Notes
Eastern States race. Good race for me, one minute faster than last year, but had to stop three times for GI issues. This is a crisis now in my running. I need to focus specifically on what I eat now and to take out key things including dairy, fiber and fructose. Specifically I will ban milk, cheese, Kashi Crunch cereal (my favorite now) and high fiber fruits and gels too. Just shot bloxs for races because they have no fructose - only cane sugar.
Started out well and ran strong through 15 miles with all splits at or under 6:20. Miles 5-10 were all under 6:10. I was running with one other guy and was pushing the pace hard through the middle first 10 miles. Came through at the half marathon at a new half PR of 1:21:45 or so. Felt great. Legs were awesome. HR was in the mid 160's which is my target HR for marathon distance. Then stomach pain and by mile 15, I was looking for a bathroom - there were none to be found. I ended up stopping three times to find a good stop, which ended up underneath a fire escape. After that, I had trouble getting back into the groove and the GI issue came back in the last mile. I needed to stop right at the finish line. IN any case, the legs felt great and I came in one minute faster still that last year. Now, in the evening, my legs feel so good that I will probably do an easy run tomorrow. So - hopefully my dietary restrictions will change the way I feel when I run. I am having a lot of trouble right now - really bad. Can't run to my potential. I should have been around 2:06:00 in this race (6:18 pace) but ended up losing 2 1/2 minutes with the stops and the loss of rhythm after that. Boston looks good if I can solve this problem.