Steamboat Marathon: Almost last place (thanks, mono)

Back in June, I ran the Steamboat Marathon. It was possibly (? need to check) my slowest marathon, with my absolute worst splits. I also came in last for my age group, third from last for my gender, and fifth from last overall. When I crossed the finish line, they literally deflated the finish line arch after I crossed (which was, admittedly, pretty entertaining).

I had felt pretty terrible for the week leading up to the race. Symptoms included exhaustion, nausea, and inability to walk up stairs without getting winded. I had also been putting off going to urgent care for maybe a week at that point, mainly because the symptoms were so fuzzy that I didn’t think doctors would believe there was an issue. There’s nothing like a woman walking into a doctor’s office unable to describe her symptoms defensibly and in detail that would lead to a doctor’s immediate dismissal of her pain, or suggestion that it is “all in her head,” or a mis- or underdiagnosis. Anyway, I did end up going to urgent care – once on Wednesday in California, and again on Saturday in Colorado. I got lucky and had two great women doctors who took my fuzzy symptoms seriously and ran a bunch of blood tests, but they still couldn’t figure it out.

So, with absolutely no diagnosis other than “feels kinda like crap and has low iron,” I decided to run the race anyway.

I found out a couple of months later that I actually had Mono (mononucleosis, or Epstein-Barr virus), which takes you out for like six months, but I didn’t know that on the day of the race. Shoutout to my Wharton classmate Angelo for suggesting that I get tested for this – would have been a mystery otherwise.

Anyway, there isn’t much else to report here other than everything felt awful during the race. Key takeaways include, “don’t run a marathon while you have mono.”

Highlights of the race:

• The “Bustache” bus – “the ride of your life” – that brought runners to the start line
• The fluffy and friendly dog, also at the start line
• The overall scenery – obviously unparalleled
• Zach came in first for the half marathon, which was awesome. I found this out while I was thinking about quitting around mile 18 and checked my phone, but that was pretty good motivation to finish
• Seeing friends at the finish line

Lowlights included:

• Feeling bad during the race
• Running really slow
• Getting passed by two dudes in Jorts (jean shorts) (they were actually really nice)
• The couple miles of the race were on the shoulder of the main road, which wasn’t fun to run

Anyway, it obviously took me a long time to post this. I have wanted to post it for a while, but these results are just so comically terrible, I wasn’t sure how to talk about it, and I also didn’t know what my diagnosis was for a couple of months. But a friend texted me the other day about knee rehab she is going through, and she reminded me that we all have lowlights to our athletic careers. This was one of mine, and that doesn’t make it less important than the wins. The hard parts will pass and things will get better.

[But also, don’t run with mono].

Here are some photos.