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→My Race
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=My Race=
My race started well, and I tried to go out slowly, which is tough when the leaders are passing you at a breathtaking pace. I was a little too aggressive, and I was on a 160+ mile pace for the first 8 hours. Things were going well at this point except for my left hip flexor and my feet. I stopped and massaged the hip flexor and it was fine after that. However, the rough brick section of the course was pounding my feet and the pain was quite remarkable. Some [[NSAIDs and Running|Ibuprofen]] reduced both the pain and some of the swelling, but it was still a concern. Somewhere near the 13 hour mark, my right hip rotator become painful and wanted to go into spasm. I stopped at the aid station to use [[The Stick]] on it, but within a few moments of stopping I became overwhelmed with nausea and light headedness and had to sit down. After 30 minutes I get moving again, which was a tough as I got quite chilled and stiff. I walked a couple of laps, and then when I tried a little broth, the nausea hit me again. I was stopped for 90 minutes that time and I was only able to get out of the chair after the team doctor gave me some prescription anti-nausea medication(probably Zofran). The medication removed most of the nausea, but things were still not quite right. I was able to stand, and after a while start walking again. At that point the competitive race was over for me, and so I tried some intermittent running, then resorted to simply walking. I was kept company by Deb for the last 5 hours, and we walked together, cheering on the USA team as they continued to lap us.
=After the race=
After the race, we had to walk across the park to the awards ceremony, which was a long way in the hot sun, taking the weary runners about 20 minutes or more. We had runners who could not walk, and had to find a motorized cart to take them. When we arrived, we found we were part of a large festival, which was nice, but we were outside in the full sun with no food or drink. After about half an hour or so, we were told that plans had changed and the awards would be back at the athletes village. So, we walked back across the park to take a bus back to our accommodations. Again we had to find a cart, which caused some problems when one of our runners became separated from their supporting family. Back at the athletes village things changed again and we were told we would have a meal before the awards ceremony. We sat down to eat about 4 hours after the finish of the race.