Lost the battle , didnt lose the lesson

Story:

Yesterday I ran the second Kaveri Trail Marathon, and I was running the full marathon. Start was good, even the weather in the morning looked good. My strategy was to maintain more or less a contsant speed in the first 21K and preserve a lot of energy and stamina for the second 21K when I would need it the most. I did exactly the same. I completed the first 21K in about 2:05 min wiyth an average speed of 9.4 km/hr had some electrals and water and went for another loop. I knew that the real marathon starts now, completed 26K pretty strong, and then suddenle something happened which screwed my entire run, my timing and above all my ego. I started cramping, and the cramps were bad. the worst part was I started getting cramps on my back and neck. As a runner you are still used to cramped legs / calf but atleast back and neck was the first time for me, and believe me it was bad, very very bad. There was a time when I though that I would give up, but then I met Prateek on the way back, who was running fantastically (he completed his full in 4:40). He saw me in bad state struggling with every step, and told me not to give up......

I reached the 10K mark, so I had run 30K overall, and by now I was dead, and to make the matters worse I threw up thrice. I sat down at the water station and kept sitting there for approximately 20 min. Manoj, who was completing his 30K at that time gave me some salt tablets and a massage on my back, I started feeling a little better, but still I wasn't in a state to carry on. Again kept sitting there for another 15 min, by now I lost around 35 min just sitting, but for me now the bigger challenge was to finish the marathon on foot, and I was fighting with myself not to take a ride back. So I got up, ran for a couple of kilometers, was pathetically cramped again, I walked, I again tried to run, this time it was stomach cramps, I walked again, and finally was able to finish this marathon.

Post Mortem:

It was a bad day for many, a lot of people cramped , a lot of people gave up. The reason: HEAT, it was way too hot and to make the matters worse I think the humidity levels were easily abpove 92%. As a result of these two factors the salt losses were huge, outcome of it I ended up cramping. I tried taking a lot of salts, but by that time I guess it was too late. The pain is gone, but the ego still hurts, it was a pathetic run by any standards, the heat etc cannot come as an excuse.....learnt the lesson

As Nischal said after the run "You are only as good as your last race" ... very true....

Got this link from Manoj's blog. Pretty informative. I knew it was the heat, but then I should have trained for it......