Today marked my first participation in a Dana Farber Group Run - and it was awesome! This year I've attempted to schedule my long runs on Thursday or Friday due to my hockey schedule, but I decided to make an exception this week since I had a rare weekend off from hockey and the DFMC run was schedule on Sunday (today). My longest run to date had been a 10-miler on a treadmill, so I was a bit wary about increasing the mileage to quickly as this week my long run was scheduled to be 12-14 miles. I also didn't want to go to a group run and be the last one to finish...but, I when my alarm rang at 7am I dragged myself out of bed and headed over to Watertown to meet the team. I found an old hockey friend of mine, Christine, in the group of people inside the gym and we waited together to hear the announcements and an outline of the run. It turned out that there was a group of women along with Christine and myself who were all running a similar pace.
We set off in the freezing, windy weather together and I got to chat with a couple different women who I hadn't met before. The talking made the time pass faster, although the biting cold wasn't so pleasant. Every 3 miles, the DFMC team had a water stop set up with Gatorade, water, fig newtons, M&M's and chocolate covered raisins. Now, let me backtrack for a second. During last years marathon I got sick halfway through and had to familiarize myself with nearly every porta potty between Mile 13 and Mile 22. Prior to that, I had run two half marathons - one of which had a run to the bathroom immediately after I had finished. Since those experiences I've been particularly careful what I eat before and during long runs in hopes of finding a successful combination before this years marathon. Last night, I had a plate of Vegetable Lo Mein and two cookies (hardly a good night-before-a-long-run dinner) and this morning I had a large bowl of Kix cereal and milk. In other words, I wasn't optimistic about my chances of making it through the long run without having to run to a bathroom. Then, at the first water station and each successive one I decided it'd be a good plan to have a handful of chocolate covered raisins or M&M's (I alternated) along with my standard cup of Gatorade. If I was gonna have to sit on the toilet for a half an hour after the run, might as well make it worth it right?
Then...surprise of all surprises, the longer I ran the better I felt. My stomach was fine, my legs were relatively loose and I was cruising along nicely. Who knew that eating chocolate would solve my stomach issues?? Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised : ) I ended up running 13.5 miles instead of the 12 I had originally planned on, and got to meet many new DFMC teammates along the way. It was a great experience that I hope to participate in again very soon.
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