10 miles, I kicked your @$$

and subsequently, you made my digestive system your bitch.  Touche.

But let's back up, shall we.  :)  Saturday Taylor and I went to the big jazz festival that was in our town this weekend.  I somehow managed to resist the temptation of the funnel cakes, cheese curds, indian taco deliciousness.  Small lie.  I did have a small bite of Tay's fry bread.  Nom.  He's not a big jazz fan, so we went to his hometown to hang out with some buddies.  Since I didn't get the wine that I was craving on Friday night, I decided to have a glass.  Merely hydrating for the long run, I told myself.  The wine did not hit the spot.  So I followed it up with a TALL glass of Fat Tire.  Mmmmm.  That hit the spot.  Unfortunately, these 2 drinks took me from soberness to not so sober in a very limited amount of time.  Whooops.  We also split a buffalo chicken pizza.  Holy crap it was good.  But yes, I'm an idiot as I'm lactose intolerant, and didn't have any lactase pills on me.  Also, it is very possible that I have a mild case of IBS, this will come into play later in this story.  [If you're keeping tabs at home, this is long run #2 that I have fueled with pizza and beer.  I'm an idiot.  :)]

Then we went back into town to the jazz festival with his friends.  In his mind, jazz is bearable when he can drink large amounts of beer.  Decent reasoning.  :)  Drink 3, 4, and 5 followed over the course of the night.  Luckily 4 and 5 were teeny tiny glasses of cheap wine.  But still not the ideal way to spend the night before a long run.

I woke up early and realized that I didn't really have anything to munch on to fuel up, so I ate a sugary cereal bar.  Definitely not ideal, but better than nothing.  My stomach, was NOT happy with me.  I laid on my bed reading magazines begging it to chill out or just "process" all the bad (meaning the buffalo pizza that was still lingering) so I could go out for my run.  Luckily, it was nice and cool this morning and would be until 11am, so I had some extra time to wait.  Finally, an hour later, I was ready to run.  :)  Within the first .2 miles I thought I had to turn around and hit up the rest room again, but thankfully it was a false alarm (the only bathroom on this route is 3.5 miles in, that could be brutal).  And I was officially off.

Some things worth mentioning:

• My ab started to hurt during the 2nd mile.  The pain was so intense I had to stop a couple of times to try to stretch it out.  Just as quick as it came on, it was gone.
• I had an Espresso Love GU for the first time and liked it quite a bit.  Except I thought it tasted more honey-like than espresso-y.
• Not nearly as many runners/bikers out as last Saturday.  Is everyone in this town on a Saturday long run program?  It was kind of boring without the extra people watching.
• Not to disappoint:  I saw a lady biking, with a big basket in the back for her yorkie.  The yorkie was wearing sunglasses.  I literally laughed out loud when she biked past me.
• I saw a lady jogging in cut off jean shorts and a fitted tee.  It was random.  I practically get chaffing just walking in jean shorts, I can't imagine how that worked out for her.  :s
• I saw a badger for the first time in real life.  At first I thought it was a fat squirrel, but when I did my double take I realized I was wrong.  The only reason I was about to identify it as a badger is because of Wisconsin's mascot logo.  Ha.
• I had a biker ask how far I was going, which was kind of random, and another tell me I was "running strong" on the last mile of my run.  Literally made my run.  :)
• Ab started hurting again towards the end of mile 9.  The pain (or possibly the exerted effort at that point) caused me to feel pukey/nauseous, which was interesting.
• I actually spent the first few seconds post-run dry heaving outside my apartment.  Eew.

It ended up being a really great run.  I wanted to shoot for 9:00 pace doing an under/over method/negative splits/progression run.  At the halfway point I was 30 seconds over the pace, so I knew the last five miles had to be averaging 8:48 to hit my goal pace.  (Does anyone else love a good math problem while running?  I love figuring out math in my head because it makes me forget I'm running.)  :)  I hit that pace and then some.

I felt really strong on the back half of the run, but started to feel sick the last couple of miles (as I mentioned above).  It was only mid-60s when I was running, but I started to get goosebumps and feel chilled during the last couple of miles.  Granted, it was in the shade for a bit of the run and it was breezy, but I know my body temp wasn't cool.  When I got home my fingers were swollen to the size of sausages.  This has happened during each of my half marathons, but still not sure why.

I'm wondering if I got sick because I over-hydrated.  ????  It was MUCH cooler than it has been and I know I sweated much less than I have on my recent long runs, but I still stopped and drank at the water fountains on the course (4 in total).  Or it could've just been because I was pushing hard and my body wasn't used to it.

Either way, I've felt sick all day.  My stomach still hurts, and I almost feel like I have food poisoning it is so upset.  :(

Ponder that and let me know your thoughts.  It's also completely acceptable to give me a virtual slap in the face and tell me to suck it up because I'm being a wuss.  I won't be offended by that.  :)

Here are my glorious splits.  Totally worth the last 9 1/2 hours of pukeyness.

1. 8:59 2. 9:10 3. 9:11 4. 9:05 5. 9:00 6. 8:49 7. 8:41 8. 8:42 9. 8:18 10. 7:51

I did the 10 miles in 1:27:50 for a pace of 8:47. Whoo. Plus I was super psyched at the last 2 mile times. :)