Day 2 - Walt Disney World Marathon (Animal Kingdom)
For the past year or so we have been trying to get pregnant. It's made training a little difficult because I'm supposed to keep my effort moderate and I've always been a high heart rate girl. As each month passed and no baby I gained a little more weight.
Skip forward to December 2011... I was struggling with my asthma and the first week I went on prednisone to try to control it. That same week I took my clomid as I have in other months. A week later I went in for a procedure known as a HSG. It's an xray of my uterus. I didn't react well to it and was out of commission for the four days following it.
With all this happening, my longest run was 19 miles. Not what I planned but doable.
Fast forward to the weekend before leaving for Disney...
No voice. Cough severely worsened. I feel miserable. Yup, I had bronchitis and laryngitis. Off to doctor to get antibiotics. To those of you wondering how I could be taking all this medicine while trying to get pregnant, they were all category B drugs which are approved during pregnancy.
Great news though. By Friday my voice was back!!! I was feeling very dizzy and tired but I figured I was just sick, right? I took my pregnancy test Friday and again Saturday morning. Negative. Ok I said to myself I'm doing the Goofy Challenge. It won't be my best but I'll just take my time and lots of pictures. Yes I was feeling sick but I needed a pick me up. December was a crappy month.
Well Saturday morning I threw on my first outfit! All Lululemon of course! It was fairly nice so I only needed a vest and gloves. I didn't even really need gloves. I had some of those breakable warming packets too. This was to be my sister in law's first half marathon and her husband's first half as well. He was going to run his own race and I was going to run with her.
Unfortunately this year with the Goofy Challenge you only got one bib to use both days. That meant only one corral. Well my last two marathons had me finishing at the very end so it didn't surprise me that I was the last corral. I was annoyed though that I was in the last corral for my half. My sister in law and I were planning on running with the 3 hour pace group. A pace I knew I could do (I did that last year with a bad back and hip and shin!)
As we got to the corrals, Laura (my SIL) went to her corral and since they check your bib I had to go to mine. This was very hard for me. I hadn't planned on running alone, let alone the not having a pace group. By the start of the race I had reformed my race plan. I was going to take my entire 3.5 hours (if they thought I was going to do it then I was going to get my money's worth!) Every stop would get a picture. I would finally get my castle picture.
I did. I got all my pictures. Here are some more....
Day 1: Half Marathon w/ Alice in my Lululemon Run inspire Crops and Run Short Sleeve V-neck
Day 1: Walt Disney World Half Marathon (20 min lost to get this pic but worth it!!!)
Day 2: Marathon ... at this point I was the only one posing but I knew I'd be pulled so I said what the heck! I'm getting my pictures!
On to Sunday... I woke up feeling more exhausted than the year before and thinking I wasn't going to finish. I was dizzy and just down right EXHAUSTED! This was somewhat on par to last year but I didn't remember feeling this extremely exhausted. Pulling my head off the pillow felt like the hardest thing in the world to do.
I tried following my running pattern but it was challenging. I kept meeting up with new people and would stay with them for a while and then break off. I met the NICEST people. Everyone was so great. Some time around the MK everything started feeling impossible. I started to feel really dizzy and weak. My family and other participants contributed the idea that I wasn't taking in enough water and supplements. I thought that might be the case but was unsure. At this point I also started needing my emergency inhaler (getting a full breath just walking felt impossible!)
As I approached mile 13.1, I made the decision to stop. However the awesome pacers at Disney convinced me to keep going since I was still ahead of the pull time. I said why not... Right before hitting the AK they told us were behind but they wouldn't pull us until the other side of the park. Awesome!!! I met up with a fellow run/walker and we motivated eachother to keep going. We even jogged through half the park together (since everyone was watching.) I made sure to thank EVERY volunteer and they were incredibly encouraging and nice despite the fact that we were the end.
After exiting the park we started looking for the cut off... I was really struggling at this point. If he wasn't with me I would have been worried. I was so dizzy. Mile 18 was the end. It was so nice. They had the water stop still set up for us with food and powerade and a med station. The bus was waiting with more refreshments and a nice guy who explained what would happen from here. Apparently you get a medal for not finishing! Awesome!!! Unfortunately because I didn't finish that meant no Goofy medal and no way of showing I tried. I understood and was just happy to get what I did.
Me & Laura in Race Retreat following half marathon
Me & Laura in Race Retreat following half marathon
Fast forward to Monday night... my body was recovered. We toured the parks to an extent. Gosh was I EXHAUSTED! I'd make it a few hours and then need to go back to the room and sleep. If I pushed it I would start to feel dizzy. My sister in law suggested I take a test again...
Tuesday morning I did... Pregnant!!!! Wow! Finally!!!!
Here comes the sort of report.... I was waiting until 13 weeks to make this post to tell you all the good news. I continued running every other day and using the elliptical on the days in between. I still had the dizziness, exhaustion, and now a slight sense of nausea all the time but I could push through. At the 7 week mark we saw the heart beat! Wow. .... Then around what should have been 10 weeks I was told I had a missed miscarriage. That little heart beat that had made it through so much must have stopped right after the ultrasound.
At the 10 week mark to the day I miscarried and spent the next 3 weeks recovering. I gained weight in my midsection and a little extra every where else (I know I shouldn't have gained more than 5 pounds but I figure 8 wasn't so bad.) Now I'm rocking a wonderful 195 and have nothing to show for it. I'm horribly out of shape and am waiting to start trying again.
I miss the running community but I didn't want to post my measly results and workouts until I could explain my reasons were from pregnancy symptoms. Disney feels like eons ago. Monday Jillian Michaels Body Revolution DVD set came and I started it Thursday. I'm sore but glad to be getting moving again.
I don't know who will read this but while I was scared to share something so personal I really wanted to finally talk about it.
