How was your weekend running?

Two questions mainly occupied me on my long run yesterday. Firstly, would I rather – like the RideLondon cyclists I intersected with twice – be cycling 100 miles or running 20? Secondly, how much, theoretically, would I offer that passing man for his oh-so-delicious looking bottle of water? I don’t take water on my long runs, instead putting a coin or a bank card in a pocket if I really need it. And god, I needed it yesterday. I don’t know if it was the effects of a mild virus I’ve had all week, or humidity, or tiredness, or all of the above, but I’ve never felt so dehydrated on a run. And so cross about the total absence of water fountains along the 20 miles of Thames I covered.

I also managed – and you really would think that given I’m training for marathon number six I’d know better – to take my first gel far too late. I’m a loyal user of SiS Go gels (I find the ones with caffeine help more with the mental battle that is a long run) but even they can’t help if you take them at least 20 minutes after you probably should have done. With gels, timing is everything.

Of course, inevitably when you mention gels, someone will reply something along the lines of “In my day we ran marathons on a sip of water and 10 pints in the pub the night before”. To which my reply is, yes, well, imagine how much faster you might have run it with proper nutrition and hydration, then …

Could I run 20 miles without them? Do a marathon without them? I could, yes. But it wouldn’t be a good one. Despite hitting the wall fairly hard in my training run yesterday, I’ve never yet hit one in an actual marathon race, which I’m sure is a combination of training and getting the gels/water right on the day. Thank god for those cola gels, when they kicked in.

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