DNF – Lost Soul 100K

It just wasn’t my day.

I pulled the plug on my Lost Soul 100K race after 73k following hours of unsuccessfully trying to settle my stomach and get my head back into the race.

All week long we were nervous about the weather and the possibility of running the rain route. The start of the 100 miler racers were pushed to 9 a.m. Both 100 miler and 100K runners ran the first leg on the rain route so the trails would dry up a bit. Thankfully it all worked out in the end but it didn’t help my stomach issues, which ultimately led to my DNF.

I’ve been going over in my head everything I ate leading up to race – trying to pinpoint what I did wrong.

The night before the race, I joined a bunch of CTR members for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Nothing appealed to me on the menu so I ate a simple salad. Race morning I forced myself to eat my usual race breakfast of oatmeal and fruit. A small cup of coffee and a few glasses of water completed my morning meal.

My stomach started to feel a little queasy around the second or third leg. It’s all a big blur now. I just wasn’t feeling right. I tried everything I could think of to settle my stomach. I kept drinking water and stuffing my face with salted potatoes. On the fourth leg, I started to feel much better. I picked up my pace and started to pass people as I ran the entire flat-ish sections on the private leg section.

By the end of the leg, my stomach started to flip flop again. I didn’t know what the heck was wrong with me. I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t think I was dehydrated. I was so upset that I couldn’t stop crying. At the fifth aid station, I had all but decided I was done after the first loop.

I got to HQ and was met by volunteers and a few CTR friends. Of course I cried some more as they helped me eat and gave me various degrees of pep talks. The extra push and hugs helped me run the next two legs, stopping at Pavan with only 27 kilometres left to go.

Sure I could have finished. I had 9 or 10 hours to run/walk/crawl 27 kilometres. But I had enough of the intermittent puking and the feeling that someone was punching me in the stomach when I tried to run downhill.

Done.

At the end of the day, it is only running. There will be another race. Am I disappointed? Of course I am but stuff happens. And we just have to learn from the experience and move on.

(My stomach took a few more days to settle after the race. I went to the doctor (because I have never felt like this before in a race). He said I was severely dehydrated and likely ate something my stomach didn’t like before the race.)