and I was running a half marathon I would do these things. I will take my own recently learned advice next time.

1. Eat breakfast. I did not do this because I don’t usually eat before I run. The thing was, we got up at 3:30am and didn’t begin running until 7:45 (when our coral was started – it was a staggered start) then we ran for 2 hours and burned 12oo calories. Next time I would have eaten a normal breakfast when I woke up because it would have been digested by the time I ran. Also, I could have used the energy – I chose not to take any of the energy gel because I thought it would upset my empty stomach.
2. Drink water while running. Again, this is a tip from experience. I was dehydrated after the run because I never drank anything from the stops. I wasn’t thirsty at the time and sometimes my stomach has hurt in past races when I drink while running. I would have had more energy at the end if I would have been well hydrated. Plus, it was 80 and the sweat was pouring out!
3. Load your ipod with fast paced songs. I stocked up on good running tunes before the race because I like to click through the ipod only listening to a few seconds of each song. 🙂 I used play lists that a few favorite bloggers have posted – plus itunes most downloaded lists.
4. Wear comfortable clothes you have worn before. This will prevent chaffing and make sure the clothes fit well. If you are comfortable then you can run a lot more easily!
5. 3 miles is a long way when you have already run 10. When I got to mile 10, I sped up a little because I was thinking about finishing. Let me tell you that 3 miles is a long way when you are exhausted and your legs have carried so far already. It’s not like going out for an easy 3 mile run. Keep the pace you had been going and you will be fine!
6. Set a place and time to meet with friends and family after the race. At the end of the race everyone is searching for people and it is total chaos. Make a plan before the race starts on where and when to meet so you don’t spend hours looking for people. This worked really well for us because if we hadn’t made a plan, we would have spent hours searching for each other.
7. Walk around while rehydrating. Grab some water and sports drink and walk around before sitting down after the race. This will your legs to relax and your heart rate to go down.

Interesting fact:

While running for 2 hours I burned 1268 calories. When I crossed the finish line I stopped my HRM and restarted it so I could see how many calories I burned while I was cooling down. I was surprised to see I burned 209 more calories in the 30 minutes I walked around after the race. My heart was still going and it took a while to slow down to normal.

Good luck to my girlfriends Katie, Kelly and Heather who are running a half in Cinci next weekend, and my girl Allison who is running the Cleveland in a few weeks! Good luck to everyone else who has a run scheduled for this Spring! I am looking forward to planning my next one? Any ideas where it should be>!

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