This race did not go so well for me. Let me start at the beginning…
Friday night, I got no sleep. I have no idea why. We just got a brand new mattress that I’ve been sleeping very well on otherwise, so I’m not sure why I kept waking up every hour throughout the night. I got up with no problems though, and didn’t really feel tired.
I ate a bagel with goat cheese, which is normally my favorite for pre-workout fuel, but I had a really hard time choking it down and didn’t even finish it. I did manage to gulp down about 8 oz. of water though.
The race started at Decatur High School, which is actually walking distance from my house, so I walked over there about 15 minutes before start time while Jeff finished getting ready so he could take pictures as I passed (the course went through our neighborhood.)
As the race started at about 9:15, I felt totally fine. I knew that I hadn’t really trained for this race because I’ve been busy doing the LiveFit training program which restricts cardio in the first month, but it was a beautiful day and I was feeling good and trusted in my overall fitness level to get me through the 3.1 miles even if I didn’t set any records.
I wasn’t even half a mile into the race before I started feeling tired though. My legs were heavy and achey, my head was pounding, and my neck was tight. I was huffing and puffing and really having to push myself to keep moving, even while only doing around a 12 minute mile pace.
As I passed Jeff around 1.2 miles in, I let myself stop for a minute and confessed to him that I was really struggling. I ran around the corner but was walking again by the time I was out of sight.
As I continued on, Jeff started walking down to the high school to meet me at the finish line. Really, I was hurting so badly and breathing so hard that if I didn’t know that he was at the finish line waiting for me I would have just cut back through the neighborhood and headed home.
I tried hard to run as much as I could for the rest of the way, but it wasn’t a mental game anymore, I had a physical need to walk instead of run. I saved up my energy, and ran the last little bit onto the football field and through the finish line.
39:32, my slowest 5k yet.
I’d say that it’s just a product of not having really trained for this race, or that I didn’t sleep enough or ate breakfast too close to the start time, but I know there’s something else going on here. I seriously felt like a might have an aneurism around mile 2, and that makes absolutely no sense for someone who has a very healthy diet and exercises regularly. It also makes absolutely no sense to me that I’ve been trying my hardest to be a runner for nearly 3 years and I still to this day cannot run an entire mile without stopping. I mean, I could, but it’d leave me too exhausted to go any farther than that.
And then something clicked when I was talking with Jeff about this the other day. I just had blood work done recently so he asked me if my iron levels had come out as low because it sounded like I might be anemic. This was odd because I’ve been tested for anemia many times throughout my life because I’ve always shown the classic signs of iron deficiency, the most notable being persistent fatigue, but my iron levels have always been normal. I have; however, had extremely low levels of B12 for at least the last few years which has no dietary explanation. As it turns out, a serious B12 deficiency can manifest in much the same way as iron anemia, with chronic fatigue and difficulty breathing.
So, I’m writing all this because I intend to pursue some options with my doctor to get my B12 levels back into a normal range, and see if that has any affect on my running abilities and my overall energy levels. I want to share a bit of this journey here on the blog because I’m sure I’m not the only person out there who really struggles with exercise endurance, and if low B12 turns out to be the magic answer for me, then maybe that information can help someone else too.
This may have been my slowest race yet, but I’m actually extremely proud of myself because I truly had to fight to finish it. I’m hoping that if I can figure out what’s going on with this intense fatigue, it’ll be the last one that beats me.
That’s such a terrible feeling when you’re struggling to just finish a race – I have been there! Congrats on pushing through!
I’ll be interested to see what you find with the B-12. I would have though iron, too.
Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table recently posted..Manic Monday
So sorry to hear that. I think B12 deficiencies are very common and often misdiagnosed, so that may be the culprit. However, that said, you might want to have a complete iron panel done including ferritin, % saturation, TIBC, and serum iron. Just measuring the total amount of iron in the blood (i.e. serum iron) doesn’t tell the whole story. For example, my serum iron level is 173 (top of the range is 175), but upon further investigation I found my ferritin (storage iron) was on the low side. Sub-optimal % saturation and TIBC (total iron-binding capacity) can also mess with your body’s use of whatever iron it does have. It’s hard to get an allopathic physician to even talk about little details like that, let alone test them, but a good functional medicine practitioner or chiropractor could be more helpful. Hope you figure out what’s going on soon!
Amber Shea @Almost Vegan recently posted..Raw chocolate buckwheat granola
This is so good to learn about – I wish I’d known this earlier, but better late than never:)
Emma recently posted..rose water and grenadine madeleines
Thank you so much! That is such a helpful suggestion and I’ll definitely bring it up to my doc when we discuss all this.
I hope you weren’t too discouraged by this; it sounds like you’ve got a plan of attack, which is good.
The last half marathon I did (and really the last time I ran any significant distance), I was in Boston with friends the night before, and had to get up to the New Hampshire coast early morning. My friends stayed out quite late and I had no way to get back to their place to sleep before 1am. Then morning came. It was late February, snowy, cold and windy, and I had never felt more unhappy in my life. If you’re working at moving past an inability to run, I too should work at re-desiring to run. Thanks Alayna;)
Emma recently posted..rose water and grenadine madeleines
There’s nothing wrong with feeling unhappy about doing something just because someone else may wish they could be in your shoes. That said, if running is something you truly used to love and just drifted away from, I hope you find a way to reconnect.
I just meant that I let a miserable race ruin my mindset, and after seeing your dedication despite setbacks, it made me want to change my tune and be a bit more positive-thinking:)
I definitely enjoy running… when I get enough sleep!
Emma recently posted..potato bacon breakfast churros, served in a bacon bowl
You absolutely should feel proud of yourself for finishing! Heck, for even starting, but that’s my complete-disinterest in racing coming through 😛 Funnily enough, I just put myself onto B12 as I realised that my fake vegan lifestyle means I’m likely to be very low, particularly as I’ve long been borderline iron deficient too. In truth, I even ate red meat for the first time in a long time last weekend, because I’ve been exhausted and wretched for a few months and wanted to see if it would help.
Good luck with sorting this out, dear Alayna! I’m sure you’ll be right as rain soon
Thank you, I sure hope so. I hope you’re feeling perked up and peppy soon too!
I am so proud of you!! I think it is completely awesome that you pushed through the fatigue and finished. Way to go!! And by the way- your slowest 5k is still faster than my slowest!
I really hope you and your doctor are able to figure out the issue and if it is a B12 problem that it gets resolved quickly!
Carol @ Lucky Zucca recently posted..Half-Marathon Training Review: Week 10
Thanks Carol! I may not have beaten any personal records but I sure beat everyone who didn’t even show up!
So glad you were able to pull through and finish it, but fatigue really is SO hard to deal with. My husband has a B12 deficiency and the difference in his energy levels is pretty uncanny when he takes the correct vitamins. Good luck!
Katy @ notjustacarnivore recently posted..All Over the Place, but Balancing It.
I’m hoping it’s the same for me. I’ve read that it’s possible to feel drastically better even after your first B12 shot.
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