So, for the past two months I have been training to run the Vienna Half Marathon. I always kind of hated running, but this semester we met two girls who run Marathons, and one of my boatmates decided she would too. The idea entered my head, so I thought to try running again and see what happened. The first long run I did was 6 km, which is about 4 miles. Funny, before this I always thought I could never possibly run more than 2 miles. It's kind of surprising how things chance when you tell yourself that your limit is much higher than you thought it should be.
Anyhow, I ran on the treadmill since it's supposedly better for your joints. After the first month though, my shins started to hurt. It turned out that I had bought a pair of children's shoes--when I had bought my sneakers, I asked for my size and they said that they had nothing that small. My shoe size however, is really not very little at all, it's a 37, which is a very common size, I think. Anyhow, I asked them to show me anything they had in a 37, so I guess one of them was a child's shoe, and I ended up buying that. Children's shoes are meant to support children, who weigh significantly less than I do ;) I ended up going to a running store and buying a new pair of sneakers, which made a huge difference for me.
My friend introduced me to goo, which is, essentially, a sugary goo that gives you a burst of energy. When I first tried it, I had trouble swallowing it because it tasted like chemicals, even though it is vanilla flavored. Once I did have the first sip, I was able to down the rest, since my body seemed to really crave the salts and other vitamins in it. Usually when I run, the first 10-15 minutes is very difficult. Then I'll be okay for about 45 more minutes, before I begin to get tired. If I take a goo though, I feel tired for another 15 minutes while it kicks in, and then really great for another 25-30 minutes, and then start to tire, but by then I know that I'm about to finish and I feel excellent for the remainder. Hopefully that will work on the actual day :) Luckily, my friend brought plenty of these from America, since the gels in Amsterdam taste really bad (even more like chemicals). I usually have to take the goo with water though, since it's so sticky.
I find eating a lot of carbs the night before helps me, and it also helps me to run on a fairly empty stomach. I normally don't eat a lot of carbs since I don't particularly like bread, potatoes, or rice (I like pasta, but don't eat it very often), and that supposedly is really good for carb loading, since your body learns to function without carbs, so it's extra happy when you load it with carbs :D I usually eat pasta for dinner, and then have a roll or just a slice of bread in the morning, wait about an hour, and then I run very well.
The longest run that I did during my training was 18 km, and the total length of the half marathon is 21 km. We took a very early flight to Vienna (7:00 am), which was good because I had a chance to get used to waking up super early. The half marathon will start at 9:00 am. We went to go pick up our numbers, there was a really fun fair of sports stuff. I bought a sports jacket with zippers on sale, that was pink. We also got a goody bag with sports drinks, foods, and random things like shower gel, toothpaste, snap bracelet and a balloon. Apparently a lot of marathons give out free T-shirts, but this one did not. You could buy them (they were bright orange and 25 euros), but I didn't bother. We also had to rent a chip, which logs your time as you run through the start and finish line, with updates every 5 km to check your average speed. If you want, you can also set it up so that a text goes out to people every 5 km that you run.
I'm at my hotel now, and going to sleep early so that I won't be tired tomorrow.
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