Best wishes AFC runners!

Meaning, everyone doing the half marathon in San Diego tomorrow. (Hopefully I got the name right, I'm still in a place where I can't look stuff up.) Good luck Lisa (from Discovering the Meaning of Stonehenge; again, no links right now.)

I did a half-marathon length run this morning on the gravel roads around Rod's cabin in Eastern Washington. My pace was certainly not competitive but I had no intention of that. My time for the running part was probably around 2:20, give or take (don't have Garmin on hand to check), but I had three generous bathrrom rest breaks, so my total time was more like 2:35-40.

Even though the heat today was far less extreme than the last time we were here (in the 70's while I was running, at least 20 degrees cooler than before), I did work on my hydration/fueling strategy for long runs, especially in the heat (more hydration than fueling, really).

I ate a Quaker Chewy Granola with protein bar before I went out. I wore my new fuel belt, with four 10 ounce bottles. I fille two with water (I could refill when I stopped at the bathroom) and two with Gatorade (the low calorie blue flavor).

Every mile I took a swig of water. My goal was to do it without stopping, mainly to work on my drinking and running skills. I did okay at that (I may have paused once or twice), but I know I still slowed down, even at my slow pace. I know I couldn't do it at race pace, at least not without a lot more practice.

At the five and ten mile points I drank some Gatorade. I didn't use both bottles. I drank four or five ounces the first time, then later topped it up with water and drank some of the diluted mix the next time. I did stop (for rest purposes) when I drank the Gatorade.

I also had a packet of Sports Beans with me. I ate half--okay 2/3--when I had a bathroom stop at six miles. I ate the rest when I had my final bathroom break at eleven miles. (My first was at two miles, with three stops total. I know I made it sound like more.)

My plan today was for 12 miles, but obviously I couldn't just stop at 12, I had to get back to the cabin. I thought it was likely that I might go over, since I kept adding extra little bits in my concern not to run short.

Sure enough, when Garmin told me 12 I was still at least half a mile from the cabin. The question then became whether I would push it to 13. My desire to hit 13 (okay 13.1) was warring with my desire to just be done.

But when I neared my destination at 12.75 of course I went for it, running up and down the road till Garmin told me 13.1.

Back at the cabin I finished my diluted Gatorade and had breakfast (a late one, it was after 11). What's for breakfast? A yummy Double Fiber English muffin with Justin's maple almond butter (a link would be nice), coffee with creamer, and a Yoplait Original Yoghurt, brought from the Waterville Hotel where we spent Thursday night. (I usually eat much lower calorie yoghurt but after such a long run I didn't mind.)

It's late afternoon now and we're heading into Ephrata for pizza, a movie (Harry Potter), and some shopping at Walmart. Red hot Saturday night! :)

Happy weekend everyone!
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