Well well readers, as I write this I am bitterly disappointed in myself as I failed to follow one of the very basic commandments of running....Thou shalt not experiment with nutrition for the first time in a race situation. An epic failure on my part of massive proportions and my, did this one come back to haunt me...
It all happened because I was unable to train properly for the Geneva Half marathon in the few weeks leading up to it. This was mainly due to a niggle in my foot that caused pain when I walked and so rest was needed. I will note here that the foot was fine in the race. Prior to this minor setback I had planned on a sub 1:40, which should have been in my reach....
However, walking around the small expo the evening before clutching my newly acquired race number I fell upon some new green apple energy gels with added caffeine....Ooooooh, I thought, just what I needed - these could rev up my engine and give me even more of an energy kick. So, I purchased.
Come race morning I ate my porridge, banana and mug of coffee; my trusty, tried and tested race day nutrition. I supped on my bottle of Gatorade on my way to the start; again, an old faithful friend...I then proceeded to 'down' my new found energy gel... It was only after guzzling this that I inspected the wrapper 'Consume with 500ml water'.....Yikes.
Ignoring my epic fail in both trying something new race day and failing to actually consume it in the proper way; needless to say my mistake came back to bite me. The first 9 miles flew by, my goal was well within reach, clocking the miles between 7:20 - 7:50. I was feeling good...Then at just past mile 9 everything hit the fan. My legs would barely carry me and I felt like I was running outside myself. The miles started slowing down until my slowest one clocked just over 9 minutes and I limped over the finish line in 1:48. By all means, this is not a bad time, but it was not what I was gunning for and I only had myself to blame.
On the walk home I was bent double with stomach cramps and for the remainder of the day I was curled up either on the sofa or on the loo with, well I doubt I need to go into huge detail here. As a result I could not eat anything and could therefore not kick-start recovery nutrition feeding my muscles with carbs and protein. I also could not stretch, therefore not allowing my muscles to ping back to their normal resting place. As a result, the following day I was shuffling around the house like an Emperor Penguin, it hurt just to straighten my legs. I did not feel completely better until the following weekend after a full week of ice baths, copious amounts of deep heat and using my massage roller until it was within an inch of its life.
So, let this be a lesson to you all...If you see some new fangled nutrition product you feel you may like to try, please please trial it out in training first AT LEAST once. I rather naively thought I would be OK as I had used gels before. Even if it is a new brand of a product you have used before, try it first in training....Or else you too will run like a donkey and walk like a penguin...You have been warned...
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