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I am Agualung

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Well this past weekend was supposed to mark my return to racing as I entered the Little Rock 1/2 and had already gone in with Bill for a hotel room. On Friday afternoon when I got out of school my throat was a little sore and my chest was giving me some asthma-like trouble, but having spent alot of my springs in the midwest, this is pretty much inevitable for me and I just try to work with it. Anyway, by the time I got to Tulsa on Friday night, I was feeling rough and after a night of no sleep and alot of hacking and coughing, I felt worse. However, I just decided to go anyway and just do what I could which at this point was obviously not going to be much. I couldn't sleep Saturday night either and was pretty weak and had the chills. Anyway, the race was pretty good sized and there were some good dudes up front in both the 1/2 and full marathons, albeit alot of road carnage along the way as it was a fairly tough course and it was unseasonably warm and humid. I later learned that a guy who finished the marathon in ~3:00 died afterwards. While the verdict is still out, the humidity and direct sun can reak havoc for somebody coming from Wisonsin. I'm speaking from personal experience as I have had some really rough dehydration issues on sunny 70-80 degree races early in the season. Sad news as it seems like there are way too many incidences of marathon death. I feel like even with outside factors like heart conditions, etc. there is a real importance for proper hydration and electrolyte replacement and those little dixie cups just don't get it done when your running quickly. I guess what I'm getting at is that I would like to see these races offer bottles of gatorade/water at at least a few points to increase the amount of fluids one could potentially down at each stop. Obviously, I may be outside of my authority to speek in regards to the case last weekend, but it would help me and so I suspect it would benefit others.
So I finished up in 1:21:xx including a 2:00 potty break (another first for me). I took fluids at every station and still was dehydrated at the finish. Bill ran 1:16 so not a stellar day for him, I know he was in at least 1:14 shape. I ran the second half of my race with Przemek, this Polish guy who has some really good credentials but injured his achilles last week and I guess just like myself showed up hoping for a miracle. He was pretty funny and it was nice to talk with him. He said he had trained in THE DUKE CITY last month and so we addressed the appropriate land marks.
The only high notes for the weekend was hanging with TEAM GRONA and eating a Chicago-style pizza after the race served by a waitress with a spot on Southern accent. I hit the doctor yesterday to rule out the flu and found out I have bronchitis with a secondary infection. I think my fever is gone so now it's just a matter of clearing out the shit in my lungs. Boston in T-7 weeks.

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