The big one (35.5Miles)

I had a late night on Friday and even had some Chinese takeaway after dinner at about 11pm. Shortly thereafter I went to bed and my alarm woke me at 3.30am. Raining cats and dogs outside so dozed on and off until a little before 5 then got up and had breakfast and a pint of water. I left the house at about 5.20am. The Chinese and breakfast all within a few hours of running meant that I felt full up for the first hour or so of running. This bloated feeling and light rain really did not endear itself to me and that first hour or so was not the pleasurable time I have spent running.

I was surprised by just how many houses had lights on at this early hour on a Saturday morning, one of the houses was a particularly beautiful house out in the country belonging to a friend and x-girlfriend of mine, partying until the early hours no doubt. Good work! I hope your well and Merry Christmas to you!

As planned, yesterday saw the biggest yet. 35.5Miles run. It took longer than I thought, this is interesting because I actually know that I took fewer breaks than normal. I did not stick religiously to the run for 9 minutes and walk for 1 like I usually do and even though I only covered approx 2 miles more than my previous best of 33miles I was out for about 45 minutes longer than before. I am surprised by this because I did not stop to take photo's either (sorry!).
The only explanation I can come up with is that I made additional toilet stops, and I mean ADDITIONAL toilet stops! I did not stop weeing yesterday. It was as if there was a tube going from my mouth directly to my bladder. As an example: During the first 2 hours of yesterdays run I pissed 6 times. 6! Not little trickles but 6 big powerful blasts. I think that I must of 'marked' most of Essex yesterday with my scent! I have just checked how much fluid I consumed on my previous 33miler and it was a whole litre more than yesterday. Now I am really am baffled as to why I was urinating at every opportunity. Over the space of nearly 7 hours of running I drank around 3.5 litres of water when last time I drank 4.5.

3.5 Liters does not sound like a lot to me for 7 hours of running and yet I have never passed as much water in a single day as I did yesterday. Upon finishing I dutifully downed a further litre and really wished that I had not. After a quick shower and bowl of pasta I had to drive for an hour and a half to collect my daughter and for the first time ever I had to stop at some services to go to the toilet and then once again I needed to go when I arrived in Brighton and once more on the way home as well. I am baffled by this amount of toilet activity! I am wondering if there was a diuretic of some description in the Chinese food? MSG? Please offer any theories you might have.

Anyway, how did I feel afterward? Its a funny thing running for that long. For the last 45 minutes I could literally of sold my own mother for a chunk of nice fruitcake and I never normally eat fruit cake. However, once stopped your appetite all but evaporates. I just want to sit in the fresh air and adjust to not running. I did not feel tired mentally afterward but yes my legs were sore. In fact apart from a spell of fatigue whilst stuck in traffic yesterday at about 5pm I felt far more awake/alert than normal. I attribute this to a kind of low level 'runners high'. It certainly was not because I had a great amount of sleep the night before! I would even go so far as to say I found it difficult to get to sleep last night. A little like the 'caffeine' feeling I have mentioned previously. I could waffle for hours about things I saw and experienced on the actual run but I wont, I'll finish by saying that today I feel way better than I did the day after my first Marathon.

All of this is positive, interesting stuff to me. Even the annoying amount of peeing is interesting. The only slight negative to come out of yesterday's run is the thought that at the end of Jan I need to run 45 miles as opposed to 35. Whilst I love the unknown factor of 'can I actually do that?' It is a little daunting. I reckon another 10miles would easily of kept me out for another 2 hours and that is a lot of extra running when you have already been out for the best part of 7 hours. I think I would like to get a least one more long run completed before I turn up in Tring for the start of the race at the end of January.

Science bit
Time: 6hours 54mins
Distance: 35.5Miles
Fluid: 3.5 litres
Food: 6 nutri grain bars