Icebreaker Indoor Marathon 2013 Edition 1/20/13

There are not many marathons or ultras that I have repeated, but this is one of them out of convenience (close to home) and being in the middle of winter when there is not a whole lot going on with marathons. The only other repeat that I recall has been the Holiday Lake 50 in Virginia.

I went into this race having a monthly running average around 10-15 miles. So pretty much not trained at all for this. There is a reason for this, and the answer is not injury. HH and I have been working 60-70 hour weeks for the last few months to save up to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail this year.

Marathon Maniacs photo just before the start

Lined up at the startline on the backside of the track

Me.

This marathon is 96 laps around the outside running lanes at the Pettit National Ice Center (Apolo Anton Ohno trained here for a bit back in the day).

They also had a 50k (31 miles) speed skating race that went on during part of the marathon and the winner finished in about 90 minutes. I finished the marathon (26.2 miles) running in 4:44-ish.

50k racers

I got lazy about fueling and felt very sluggish for the middle 1/3 of the race, although I recall doing the same thing last year.

I was glad to finish and enjoyed the running shoe shaped sugar cookies that were repeats from last year. I proceeded to spend the evening at home with gastroenteritis (what many people mistakenly call the stomach flu, which is a virus but not inFLUenza). I thought I was initially feeling bad due to electrolyte imbalance and due to being so out of marathoning shape. Turns out I was wrong, and I likely got it at work due to sloppy hand washing.

LESSONS LEARNED
-Wash your hands well
-Do not get lazy with fueling during long runs.

Next up: Myrtle Beach/Lost Dutchman Double Marathon Weekend.