Each Saturday morning, I run up and down the house to get ready for my long run because my running stuff is usually all over the house. Some stuff is on the drying rack in the basement, some stuff is in my bedroom or closet, other stuff might be in neither place so I spend some time running up and down some more trying to find it. While all this running around is kind of annoying and is extremely inefficient, I consider it part of my warm-up so I don’t mind doing it. 😄

Today, as usual, I was running around collecting my clothes and running gear. Since the forecast said “mix of sun and clouds”, I decided that I only needed a t-shirt and shorts. Easy enough. Then I had to get my water belt and I wanted to fill it up with Nuun. Jim had given me a pack of Nuun tablets when I won the Wednesday Night Champion of the World belt so I wanted to try it out on today’s long run. By the time I collected everything, it was almost time to head out but I still had to dissolve the nuun because my water bottles are only 8oz but one Nuun tablet makes 16oz. Watching a Nuun dissolve is like waiting for water to boil. It took so long!! By the time the nuun fully dissolved, it was really time to go.

Lesson #1: Allow 15 minutes for the Nuun to dissolve.

As soon as I stepped outside, I knew I was underdressed but I couldn’t risk going back in and getting more clothes because that would take another 5 minutes so I channeled my inner Gillian and hoped for the best.

Sadly, the forecast turned out to be wrong and it started raining about 20 minutes into our run. As water was dripping down my face and my t-shirt got so drenched that the whole thing was sticking to my body, Lisa reminded me that we have run in worse weather. That is true.

Lesson #2: Don’t trust the weather forecast.

My goal was to run 20k today so I ran home with Lisa, had a potty break at Lisa’s house 😵, and ran 5k home by myself. Running by myself was actually bearable today, unlike the last time I ran by myself. Maybe it was because I was mentally prepared for 20k today, it had stopped raining and was turning out to be a nice day, or it was only 5k. Whatever the reason, this is progress! 😄

Lesson #3: Running alone requires both physical and mental fortitude. As with all things, it probably gets easier with practise.

Nutrition log:

• Pre-run: PB&J bagel 1 hour before
• Mid-run: Nuun (one tablet in 16oz was too sweet, next time I will dilute it into 24oz), water, one piece of sesame snap from Lisa, biltong from Lisa’s dad 😋
• Post-run: nothing
• Lunch: Jeremy’s cobb salad 🥗 2 hours after