I’m sitting here in a panic because I’m in the midst of packing for my vacation which starts tomorrow and am being bombarded with those feelings of I can feel it! I’m forgetting something. I just know that I’m forgetting something. Fuck!
So, I’m taking a break from the packing to write a quick blog in the hopes of killing two birds with one stone. Not only will it be getting another blog out before I leave for a week, but it may also just distract me from the packing and clear my mind a bit so I can go back it later and a fresh mind will suddenly realize what horribly obvious thing I’m forgetting to pack.
To bring those of you who don’t know up to speed, this vacation is a week in an Orlando with the primary purpose of running in the 15th Annual Walt Disney World Marathon. So, hardly a vacation at all. I can’t think of many vacations that people go on where they have to spend hours upon hours running and running. And running.
Now, I ran this marathon last year (it was my first, having done a Half Marathon at Disneyland in California about four months prior to that), and ended up getting pretty sick afterward. I was fine during the race (well, as fine as you can be when you’re running and running for hours on end in hot weather) and finished well enough considering it was my first one ever. But it was about an hour after I finished where the sickness kicked in.
Apparently, I got overly dehydrated during the race, and it resulted in me getting quite sick and not being able to keep any liquids down for more than one or two minutes before they came back up. Ironic, no? You’d think if you were dehydrated that your body would hold on to every tiny drop of water it could find, but no, it rejected it all.
I had to end up having the paramedics come to the hotel room and take my vital signs and they assured me I would fine and that I just needed to take the rest of the night easy and slowly introduce liquids back into my system until my body was able to handle them properly again. They offered to take me to the ER, but told me that it was filled with tons of marathon people who were also quite sick due to the heat during the race. I opted to stay in my comfy hotel room and watch TV. And I ended up feeling well enough very soon thereafter and headed out to finish my eventful day with some fireworks.
So, naturally, I’m a bit concerned that I will end up getting sick again this year, especially since I trained about 25% as much as I did last year. So, to try to stop that from happening, I’m approaching this marathon completely differently than I did last year. Last year, it was my first one, so I wanted to get out there and run that thing the best I humanly could. This year, I’m not running to get a certain time at all. The time is the last thing on my mind this year. This time I am running just for the experience and to enjoy it as much as possible. My only goal this year is the finish line. Whether it takes me an extra hour or two longer than it did last year is the last thing on my mind. So, hopefully, this mind set will keep me from pushing beyond my abilities and keep me from having such an adverse reaction to the strain that a marathon puts your body through.
Also, the weather for that day is showing some scattered thunderstorms, and while it sucks (hardcore) to think about running 26.2 miles in the rain, I’m trying to remain positive and find the silver lining of those rain clouds. The rain should hopefully help keep my body and air temperatures cooler than they would have been otherwise, which should also help out a little bit with the dehydration.
Another silver lining: It’s in Walt Disney World!
So, sure, I have to spend a few hours in misery. But I get to spend the rest of the week in my favorite place. And with friends I don’t get to see often. I’m actually spending tomorrow night with Michael before I check in to my resort for the week on Thursday morning. And Joe is coming down to show support during the race. And Norm will be there running in the marathon as well (much faster than I will be, but let’s not discuss that), so it’s going to be a great week!
I’ll try to remember to post a quick blog once I cross the finish line (God willing!) with an update of how I did. But for now it’s back to packing. I’ll see ya guys next week!
Yeah, still no idea what it is I’ve forgotten to pack.