race started at the War Memorial Park in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Part of the course was on Scenic Drive, a road overlooking the beach and lined with huge Southern homes. Since Scenic Drive is elevated, these historic Confederate era mansions survived Katrina.
The race was small - only about 300 people ran the 10k - which was a nice change from the 20,000 or more a few weeks ago at the Crescent City Classic. David and I ran the 10k and my too-cute sister in law Liz walked the 2 mile. That was kind of fun because she was finished first and could cheer for me at the finish - I never have people at the finish line; I always finish before David and my brother Abe is so fast he's usually home before I get there, haha! Here we are looking all cute and sweaty.

Funny thing about this race: we were running IN TRAFFIC. There were signs up to "watch for runners" but literally we were running in 2-way traffic for part of the course! I think that we were on a road that was an only outlet perhaps? Luckily I didn't get run over. Hehe. Despite that, I had a great race. This was easily the prettiest 10k course I've run, especially in yesterday's gorgeous weather. I was taking it easy, chatting with runners, stopping to read some signs up on the mansions (fascinating; I know little about Confederate history), and actually added time to my last 10k. But I still finished 3rd in my age group! (Don't you love small races?). I was the 6th female and somewhere in the 30's overall. I didn't expect to place so we left soon after David finished, and I didn't find out how I did until I got home. Darn, my living room decor just isn't complete without a sparkly royal blue and gold trophy, you know?
A cute story from this race: A man with 2 kids in a jogging stroller won the 2-mile in under 13 minutes. Before the race started, one of the kids was BALLING his head off. I mean, screaming! Everyone could hear this kid wailing as we were lining up. But as soon as the gun went off that kid shut up and enjoyed the ride! I think he was mad that he wasn't moving - he probably expected to sit in that stroller and take off. Too funny.
Runner readers, I need advice. I used to suffer a lot from nausea while running, and would often throw-up when running. Last year I thought I had gotten the situation under control, but mainly that was thanks to slowing down. Lately the problem is returning. Yesterday I actually stopped to throw up, although I got the urge under control. It happens more in hot weather and is NOT correlated to effort - I can be doing fine and feel sick. It occurs more often in a crowded park or during a race (could it be motion sickness from watching bobbing heads around me?) and it is worse if I'm running under 8 min/miles. I've stopped eating at all before I run, but I still have coffee. Any advice? This is really slowing me down.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on finishing 3rd! Well done you! I like running smaller races. So nice to not huge crowds at the starting line...

    The only time I have had trouble w/ nausea is when I am dehydrated... have you ever tried salt tabs? I haven't but I know other runners have used them and loved them. Hopefully you figure something out - getting sick while running is just awful. :(

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  2. Great job on the 3rd place age group finish! :-) The beauty about smaller races, you can actually get a prize sometimes!

    We actually have a story in our area about some jerk actually trying mow people down with his truck during a race... fabulous huh? http://tinyurl.com/y6at944

    As for the nausea.... not quite sure what to tell you, I've never really felt sick after running other than when I've run and been hung over. ;-) I don't know if a little pepto before a run would be a good idea?

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  3. Every now and then I feel like I want to throw up, and it's usually when I'm pushing myself kind of hard. I back off a little on the speed and tell myself that I can always throw up after the race...after a little while the urge passes and I can speed back up. But it doesn't sound anywhere near your situation, so I'm not sure what to tell you.
    Do you think the coffee is maybe not sitting well in your empty stomach?

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  4. Gosh, so much to try! I am also leaning towards some kind of electrolyte imbalance. After a particularly rough race I picked up, on a whim, a drink with an enormous amount of potassium. To my surprise the nausea and cramping quickly subsided when I drank it (I would expect it to help cramping). I've done some research since then and apparently people who are clinically hypothyroid (myself) have impaired potassium adaptation and tend to over-secrete. More research is needed!

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