16 October, 2006

My first Marathon DNF

What a sad day for me in Toowoomba on Sunday. My first DNF in a marathon. During the second lap of four I felt myself tiring considerably. During the third lap I had to let my training buddy, Tegwen, go. She was running really well and went on to come second behind Siri.

I pulled the plug at 28K. I had tried walking and running, but my legs just didn't seem to want to do any more so I listened to them. I thought I would not gain anything by pushing myself and I did not want to spend weeks recovering. The 500K relay is in 5 weeks and I don't want to let the team down. I will concentrate my training over the next few weeks on preparation for the Relay.

Robyn, my wife, thought that it was great that I could exercise enough common sense to call it a day. There is always another one.

5 comments:

Robert Song said...

Eddie, There certainly will be other days, so don't worry too much about the DNF.

I only have one DNF and that was in 1988 but it took me till Canberra this year to run another. But I'm sure you'll be back into it again next year.

Tesso said...

As sad as you feel you most certainly did the right thing Eddie. There's no shame in it, in fact in circumstances like yours it takes more courage to withdraw from a race than it does to continue.

And as a bonus you got to be at the finish to cheer your friend Tegwen in.

Now you will be back on the road straight away :-) See are at the 5k Champs on Sunday? It'll be Good relay practice.

Superflake said...

Sorry to hear about the DNF Eddie. Hope you come back with a stronger marathon next time. I guess maybe Canberra after the relay?

Toasty said...

Not an easy decision to make and you made a very smart one. Well done.

Ewen said...

It sounds like a sensible decision to me Eddie. I think you were reading your body very well. I'm sure you'll recover quickly and bounce back better than ever.

Good luck for the relay - it sounds like fun.