ULTRA (COMPETITION): My first official ultra competition, and I needed to stop it short. Terrible weather. Could have been worse, if the temperature had been lower than the +10 Celsius it was, but this was quite bad enough. Strong wind (10 m/s) and it started raining more and more. Apparently nothing I was wearing was at all water-proof: my jacket, gloves, shoes and socks were all soaked. The wind then really got to my bones. Hypothermia was threatening, no question about it. I had some dry clothes I could have changed into, even dry spare shoes and socks, but since it just kept raining, those would have been soaked soon too. But perhaps the bigger problem was that my usual stomach problems began after the 35K mark. After that I felt like puking most of the time and wasn't getting much energy and fluids in. I could have struggled with either problem for 5 or 10 more km, but as they were combined last night, I thought what's the point. I did achieve my minimum goal, so I'm not too disappointed: did come out with a handsome new personal distance record in an official race!