“Do these really do anything and what DO they do?” the sales
cashier asked while ringing up my three Vanilla Bean and two Chocolate Outrage
energy GUs. Headed out in for a long run – 18 miles – I was prepping my fuel
belt the afternoon before I ventured out for self inflicted torture. “These are the difference between being able
to run for a long time and not by refueling your glycogen” I replied.
Ever since my first 10 mile run - attempted without anything
besides water and a stern but practical nudging from my running partner to look
into a fuel belt and running gels during marathon training - I’ve been amazed
and re-energized with GUs. I truly believed the difference between my successes
or failures pounding pavement relied solely on gels…now I’m not so sure.
5am Saturday morning I found myself posting a small movie
clip of the dragon from Disney’s Mulan proclaiming
“I Liiive!” while rising from magical smoke. My feelings exactly. And that was
about all I was feeling in exception to serious intimidation of running 3+
hours by myself. I wasn’t feeling it and coffee with a small snack didn’t help.
Nothing seemed to improve as I plodded away keeping more
attention to my watch and pace than how my body was feeling. As I passed the
two mile mark I wondered if I was alone in the ability to actually believe you
can attempt sleeping while running…
Finally waking up around 3.5 miles, I turned my thoughts to
my GU refueling strategy – 4 miles, 7-8, 11-12 should get me through without
remotely feeling the effects of bonking. The first gel was a burden and took me
a half mile to slowly ingest and was it my imagination or was it bugging my
stomach? Being truly awake didn’t seem to be helping me find my running groove
and thoughts of heading home were already creeping in at mile seven.
Mile nine and I’m wondering if I’d rather be in labor than
volunteering to run this far and I’m only half way! Naaaa…I’d keep running but
with the ever present awareness of my handy phone ready to call for a ride. Gels
two and three were about the same as number one and all other gels for the run
were definitely not part of my strategy even as the last daunting miles stared
me in the face. The GUs were not doing their job today as I plodded along…even
on that last six mile stretch home when I generally feel the loose flowing
stride coming easily.
I started to wonder if the GUs had actually hindered my
feeling better and if I would have done a better job without them. I struggled
through my long 18 mile run. It was tough. Were GUs really the difference
between my success – actually finishing decently alive- and failure Saturday? I’m
thinking not since the only thing getting me through the last four miles
consisted of sheer willpower to not make a phone call.
I’ve decided to revise my statement on GUs – GUs make up the
1% of the 100% needed to complete a long run…while gels are still incredibly helpful, one’s
mental state does 99% of the work to get the body through a long run. I will
still run with GUs but I might be prepping my attitude more than my fuel belt
from now on.
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