Sunday, June 13, 2010

Welcome Old and New Friends

Welcome - you might be here because you were at this full/half marathon and met me or saw this ... 

 
In a nutshell, my leg story is that I received severe injuries in an horrific accident in May, 2004. It nearly took my life and my leg. I am now writing a memoir about the past 6 years. I update this blog frequently, become my friend on  Facebook or follow me on Twitter or sign up for a RSS feed to see my updates. I will be getting a new website and blog soon (yes!) that will have a page with my story on it - for now
Click here for a post about the accident/injuries. 
This post has some accident pictures.
Click here for a post about my emotional recovery. 
I began running again in '08 and my local TV station did an interview/story about me - see it here. 


Congrats to you if you ran today. It was way too darn hot to run - what were we thinking!? Hope you are now recovering in a cool place now. Thank God for air-conditioning. 


This is me now, after finishing 13.1 miles (first half-marathon since being injured) actually 13.4 according to the running app on my Droid. I felt good until about mile 7. Then I started feeling lousy. With temps in the 90's, of course I was hot, but then I became chilled - yes, the chilled part is not good. Slightly nausous with chills and feeling like I could faint if I wasn't careful. I have never run in weather this hot! 

I was aiming to run 8 minutes/walk 2 minutes and finish between 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I had to modify that plan and walk more, but thankfully I was still able to finish in about 3 hours and 5 minutes. 

After drinking some gatorade and taking it easier, I felt better as I finished the race, but still not great. At Now, 5 hours after finishing, I feel okay, but have a dull headache. I will have to look over my food/rest/water/etc and try to figure out if it was something I did or didn't do. 

I am not sure if I drank too much and diluted the salt/electrolytes in my body and/or if I didn't drink enough - what do you think?

7 comments:

Christy Z said...

Janet, I am so proud of you. I was out on the trail with you and was the girl from Team in Training that ran near you. I have to say you are truly an inspiration. It was definitely a hot one out there today. I too had some issues with chills and not feeling the best. I have discovered I run better in cool/cold weather...CONGRATS today.
Christy Z.

Michelle DeRusha said...

Janet,
Congratulations on a job well done! I cannot imagine running in that heat -- you did extremely well even to finish, never mind finish in the excellent time that you did...and in your first half marathon after your injury.

As for your question...I always, always get a headache after I run a distance greater than 10 miles. I don't know what it is. I never drink Gatoraid or anything like that, so I'm thinking that perhaps it's too much water and an electrolyte deficiency for me.

Take it easy tonight -- you deserve to put your feet up!

Brian Becker said...

Hi Janet, fellow DreamYear participant and runner here. (You can see my interview video with Brooks Running Co. here: http://www.brooksrunning.com/Videos/Meet%20Brooks%20I.D.%20Athlete%20Brian%20Becker/683)

First of all - great job! After losing 100 pounds I've ran 4 marathons, and 4 half-marathons - but never in that kind of heat!

As far as the headaches/fluid intake...I'm no pro, but in my experience when you run at your race speed, you are putting it all on the line, and your body is pushed to the max. Because of this I think headaches are somewhat normal.

Did you have recovery food/drink right after the race? You should eat/drink within 30 minutes of finishing.

Regardless - you did great! Keep up the good work, and I look forward to following your story!

Ryan Nelson said...

Janet, I am so excited for your accomplishment. I love that you have not let your past determine your destiny. Instead, you created your destiny having been inspired by your past.

I love the fact that you have something this fantastic to incorporate into the end of your book. Janet, YOU DID IT!!!! To God be the glory!!!

Janet Oberholtzer said...

Christy - congrats to you for doing it also! It sure was a hot one - whew! Thanks for the note!

Michelle - Thanks! Slept well last night and headache was gone this morn. Surprised how good I feel today.

Brian - nice to 'meet' another Dream Year participant. Thanks for the encouragement. And Congrats to you! Watched the video - nice! And what an amazing story you have! Run on!
Good thought about eating right away - I didn't eat for about an hour, because it was too hot.

Ryan - Thanks! I do thank God for the way our bodies were created to be able to heal from traumatic injuries. Now just as I finished the race step by step, I need to finish the book step by step ... hopefully soon!

Cassandra Frear said...

Ooh, that sounds scary.

Take care. I've not been walking in this heat and an chin injury. 104 degrees is the index for today. So Instead, I've been doing some serious yardwork early. If it doesn't cool down soon, I will use some walking videos.

As we age, we have to be more careful with our bodies.

S. Etole said...

I admire your determination ... a lot!