Last year, I started my Thanksgiving with my first ever double digit run. This year, if I wanted to start it with a PDR, I would have needed to run 21+ miles, and ummm, that wasn’t happening. So I decided to run the Mesa Turkey Trot with Nicole. Thanksgiving morning, we headed over at around 7:45. The race didn’t start until 9 which seemed really late to me. We got there, quickly registered (it was only $25!! I was a big fan of that!), and got in the seemingly endless porta potty line.

After a good 20 minutes of waiting in line, we headed over to the start. I was really excited because I’ve only run one other 10k before and it was almost a year ago, so a PR seemed like it was in the bag. Unfortunately, as we were waiting to start I was like “Hey, I’m not cold. Not even a little bit. That’s probably a bad sign…” You see, I’m more temperature sensitive than an Eskimo at the equator. If I don’t start a race with constant complaints about how cold I am, I know I’m not going to feel particularly great once I start running.

The plan was to run the first mile around half marathon pace, and then slowly negative split from there. We ran the first mile in 9:05 which was right on pace, but it felt way harder than it should have. I was sweating and feeling tired way earlier than I wanted to be, and after the first mile my stomach decided it was PISSED. I started having sharp stabbing in my stomach similar to what I felt during Pat’s Run. It was frustrating. Actually, it still is frustrating. To be honest, all of the pain and, um, issues I was having before my surgery really haven’t gotten any better, and maybe gotten worse? But that’s a story for an other day. I was feeling pretty miserable, and Nicole kept asking if I wanted to walk, but I was trying to be stubborn, and we ended up running the second mile around 8:50.

Unfortunately, I just kept feeling worse and around mile 3 I asked Nicole if we could stop to walk for a bit to give my stomach a chance to settle itself. It helped a little, but I ended up having to stop about every mile for the same reason. Needless to say, I was not having a great time. Not to mention, it started to feel like it was about a million degrees out. It wasn’t that hot of a day, but the sun just felt so intense, and it definitely wasn’t doing me any favors. Luckily, the last mile I miraculously started to feel a little better? Maybe it’s just that I knew I was almost done, but I got a serious second wind and remembered that I liked running. It also helped that Nicole stuck with me the whole way even though I was kind of a mess.

It’s funny, in the middle of the race I had been pretty certain that I had sucked it up so badly that I wasn’t even going to PR, but then somehow I crossed the finish line in 56:40? My PR was 59:58. Hmmmm…

So it wasn’t actually a total bust. I’m happy to have a new PR, even if it wasn’t quite the goal I had in mind, and the whole thing kind of gave me a swift kick in the ass to get some things figured out. I don’t think that feeling sick so much of the time is normal, gallbladder or no gallbladder. I try to just keep a positive attitude about things, and figure that everyone deals with some sort of issues when it comes to running, I think I’ve been in denial a bit, and it’s not doing me any favors. Even in Shun the Sun where I ran really well, I didn’t feel great for the entire last half of the race. So I’m gonna work on some things diet wise (l’m trying to eat less fiber–I think my intake might be bordering on excessive, and playing around with when/how much coffee I drink), and make an appointment with my doctor.

On a more positive note, here’s a picture of Coach Susan basically winning the whole thing 😉