nyc marathon: pre-race - keeping my cookies down

j and i departed good ol' kentucky on what was probably the first flight out on friday morning. way too early for my likings. as usual, the nausea made itself present, but i continued to suck it up as i have for the past few weeks. as we were in the air, i thought about how flying probably wasn't the best idea if this turns out to be an inner ear infection. we landed in la guardia and found our ride to the hotel. our driver was an entertaining woman originally from colombia with excellent horn usage skills.


i wanted so badly to lay down when we got to the hotel (a nap often helps calm the nausea/crap feelings) but it was only lunch time and they claimed they had no rooms ready for early check-in. we left our luggage and walked however-many-blocks to the expo. like danica of chicrunner, i'm not that big on expo's. throw in a little sick-feeling + all the crowds, noise, lights... well, it was all i could do to get in, get my bag and get out. i did stop and get a quick pic of ryan hall signing autographs. the marathon edition jackets were nice, but i'm just not the kind of person that would ever wear it again. call me picky. i really couldn't handle the sensory overload so we left to get some lunch.


traveling with food allergies is so fun... just a bit of sarcasm there. i settled for subway, and then we went back to the hotel in hopes that they'd let us check in early still. thankfully, we got our room and i slept until dinner. i woke up feeling a little better, and we met some friends for dinner/hanging out at houndstooth. i gave in and had one drink, with the excuse that it'd help me fall asleep since i'd taken a solid nap earlier. luckily, it also seemed to soothe the nausea and i wondered if i'd need to sip on a brewsky during the race. {hey budweiser, sponsor me!}

view from the hotel room, pardon the non-stellar iphone camera quality

saturday... slept in! (til like 8) got up, walked around manhattan a bunch. probably ended up walking about 5-6 miles, which probably isn't the best pre-race day thing you can do. we stumbled upon the international friendship run/parade and hopped in for a bit. that led us to central park where we saw the finish line for sunday.

korea with funky music in the parade-y thing

this guy wore this for the international friendship run/parade and the actual marathon!

a smile at mile 26... for now

the nausea came/went throughout the day, and was strong around 3:30-4:00pm so i got some plain pasta with butter from espn zone. (i'd kill for "real" pasta but didn't know if the sauce was safe). that ended up being my pre-race meal as i didn't eat again later (i'm not sure what influence, if any, the early dinner had on the race). eventually got back to the hotel around 7 or 8 and got in bed for the night, though didn't fall asleep til maybe 11.

my blah-ness clearly wasn't going anywhere even though i'd taken it easy for a few weeks and focused on nutrition and sleep. i went to bed with more than a few nerves that i wouldn't survive the race. i was very nervous about collapsing and not finishing. i tried making a few jokes about it to j but he just kept telling me to shut up and that i'd live. since i've now survived, i can openly admit the nausea has been a major pain in the rear to deal with these past few weeks and i was really afraid i wouldn't finish.

up next: the actual race day! :)

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about that nausea...
i finally went to a general practitioner today (tuesday). unfortunately she couldn't come up with any answers. they ran a urine test and found out i'm not pregnant (coulda told ya that doc). it also said something about sort-of low protein but that could be from concentration as i had used the restroom less than two hours prior. my ears have some fluid but they aren't inflammed. they collected a couple vials of blood and hopefully i should have those results back tomorrow or thursday. she asked if i had any other symptoms but i just don't. the only suggestions she could make were that 1) i had a form of one of the viruses going around that my body was fighting off for the most part or 2) the mold has supposedly been bad this season with all the rain and it could be what's making me feel bad. umm, how the heck am i supposed to fix it if it's the "mold" answer? i swear some days i think i'm allergic to being alive...