Lowboy isn't my only Enemy

It's been a rough- disappointing week. I drove down to my brother's house in my old jeep on Thursday. It was supposed to be a 4 hour drive but due to traffic it took 7, which meant I was driving in the dark which is extremely sketchy in el jeepo. What was worse was Emily's drive in the new minivan with all three kids. Well I got rid of el jeepo for $750 which helped me pay off my Ironman entry fee and plane ticket money to Wisconsin I had borrowed. It's still sad to see it go.
I expected everything to get better from there and it did for a while. Me and Nate drove to the race site and spent the night in the back of the van. We watched Rocky on the way down and then we passed out.
Saturday we woke up for our first marathon to the smell of pancakes at the Ellerbe Springs Inn. I checked my sugar 177 and cut down my basal. This is where everything went wrong. I ate a couple pancakes and drank some gatorade. By the prerace meeting my sugar was 280. A couple miles into the race my legs were exhausted, heavy and I was severely dehydrated. My bloodsugar was 330. I have a feeling this is one of the many reasons for what happened next.
At about mile 5 my knees started hurting. I knew this was not a good sign. I have been having some knee pain on my longer runs around mile 17 or 18 but never as early as 5 miles. I didn't come all this way to quit so I just kept pushing but by mile 7 I was walking. By mile 8 it was even hurting to walk and eventually I was having pain just standing. At one point I even slipped on some gravel and said hey to the ground. When a race volunteer offered me a ride to the finish line I couldn't say no.
I'm sure it crushed Nate as I got into the car and left him standing there with noone else in sight.
He ran alone without seeing anyone for the next 5 miles, the hilliest of the course. I eventually came back and found him in the van. When he caught up to someone so he could at least have a conversation I left them to run and met him only at aid stations and then the finish line. Nate had a strong finish as someone came creeping up to catch him. The last little hill went all the way to the finish and Nate sprinted the last .2 It was impressive.
It took me a couple days to get over the defeat. I figure I better learn from this and be thankful that I still have months to rehab my injury and prepare for Ironman. Apparently I have upset the Illiotibial Band in both of my legs. It's going to take a ton of streching and rest at first then some strength training before I should even start running on it again. I need to stay off my new bike for at least a week too. This stinks because it is sitting in a box asking to be reassembled and ridden. For now it looks like to stay in shape I will have to do tons of swimming. I need practice there anyway.
Lessons Learned

1. Don't Ignore what seem to be minor injuries- They get worse.
2. Strength Training is extremely important.
3. Stretching is even more important.
4. Follow the advice of people who have done this stuff for years.