My First Ultra

Good afternoon. A momentous occasion has come to pass! This morning I ran my first Ultra Marathon. Just! I completed the distance of 26.5miles. Ok, so I scrape in by about 200 meters but I am so claiming it!

Weather was fairly misty and cold when I first went out at around 06.30. Apart from this it was a clear bright day. The picture you can see was taken at around 7am and even though I have run past this lake at least several hundred times I still wanted to get a picture. I am so lucky to live and train around here. I get very jealous of Charlie having the beaches, sun and sand but I know I am very lucky.

I took snacks with me today for the run. This was a first and I think they made a tremendous difference to the run. Sure, from 20 miles onwards my legs ached like a mamma jamma (remember the censored version of Coming To America?) but I never felt light headed or hungry despite being on the move for over 4 hours.

I had put a bit of thought in to what I should snack on on whilst running and ended up settling on Kellogs Nutri Grain bars. Not exactly health food but I knew that I liked the flavour and I have had a few of these whilst in the middle of a hang-over. I reasoned that if my stomach can deal with them when I am suffering from the night before I would be able to digest them whilst running. Thankfully I was right.

Total consumption during the run:
4 x Cereal bars and 2 litres of fluid (simple squash/cordial)

I finished off with a cold bath and I have to confess to finding these utterly horrific. Recent research has even cast serious doubt on there worth so I am definitely an idiot for putting my self through the torment. Interestingly, upon finishing the run I was approx 4kg lighter (around half a stone). Clearly this must be fluid loss but I don't feel dehydrated and getting back in to balance has been very easy. Interesting stuff.

Any way despite the fact that I just ran a Marathon and should be feeling rather smug with myself I feel that this has been a rather uninteresting entry. Apologies.

If you are reading this check out Charlies blog entry under 'Marathon Des Sables'. Its brilliant
www.charlierunsmds.blogspot.com