My feet are killing me. My legs feel a bit stiff, but not too bad. I did devote about 20 minutes to stretching after the run. I probably would have done more, but I really wanted to jump in the shower.
New this year is a bottle belt, which has been great. I remember seeing these on runners now and then, and I always thought they looked kind of silly. But now I'm not sure how I ever ran without them. I filled all four bottles up with gatorade, and then had an additional 12-ounce bottle hidden at the 12 mile mark (also conveniently by my apartment). It seemed to be the perfect amount of liquid for 14 miles.
Speaking of things I used to think were silly, let's talk about gatorade. In 2010, I was convinced that all sports drinks were simply sugary drinks that people consume when they want to feel slightly healthier than they do drinking soda. A bunch of overpriced propaganda for "athletes" to buy into, and defeat the purpose of the exercise in consuming all those calories. I ended up creating my own concoction, with water, juice and honey. It was kind of gross. So, this year, LTB bought a jug of powdered gatorade that he prepares before the run (meanwhile, I make our post-run smoothie.* Making the smoothie before the run and storing it in the fridge is the best idea ever).
It turns out that gatorade during the run is incredibly refreshing, energizing, and completely essential. Electrolytes or whatever, right? Water alone simply does not cut it for runs over an hour. I tried to find a link to verify this fact, but my computer isn't cooperating. So, either trust me or Google it up.
On that note, LTB did pick up some other gatorade products as part of their "G-Series." It was crap and a waste of money. That "pre-game" fuel made me nauseous and I felt weighed down for the first couple miles. No more of that, just plain old gatorade, even though it does make my fingers and face terribly sticky by the end of the run.
Did I seriously run 14 miles? It's kind of unbelievable. I felt tired towards the end, but I felt like I had my head in the right place, always remembering to only count the miles I'd finished, not how many I have left. Somehow, thinking, "woah, I already ran 5 miles! That wasn't so bad," is much much more comforting than thinking, "I have 9 miles left. Not even half way there." The latter line of thinking needs to be avoided as much as possible, for sure.
*Ingredients for my amazing smoothies: I've tried changing it up, but it doesn't get better than this: frozen strawberries, bananas, spoonful of peanut butter, couple spoonfuls of Cabot greek vanilla yogurt, almond milk, and whatever juice we have on hand -- usually grapefruit or orange.
