2013: DNF and DNS

A few weeks ago, I DNF'd my first "race".... the beer mile my friends were putting on.  It was hard, and my stomach can only take so much liquid.  Rather than getting sick, I quit half way through.  My friends think I need to practice more so I don't DNF the Chilly Beer Mile, held in November.  Thus far I have done zero work in order to remedy that problem.

On to bigger issues...2013 will be the year where I have my first DNS.  As I "recently" blogged about, my training hasn't gone well.  I traveled a lot in July and August, and struggled to get quality miles in.  Last week was the icing on the cake.  I was supposed to run 20 miles and made it 1.5.  Yes, you read that correctly.  After doing some stupid training that week, including an 8 mile track workout that involved 5 x 400s at 1:23 pace and then a 5k in 21:30 Friday night followed by a 6 mile tempo on hills the next morning, my body couldn't handle it.  Not only did I have a blood sugar problem and went low, my legs were hurting from the first step I took that day.  My running friend walked back with me to our starting point.  It was at that point that I knew I would not run the Chicago Marathon.

This past week I have felt sad, and have had a "pity party" for myself.  I know I could run the marathon in sub-4 hours, but I don't want to.  I'm not in the best shape right now, and I think it would be mentally taxing on me to do the race.  I don't want to hate running, and I know if I continue to train for the marathon it is not going to be enjoyable.  It has been disgustingly humid and hot outside this week, making it hard to run.  I've been doing my fair share of sweating, and my once "easy pace" has seemed incredibly hard.

The year is 2/3 of the way over as of today.  I started the year with my best running ever, and have gotten into a major slump this summer.  I have a half marathon at the end of September that I am still doing, but other than that, I know I need to run with no goal other than to enjoy the activity.  Who knows what the rest of 2013 will bring, but I am hoping it ends as good as it started.