The Saturday that just passed, I did my longest run to date: 32km! Dear God, I really did not know if I could do it. Took me about 5 hours 25 min ... I will definitely need to pick up the pace just a tad ... though I do blame them hills for holding me back ;) The scotia run is relatively flat, so that will be something going towards my favour. Now if it were only all down hill ... ah such wishful thinking :-)

I woke up at 4am, ate 2 pieces of toast and 2 eggs (mmmm soo goooood), drank some leftover gatorade, 2 1/2 glasses of water (still shakened by the dyhdration scare from the previous week).

Speaking of hydration, I decided to try out gatorade instead of the regular elode discs to replenish lost electrolytes while running. Turns out, it was a good decision. I noticed I was able to keep a more consistant pace and was not as thirsty so often. Best of all, no adverse stomach cramps or nausea afterwards. I have heard that some people do not take in gatorade too well. Next week, I will be filling all my water bottles with gatorade. Let us see what 100% gatorade does... :) It will be my last week when I can truly experiment with the different sports drinks.


During my run, as I mentioned before, it was a 5 1/2 hour run, I did eventually run out of water/gatorade. There was a point where I had to refill with tap water from a sink. Not a big deal in many respects, but for those who know me well ... lol, kinda biggie for me =) But when it comes right down to it, if you need water, you need water.


On the first half of the five and a half hours, I chatted with fellow runners. Eventually, we all drifted apart, running our own pace. As I'm running along the beltline to finish my last 11km, I hummed a few tunes, I problem solved work stuff, thought about vacation and travel, poetry, books to read, mountains to climb ... and then I cross path with a rat.

Such a random event. I never knew there were rats in the woody forest. But then again, there were some residential areas... perhaps, I imagined then at the time, some kind hearted old lady saved the rat by releasing him into the wild instead of panning him down. No, I was not delarious ;-) just humble musings ... while some have the good fortune of having beautiful hymns come to them (Sid), I occassionally come up with backstories of things that I come across during my run.

Oh, good thing: I did not hit "the wall" during the run [for those curious for the detailed definition of what I mean by that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon]. Yay!

Next week, 23km. We're starting to taper down our long runs. Phew. lol.

-edit-

I had some really delicious vietnamese food after the run as a reward for my hardwork :P

P.S. Thank you Joyce Q. For the kind sponsorship! Getting closer!