Yesterday was my long run day. I am up to 13 miles now, which I rocked out in under 2 hours at 9:10/mile. Really, I ran too fast for a training run. According to my McMillan Running chart, I should be completing my long runs between 9:12 to 10:12/mile if I want to train for a 1:48:00 half marathon time (8:15/mile). Whatever. I blame the weather. It was cold and windy. I wanted to get that run done and over with sooner rather than later. Weather.com said it was 32 degrees out with 24 mph winds… making it feel like 20-19 degrees out. You really should be running indoors when it is 20 degrees or below out, but I had eaten a prepatory dinner the night before and didn’t want all that pasta to go to waste!
Off I went into the wind. It was such a weird feeling — I would put my hands on my butt, but I couldn’t feel them at all! Everything from the waist down was completely numb. And I couldn’t feel any part of my face. When I got home, I tried to talk to my roommate, but all I did was slur my words and drool a bit.
Anyway, I didn’t realize before the run, but I only had one gel packet left. It was a PowerBar Strawberry Banana Gel that I think I had gotten free from some race.
It was probably pretty old, too. Oh well. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I popped it open around mile 7 and… OH-EM-GEE I thought I was going to vomit. Words can’t describe. I can’t put my finger on what made it taste so bad, maybe it was the watery/snot-like consistency, maybe it was the fact that it tasted like someone’s spit, I don’t know. All I know is that I will NEVER ever again use one of these on my runs. I will never buy one. I will never take one for free. No thanks.
So, today I am off to the running store to pick up some more GU. I’m hoping they have the mint chocolate, because that is my favorite.
