Hallelujah Hydration

Yesterday at 7 a.m. Trina and I started off on our 19 mile run. It was, without hesitation, the best long run we have had since we passed the 10 mile mark months ago. We started with a long warm-up speed walk and hydration. The rest is history. It was amazing. The difference that steady hydration made was like adding water to the pathetic, limp little houseplant that lives in my office. We came to life!!! Hydration is always an issue for us b/c of the distance. Neither of us enjoy carrying fuel and water and we have relied on flimsy attempts at water belts (b/w us we've tried nearly every skimpy water belt option available on the market). However yesterday we made a big investment and tried the 'alterra' pack by Camelbak....and the results were transformative. I mean it was amazing. We were fully hydrated consuming 58 oz's of fluid each and laughing throughout the entire run. Well, except for one deviation and big fat trip, both of which were b/c of me and not the lack of hydration. Really? You want to hear them?

Well, I have this thing. I like to plan our running or cycling route in great detail prior to our training and then I carve it in stone so that we can stick to it like white on rice. Deviation is difficult for me on a hydrated, full, happy day of visiting vineyards....so you can imagine how I handle deviation at mile 16 of a 19 mile run when I have minimal mental resources for coping with any unexpected outcomes. On a whim Trina suggested we take a road I don't like (yes, there are roads that one comes to prefer over others when you spend this much time pounding the pavement as we do). Instead of going with the flow I shot her the most evil look I could muster while eating my caramel powerbar gel and took off grumbling down the road. I snapped at her, complained, whined and generally acted like a 3 year old who didn't want to take a much needed nap. About a 1/4 mile down the road Trina calmly said, "are you done?". I said 'No!"...but I was. I couldn't muster the energy to go on with my tantrum....and then I was distracted. That's the beauty of being so tired when tantruming....easy distraction.

On the other hand, distraction is also not my friend. Many of you know that I have a tendency to fall down. You also know that I don't have to be doing anything other than walking on a flat, unblemished surface to fall down. At about the 18th mile I was beginning to get tired and hungry. At this point we were running through a neighborhood with treacherous sidewalks...a hazardous experience for me under the best conditions. Just as I came to a particularly uneven, rocky, broken section of walkway I also noticed an organic bakery with scones and cinnamon rolls in the window. As we ran by I craned my neck just so and looked over my shoulder so I could see the.....thud. That's me tripping badly and nearly falling to my knees. And so we laughed, well first we both freaked b/c it would be a travesty to get this far in training and have to bow out b/c I fell and broke my arm gawking at baked goods. But I will tell you, they were amazing baked goods. I love baked goods. Sigh.

So at last we have had a great run. At last we can see the light, at last we finished a long run laughing, whooping and high fiving one another. We had anticipated many of our long runs would be like this. But it seems that pectin, fuel, hydration and nutrition are far more influential than we had ever anticipated when we began this journey. But alas, we have determined a protocol that works for us....now I must go out and get more stone tablets to get this down.