Thoughts on the Run

2:25:00 – 13.15 miles

If I’m going to run 100 miles in 24 hours, then I need to get used to the feeling of running sleep deprived. I had a conference call at 1:30a that I anticipated lasting until 3a (talking with Germany). This seemed like a good opportunity to try out running exhausted, so I made sure to only sleep 3 hours before going in. I decided that I would just go into the office for the call and then run on the treadmill for a few hours to see what happened. There are only 3 of us that use the gym before 7a, so I knew that if I passed out or something went wrong, it wouldn’t be too long after that I would be found.

Around 1:30a, I drank a 5 Hour Energy. They have been at almost all of the marathon expos over the past year, so thought I would give it a try. It certainly made my eyes more awake!

While running, I wanted to make sure that fuel wasn’t an issue. About 30 minutes in, I chomped away on a Cliff Bar. To make it easier, I pretended I was eating a cookie. 30 minutes later I ate a HoneyStinger Waffle. That was pretty good, but noticed stomach was starting to fight the food. I made sure to take a swig of water every 5 minutes, but even that didn’t seem to be helping. Then I started wondering if I was drinking too much water?

Around the 2 hour mark my stomach started to throw up some signals. I would say no pun intended, but I certainly do intend it. It was a feeling I hadn’t had since I worked 2 jobs and 80 hours a week. Not a good experience. But with every bad experience, one can learn a few things. I learned that I might not be okay with having a 5 Hour Energy Drink before running. I also learned that sleep is not overrated. Also, when feeling like crap, deep breaths are a good thing.

I’ll most definitely be doing more of these exhausted runs as it is good to know what to expect. This is like going to battle and all the training that happens ahead of time.