Prayers for 17 Mile Weather Answered

I've been sweating the forecasted rain for today all week. Because of Jake's work schedule, I really needed to get my 17 miler today. I went to bed last night with the plan to meet Shannon & Robin at White Rock at 6am, unless it was just a complete downpour. It was bone dry and the radar looked like maybe some light rain, worst case scenario.

I wore my black Brooks running skirt (pretty sure this will be my marathon skirt because it's so comfortable it feels like I'm not wearing anything) and my favorite Lululemon gray/black longsleeve top- I was comfortable in both during the entire run. The temperature was between 45 and 50, but cloudy the entire time.

We did 2 loops around the lake, which would have been a total of 18 miles. The plan was to walk/run or just walk the last mile. The first loop was great and I was feeling strong. We stopped at our cars to refill handheld bottles and I ate a Honey Stinger waffle. I have a really tough time eating when I run and I thought I'd try the waffles for fuel since they taste good but are pretty bland. It went down well and I think I'll do it again for future runs, but more frequently. Robin turned back around at mile 11.5 because she had 14 on her schedule. I started to feel nauseous around mile 15. I thought sucking on a Honey Stinger chew might help. It seemed to make the nausea worse, so I spit it out. We made it to 17 before the nausea got any worse. I kept thinking I was going to be sick, but never did. At about 17.3 miles I was sitting in the grass trying to recover for the rest of the walk or run back to the cars when a Dallas police officer asked Shannon if I was ok, then offered to take us back to our cars. I was so grateful. At that point, I knew it would be a long haul to go that extra .7 mile. Once back to the cars, I put on a sweatshirt and turned the heat on in my car full blast. I was freezing and couldn't stop shaking. I decided I was capable of driving and just wanted to be home. I made it to Richardson before I finally got sick. That actually made me feel better and I thought I would be ok. Once home I took a hot bath. As I got out of the bath I got really dizzy and felt sick. Jake took my blood pressure and the top number was only 80. I knew I needed fluids and didn't think I could drink any, so he called his mom to stay with the kids and I went in for IV fluids. I felt a lot better after the fluids and have been able to drink/eat since getting home.

I learned some things on this training run. That's what training runs are for, right? Gotta practice for race day... My legs aren't nearly as sore or tired as they were after 15 miles- hooray for that. I think a combination of 3 things contributed to me getting sick-
1- Not a good enough breakfast. I usually eat cold cereal with a banana or peanut butter on a bagel. I skipped those and just ate a banana.
2- Not nearly enough calories during the run. I ate one Honey Stinger waffle at 160 calories.
3- I was still having Raynaud's episodes as of last weekend so I followed my doctor's recommendations and increased my Procardia to 20mg. I felt dizzy for the first couple of days, but have felt normal for the past few days. I can't help but associate a blood pressure of 80 with increasing the dosage of the blood pressure medication I'm taking. I'll probably ask my doctor whether to drop back down to 10mg or just stop taking it altogether.

I'm doing some research on proper marathon fueling for my gender/size/pace and will come up with a new plan before my 20 miler next weekend.