Yesterday did my last mid-distance run: 6 miles at 11 min/mi. Felt awesome.
I seemed to have finally kicked the extreme stomach discomfort I'd been feeling in anything over 2 miles. Getting nutrition solved was a major issue: learning what I could (toast and liquids) and could not (pretty much anything else) put in my stomach within a couple hours of running. It has been my biggest concern in the last couple weeks - more than muscle fatigue and lung capacity - the nausea and scratchy gut pain that might force me to walk. But now I think I've got that solved. I'm allowed a few peanut M&Ms if I get hungry and some watered-down Hammer Gel mid-run to keep energy up. Other than that and my half-toast with peanut butter in the morning, I'm steering clear of food until after I'm finished.
I'm also super excited to meet up with a couple of girls from my training class and some expert runner friends of mine who will undoubtedly leave me in the dust in the first few minutes of the race. But as my mom says, the race is not a competition. Haha. My goal is to stick to 11:30 or under minute mile and finish in 2:30 or less. Anything under 2:30 I'll be really proud of myself. (And proud of myself from getting out of bed so dang early on a Sunday. ugh).
In any case, for those of you who have been keeping up with the fundraiser, you already know that it's been an unbelievable success. Not only in raising money beyond my wildest expectations for such a worthy cause, but for all the non-monetary outpouring of support from friends, family and strangers alike. As of this writing, we are at over $2200!! You've made this all so worth it, and I hope to keep up with running and paying attention to my overall well-being well into the future. With any luck this blog won't end with the race on Sunday.
Cheers and good health,
Kelley
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