A Matter of Running

Well before I take time to continue my reflections on the recent trip to IHOP, I thought I would write about my recent experience running in the ING half-marathon. It was held yesterday at 8 a.m., and there were about 1100 participants. It was my first time running that race and I have to say that it was a very well organized event. There were lots of volunteers and water stations.

I had a sweet and sour race. It was sour because I made a really stupid mistake and forgot to take my gels with me on the race. I brought them with me to the race, but then forgot to take them out of my bag; thus they sat unused in my backpack! (for anyone who doesn't know, gels are energy supplements that you take with you on the run to refuel as you run; without them, you can get in to serious trouble)

I won't go into all the details of how this impacted my race, but suffice it to say that I ended up 'bonking' about 2/3 of the way through the race and had no strength in my legs. (bonking is a term used to describe what happens to your body when you run out of fuel).

The other sour dimension was the heat. I've never run a half marathon in that kind of heat, so it was pretty overwhelming. I was sweating within the first 300 m!!

The race was sweet because in spite of my own self-inflicted stupidity with the gels, I still was able to run it in 1:50, which isn't a bad time, especially given the heat the lack of energy.

It was quite a bit slower than I had trained for, but given the circumstances, I can't complain too much.

So there you have it.

I'm going away for a week of vacation, so I'll be posting again once I get back.