![\"\"](\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Park-Hayarkon-Half-Marathon-7th-K-1-March-2nd-2012.jpg\" "\\"http:\/\/tallishiatsu.wordpress.com\/\\"")
<\/p>\nTel Aviv is normally a very hot place. The summer sun is brutal, and it’s humid, however, winters are relatively warm and comfortable with very few rainy days. But this year has been totally different. It is the worst winter we\u2019ve had since 1992 (which was the coldest recorded winter ever). It\u2018s been cold and rainy for the most part since December.<\/p>\n
The last week has been consistently stormy, and as Friday\u2019s half marathon approached, what seemed like a great idea a month ago seemed not so great anymore.<\/p>\n
But the weather is only part of the story. Since running the Tiberias Marathon I\u2019ve felt like I just can\u2019t get back in shape. I gave myself a couple of weeks rest and then gradually increase my mileage back to 45-50 miles a week. And for the last 2-3 weeks have been working on speed trying to get back to where I was before the marathon.\u00a0 But I just seemed to be slower than I was before. Well, at least that\u2019s how I felt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My coach, on the other hand, felt that I could do much better and when I signed up for half marathon at our local park (500 runners) he told me I should break 1:40. My pre-Tiberias marathon personal record was 1:45:12, and although I did set that record after running 7 miles before the race began, I didn\u2019t think breaking 1:40 was realistic. I told my coach how I felt and that I thought he was totally off. So he told me to add a few seconds to each mile and run a 1:42 race, a pace I believed was much more realistic.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I woke up Friday morning at 5:15 a.m. it was raining hard and from my window (on the fourth floor) I could see the tree tops blowing. I checked my blood sugar \u2013 93<\/strong> \u2013 and had some coffee. When I left home at 6:15 it was still cold and raining. I couldn\u2019t believe I was actually going to run a race in that kind of weather.<\/p>\n I met up with a few people from my running group before the race for a warm up. \u00a0I felt so cold that a “warm up” didn’t really seem possible.\u00a0 We ran 2 miles in the rain and went to prepare for the race. I checked my blood sugar (I had reduced my basal insulin an hour before the warm up) and it was 117<\/strong>, a little lower than I would have liked, but okay. \u00a0<\/p>\n I headed to the starting line feeling much better than I had before, but with my head full of the usual “running with diabetes” worries:\u00a0 Is my blood sugar was high enough?\u00a0 Am I going up or down?\u00a0 When should I take my first gel?<\/p>\n When the race started I took off at a much faster pace than I had planned. The crowd seemed to force me ahead. I ran the first mile at a 7:30 pace. I kept going thinking that I should slow down but I didn’t. I suddenly felt better than I had since the marathon. I waited with the gel until the first water station at the 3 mile mark. I didn\u2019t believe I could keep up the pace but decided to try and see what happens. \u00a0At around the 4th<\/sup> or 5th<\/sup> mile I found myself running along a guy in a red shirt. I decided to keep his pace as long as possible. I figured he would probably take off at some point towards the end, but it was the other way around.<\/p>\n The only thing that could have gone wrong at that point was my blood sugar. I didn\u2019t know if I was high low. High I could deal with but low\u2026<\/p>\n So I took another gel out of my pack and squeezed it into my mouth. At the last minute I decided to spit half out. 12g of carb should be enough, I thought to myself.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Park-Hayarkon-Half-Marathon-Finish-Line.jpg\" "\\"Park")
<\/a><\/p>\n