It was bound to happen.  A cross over between a date when I was sick and a date to run a marathon.  First let me say, that despite my reservations about NYC Marathon being a logistical nightmare (which is certainly wasn't easy), it was a really really fun marathon.  I would certainly recommend it and look forward to actually completing it.  More about that later.

So Starting on Thursday prior to the race I started to get a bit of a tickle on my throat and by Friday it was clear I had a sore throat and something coming on.  I was taking Elderberry, ginger, vitamin C, zinc...whatever I could get my hands on and whenever I could get my hands on it...but in the end, I was hit with a double wammy of Strep Throat and some flu like thing.

On Saturday night I was up every hour with the chills and a fever.  I was drenched in my sweat but decided that if I woke without a fever I'd head to the start and play it by ear.  So come the morning I was feverless and starting to feel excited about the race and pushed onward.

I knew something wasn't quite right as I was monitoring my heart rate and it just was too high early on in the race and I couldn't get it to lower even as I slowed my pace or headed down hill from the Verazano's bridge.  My body was working overtime on dealing with the illness.

But the crowds were crazy!  Not just the sea of people running, but the sheer volume from the spectators was insane.  I had to shout to my friend Chris running next to me so we could talk.  It really made it easy to keep going.

Up through mile 9 my pace was on track for a sub 4 hour race, but I was still worried that my heart rate was as high as it was.  By mile 10 things took a turn and I wasn't feeling good in a bad way.  Feeling overheated, slightly nauseous, and raging sore throat.  I actually started to look for a subway and at one point when I grabbed a cup of water from  a spectator I asked how far to the nearest subway.  I was looking to bail.  But some how I managed to get to mile 13 which was the start of bridge that led back over into Manhattan and figured that would be my exit plan...get to Manhattan.  Just as I got on the bridge, I threw up....but since there were no race martial or real spectators on the bridge, I just kept going.  I walked most of the bridge....which was about a mile long.

On the exit of the bridge leading on the upper east side of Manhattan (probably from walking for the past 15 minutes) I was feeling better and decided to try for another mile.  That lasted until Mile 17 when I got dizzy, the chills, and the flu showed its nasty face and though I didn't vomit from my mouth, I did not have clean pants on anymore....that was the final straw to go get to a med tent.  I saw one just past mile 18.  The wrapped me up with a nice blanket, hydrated me, let me use the back of an ambulance to warm up and clean myself up.  Then I looked for an official and gave notice.

I had a metro card on me so I walked the few blocks to the subway and headed over to Times Square to find my friends Dave and Susie who were with Tal....they had my change of clothes and I was so happy to see them.

Though I shouldn't have actually started the race, I'm glad I got a taste of it and super glad I bailed when I did.  This way I had a nice afternoon with Tal and my friends and not ending up in a hospital.