I woke up early, and it was coooold, so I decided to wait until it got a little warmer. I got some coffee and check the weather channel... temperature 25ºF at 6:00am, checked again at 7:00 and it was still 25ºF.... again at 7:30am... 25ºF, 8:00am?...25ºF. Would it ever going to pick up a couple of degrees? 8:45am ... 26ºF. I just got tired of waiting, got another coffee and went to the Trace. However, for some reason I drove to USM gateway instead of Jackson station. Once there, I got some sips of water in the fountain, put my car key, a gu gel and $1 in my packet just in case I needed some Powerade. After 4m of running I arrived to Jackson station; the restrooms were closed, the water fountain did not have water (frozen pipes?), and the drink machine was not working.
Ooooops! running without fluids did not seem to be a good idea. Should I go back to USM or keep going to Epley? I decided to go to the nearest rest station, Epley 3.4m away.
Right before arriving to Epley I ate the gel, so I went to get some water. Of course the water fountain did not have any. The restroom was open, but it was in terrible conditions (I guess too many people with tummy problems like to go to the Trace
). The solution? the drink machine. Great, I am saved!!! When I put the money, it received ok., but when pushing the water butttom, it did not do anything. Then I pushed
the sports drink option. There was some noise coming form the machine. Cool! Well... when I reached for the bottle it was not Powerade; it was a Sprite bottle! (At the time I did not have very nice words for the guy who fills these machines!
). So I was there in mile 7.4 of my journey without water or sport drink and with at least 7.4m to go to get some "real liquid". Crazy enough I keep going to mile 8 and then returned to the Southern Miss gateway. I got the first 16 miles on a Sprite! -- Finally, I got some sips of water at the gateway, and returned to the Trace and did 3 more miles. At the end I ran 19 miles.
Sorry for this silly long "long race" report. Just be careful when you run at sub32ºF in the trace. I also hope that the guy who fills the drink machines learn how to put the right sbottle in the right rackets (#@%!!).
With respect to my running, I guess I am ready to do a longer "long run". What about a 26.2m? Any suggestions where to go?
Anyway, Charles and I ran yesterday afternoon and I did a self imposed no water run. I wanted to run 1 hour 30 minutes. I was focusing on time and not distance. We ran 9 and a half miles and I am so happy with myself, because this is the longest run I have done in a heck of a long time. I have about 6 weeks to get in some training to do that MS 50 trail run. I need to stay healthy (although I am running with that piriformis syndrome at the moment) and really, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do by running without hydrating. It was cool though, and I didn't seem to be sweating a lot. I won't do it again, but I just had to see what I could do. Anyway, next time wait a little later in the day, as the pipes were working later on.