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Blackjack

I ran 21 on Saturday. I was gone for over two and a half hours. That's a long time.

Actually I combined it with a workout, doing 3 by 2-mile at 5:04 pace in the beginning and then a 5k at 5:12 pace at the end. Mostly I was just trying to get the legs used to running fast (ish) while tired, and I was really pumped to be able to finish strong. I did a similar workout last fall and crashed and burned...not unlike the marathon itself.

The weird thing about the marathon is that nutrition is so much more important than any other race. By nutrition I mean not so much overall diet (one of my favorite quotes from Once A Runner: "If the fire is hot enough, anything will burn; even Big Macs"), but rather pre-run and during-run (is that a word? Let's go with it...) nutrition. I can't just roll out of bed and run; the race and workouts are long enough that I need to load up on simple energy before and replenish during. I think that's one of the biggest adjustments to the marathon.

That said, here's my official critique of the stuff I experimented with this weekend. Maybe I'll submit this to Bon Appetite magazine...

Started off with a PowerBar Performance Energy (Chocolate Caramel). There were several different kinds; this was more like a candy bar. Can't complain about that. There are some other ones I've tried that pack a little more punch but are harder to eat, so this was a nice trade-off.

Took a Gatorade Prime (Berry) about 10 minutes before I took off. Jury's still out on this one; it's probably just all a marketing gimmick. It seemed like no more than really concentrated Gatorade...the flavor was real strong and it had a weird consistency. That said, I ran a real good workout, so maybe it actually was effective...

PowerBar Energy Gel (Strawberry-Banana) during the 3rd 2-mile tempo. I need to get more used to taking these gel packs on the run. Out of all the ones I've tried, though, I felt like this one was the easiest to get down. And it didn't taste terrible! It also had a shot of caffeine or whatever, which I think is real beneficial.

So anyway, that was me doing the whole Gordon Ramsey thing. Stay tuned for more experiments (and double entendres) on marathon nutrition.

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