Test Run: Honey Stingers & Crystallized Ginger

I took a stab at some new fueling methods for long runs and distance races this past weekend.  As I discussed in a previous post, I have serious digestive issues that make eating a major problem. It has recently become very clear to me that I need to sort out midrun fueling if I want to get back into racing full swing (I do) since the re-onset of my gastric illness.  My main issue is vomiting and delayed digestion.  I am determined to find out what products, traditional or not, are able to keep me running, no matter how much experimentation it takes!  Running fuels my psyche, I just need to find out a way to fuel my running.

I am documenting this trial and error process not just for my own records, but to benefit other runners with digestive problems or sensitive/nervous stomachs too.  If just one person benefits from this dirty work (besides myself, because I sure as hell intend to), I would be truly happy.  I know how frustrating it is to be a runner with tummy problems, and how hard it is to get applicable advice to help you out of a fueling rut.  Stay strong, gastrically (look, I invented another word) affected runners of the world!  I'm looking for some answers!

Here is what I had lined up to try out:

Honey Stinger gel, coconut water, and crystallized ginger

Why I chose these items:

Honey stinger

This gel has some of the simplest ingredients of those I have read, and is really just made of two main things:  honey, and some b-vitamins, as you can see in the picture below.  I figured that the honey would be quickly absorbed and would be simple enough of a substance not to upset my stomach.  Honey stingers cost the same as your average gel, between $1 and $1.50 a pop in the store.

Nutrition info on the gel

Crystallised ginger

Ginger calms the stomach.  Sugar gives fast energy.  Good combo to make up running fuel for a person with an easily disturbed tummy.  Again, very simple ingredients: baby ginger root, and pure cane sugar.  Here’s the package pictured below if you’ve never seen/heard of crystallised ginger.  This package cost about $2 at Wegmans.

Ginger packaging

Coconut water

I figured that this new “natural sports drink” fad was worth looking into.  I have found that gatorade helps me out on tough runs and that I can keep it down if I am careful (and am not pushing myself to my absolutely limit) so I figured that something that claims to do the same thing as gatorade drink, but has none of the added sugar, would be worth a shot.  17 fl oz cost $2.25 at Wegmans.

When getting ready for my run in the morning I assembled all these tidbits together and decided to crack open the coconut water for a taste before distributing it into my fuel belt. Well, I’m glad I did give it a try before filling up because I found it to be absolutely rank.  The taste of it actually turned my stomach a bit.  So I decided to forgo the coconut water for this run.  I also realized at this moment that introducing three new substances on one run would not be wise, as it would be more difficult to pinpoint the culprit if something went wrong.  Too many variables.  I will probably try out the coconut water on some mid-distance tempo runs later on, so I’ll be able to give my two cents then.  I may try some flavoured varieties then as well.

Mmmm, breakfast!

So yeah.  It’s obviously important to get something in you before a long run.  Back in my healthier days I would have a serving of oatmeal before every single long run, but there is no way I could stomach that now.  Right now, this is what I turn to when I need some nourishment:

Instant Breakfast (powdered) and Lactaid milk

Carnation Instant Breakfast is a lifesaver and is the staple of my diet at this point in my life.  It is the only thing that I know I can always digest.  On days when I know I will be running long or hard, I have a larger glass of it than I would normally.  As my intensity and mileage goes up, I will probably switch over to Ensure shakes, which pack more calories and vitamins and such than Instant Breakfast.  I will probably be incorporating both equally into my diet very soon.

Oh, by the way, to make things more awesome, I am also lactose intolerant.  I alternate between soy milk and Lactaid, as pictured.  Lactaid is great because it varies up my protein source, as I usually get most to all of my protein from soy.  Though it tastes like crap on its own, so I use Lactaid whenever I’m mixing up a health shake or instant breakfast, and I have soy milk whenever I just want a glass of it.

The Run!

So, not wanting to go out for too long a week after that tough half last weekend, I set out to do ten miles.  This is not a distance for which I would usually fuel midrun, but time is of the essence before my next few distance races and I want as many test runs with various gels and such as I can have, so that I have at least some idea of how to better fuel myself for these races (though I think I'll be on this fueling journey for much longer than one racing season).  

But anyway, the weather was nice and I was feeling somewhat of a spring in my step, so I decided to stretch it out to 12 miles.  Again, typically not a distance I would fuel for formerly, but times have changed and my energy stores are a bit more depleted in my “normal” state, so I need to really step it up and try and give my body a little bit more when I am expelling energy on a run.

Bzzz.  Sting!

I squeezed out the first half of the honey stinger at approximately mile 4.  Early, but I wanted as much time of this run as possible to be devoted to fuel experimentation.

Initial reaction to the stinger:  “what the f&*^? this is disgusting.”  I’ve only ever used honey itself in moderation in my green tea, and having a mouthful of it was not pleasant.  Obviously I did not expect any flavour other than honey, but this was just too much and toooooo strong.  I shot a good bit of water in my mouth to dilute the taste and felt my stomach turn as it went down.  But I did not feel any stomach pains and continued to run.

Onset of the energy kick:  I am not sure if it was psychological, but I felt like that stinger hit me not even a minute after swallowing it.  I felt a boost of energy, but I also felt lightheaded, as if it was a “fake” boost; the kind you got after you had too much cotton candy at the fair as a kid.  The lightheadedness was an immediate concern to me, due to my history with hypoglycaemia, which I have had run ins with after a huge spike and dip in blood sugar levels following consumption of sugar.  But this lightheadedness was not enough to make me feel as if I needed to stop running.

Two miles later I did not feel like I had had a gel.  In fact, I felt a bit off.  So far, not so good with the honey stinger.

I felt that it was a good time to try some ginger.

Size and appearance of the ginger

  Now, let me first tell you, I used to HATE ginger.  But I grew to like it paired with my sushi and eventually started using it in powdered form in almost everything that i cooked.  So I expected the crystallised form to not be a problem to get down, taste-wise.  

Initial reaction to the ginger:  I first took a bite of about half of one of those chunks and after a few seconds of fighting it, I had to spit it out.  The flavor was too strong.  Not ready to give up on the product, I tried nibbling off tiny corners at a time, taking them immediately with mini-mouthfuls of water.  This made the taste bearable and almost pleasant, and I had about one and a half ginger chunks total.

Energy kick onset / my stomach's reaction:  I do not think that these gave me a real energy kick.  If anything, they gave me a mini version of the lightheaded hypoglycemia worry that the stinger had.  What they did do was settle my stomach a bit.  That was noticeable.  It (my stomach) felt less jumbled up for the next few miles, and that was rather nice and allowed me to push myself a bit more, even though I wasn't feeling a real energy kick from the ginger, or from the stinger at this phase.

Bzzz... yuck.

Three miles later (approx. mi 9) I had the rest of the honey stinger.  To be perfectly honest with you, I was dreading downing the rest of it.  The taste was too horrid to me and the thinner consistency, which I thought might be nicer, but turned out the be nauseating.  

But, I was feeling a little bit beat up and tired on this run.  I hate to say it, because I love my long runs and pride myself on stamina (if only because it is my saving grace for my lack of speed at shorter distances =P), but I was tired and knew I needed a kick of some sort.  

So I gave the stingers another shot, knowing this time to squirt the water IMMEDIATELY.  It was still unpleasant, and instead of squeezing out every bit of energy from that packet that I could, I left a good bit of residue in there to chill with the garbage bin.

And THEN, almost immediately, I got super dizzy and lightheaded.  I will say, I felt the kick of energy and was able to finish the last 3.5 miles with a bit of gusto, but my head was not all there.  I did NOT like that and it greatly concerned me.

Overall findings Points and conclusions based solely on what I, individually, am looking for in my fuel sources.  Basically just the deciding factors based on my preferences and needs are bulleted.

Honey Stinger

I do not think that I will be using honey stingers again.  

• Athough they did not make me vomit on this run, I suspect they would have on a longer distance at a higher intensity. 
• The taste just did not suit me.  I know they put out other flavours to offset the strength of the honey taste, but I did not like the gel enough to play around with them.
• The lightheadedness that these gels made me experience was extremely undesirable.  I thought that the simple ingredients here would lead to faster absorption, which I assumed would help my paralyzed tummy, but the spike of energy was not safe for me.  I don't know how to really explain this, but the energy that I got off of these gels did not even feel like “real” energy.  I just do not want to go there again.

Crystallised ginger

Not likely to be a staple of every long run, but will be a valuable occasional tool as needed.

• Although I was not experiencing extreme distress, the ginger did calm my stomach nicely.  If I ever run into immediate trouble on a training run or race, I feel that the ginger root could be an important part of overcoming that trouble and not letting it hinder the outcome of my run.
• The consumption of the ginger is a bit tedious, as I could not handle the taste of too much at once and had to spend time nibbling at each piece and babying it with a lot of water.  Not ideal for racing, but would likely worth it to slow down to nibble when stomach calming is necessary to continue at a strong pace.
• I did not think that the ginger gave an energy kick, but this just may not be its purpose.  It might be meant to be a soother rather than a booster.

I am excited about the next gel that I hope to try.  I ordered a trial pack of Chocolate#9 gels today.  I am not sure when I will try these out.  I may or may not be running long this weekend; I have racing plans up in the air for that will determine that.  The latest that I will be testing these gels out will be a week and a half (ish) from now, the 22nd.  

Chocolate #9 does not use refined sugar and is a low GI supplement, claiming slow-release energy (no spike; no hypoglycemic shock!).  It is something different from the regular gel out there, so I think there might be some promise in it.  Let's hope!

If I end up running (or racing) long this weekend and my trial gels do not turn up in time, I may test out Powerbar gels this week instead.  I am not entirely sure, I might opt to give GU another go instead.  All well, we will see!

Thanks for reading!  I can't imagine why anyone would read all of that without having a purpose for their interest, so let me know if you happen to be a similarly situated runner to me and are looking for fueling options.  I'd love to know a) that I'm not alone and b) that I am helping out another soul.

Have a happy week, folks.

The Aftermath and Moving Forward

So I've been feeling pretty blue about how that race turned out.. to the point that I have had to consciously remind myself that I did, in fact, earn that medal that I so excitedly show off in the video below this post.  I'll get over it, but the great thing about this sport is that you can just keep going.  There's always another race in which you can redeem yourself (to yourself, in most instances) just around the corner, and there are always long term goals to keep your focus on, to just keep your head pointed forward rather than down.

So immediately upon getting home from the race on Sunday, I jumped on the old interwebs and scoped out a few redemption races as well as a fun races to take up my next few weeks.

May 15th: Superhero Half Marathon Relay, Morris, NJ.

May 21st: 5K, Bridgewater NJ.

June 5th:  Seven Bridges Road Half Marathon, Tuckerton, NJ.

The relay is just to boost my racing confidence again, really.  And to have a bit of fun.  I intended to do the half on my own when I was first figuring this out, but I don't want to burn out and hurt myself, as this isn't the race I want to truly focus on.  Kevin and I are going to run this one together, and it will be fun to feel like a team, as we both haven't had that feeling since high school lacrosse.

The 5K is just for fun.  A few friends will be running this one and it's in a familiar park to me.  It'll just be a nice day and some good speed work.

The HM in Tuckerton is my true redemption race.  I'm giving this one my all and I'm hoping to walk away with a time and experience that I can be proud of.

I also have a race in July that I'm really excited about as well, but I'll talk about that later.

There are a couple of things I want to focus on right now to help me out in the long run (pun not intended):

• Core Strengthening.  I have been doing a lot more core work than I have in the past, but my posture while running is still not what I want it to be and my lower back tends to hurt on longer runs, so I just want to strengthen up my back and abs.  It certainly can't hurt.
• Hamstrings.  I pulled my quads pretty badly in the race and after doing some analyzing and thinking about it, I think it's because they have been over compensating for my weaker hamstrings.  I just need to give the back of the leg a bit more focus.
• Shin splint prevention.  I've looked up some stretches and exercises to keep my shin splints at bay, as I want to increase my mileage and intensity A LOT in the next few months and don't need those little devils getting in my way.  I'm actually sticking to these exercises and they seem to be doing something.
• Gait.  My left foot lands completely neutral, but my right swings out and lands at an angle and my foor over pronates a good bit.  I want to focus on bringing this foot more into a normal movement so that I can graduate onto neutral shoes and maybe prevent shin splints further.
• More focused tempo runs.  Tempo runs might be the most important part of the week, and I think I got lazy with them in the past.  I also want to add more legs of speedier miles into my long runs.  I want to bring up my pace in all race distances, so I obviously need to focus on this kind of training right now.

Also, I'm going to try and start doing more yoga.  Controversial topic, but I think that it is a practice that keeps runners more injury free.  And it's pretty relaxing.  Win win.

The past few days I've been jumping right back into things and I'm feeling pretty good.  I'm enjoying every step of my run for what it is.  I feel kind of renewed after that bad race.

Specifics on what I've been doing the past few days... My quads were hurting pretty badly the day after the race so I took the day easy, went for a walk, and stretched out in the sauna.  They still hurt on Tuesday but I pushed myself out for a run anyway, and it actually felt fantastic.  I ran 4 easy miles and woke up the next day with all quad pain gone.  I ran 4 easy again today and tomorrow I might do a bit of speedwork.  I'm feeling recovered and pretty strong.  Running just feels really good right now and I'm excited to get to work on these races.

Ah, and before I forget it, this here is a quote that helped me pick my head up a bit at points when I was feeling extra shitty about the end of that half marathon in the past few days:

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." 
- Steve Prefontaine

That'd be all.  Happy Running, readers.

SWAG

Easily amused.  Enjoy!

Why I Run and the Long Branch Half Marathon

 **note:  If you're reading this just to see how I did in my race this past weekend, skip way ahead!  I've done a lot of rambling  on other topics here, but it's all kinda important in understanding me as a runner and person, so if you have any interest in either of those things, you can read or skim the first part of this post too =]

I have always enjoyed running, but I seriously got into it around the age of sixteen or seventeen when I was dealing with my first months of being one of the chronically ill.  Back then I had what was titled as gastroparesis.  I won’t go too far into it, but it is basically paralysis of the stomach with an unknown cause.  The stomach stops moving and it stops digesting.  If careful and lucky, a little bit of food can be digested, but the grand majority of what is consumed is not digested and the gastroparetic (I don’t think that is an actual word, but this is MY blog.  I use whatever fake words I want) of my variety vomits up anything and everything that she attempts to eat.  In my world, what goes down must come up, and I was left with very compromised nutrition.  Especially when this disease was very new to me, I felt very weak all of the time.  I was unable to take part in the activities that I loved to the extent that I formerly could, if I could take part in them at all.  I stopped playing lacrosse, I could snowboard less often and with much less intensity, I was out of school more days than I was present, and my social life was sliced and diced into some lame representative sample of what it had formerly been.  I couldn’t tell you this then, but I am a big believer in the “what you do determines who you are”.  And I wasn’t able to do very much.  My self identity became “the sick girl” and I was becoming increasingly depressed as my life became more and more affected by my illness.

Then I found running.  I started slow, as everyone does, but within 3 months of buying my first pair of “real” running shoes, I was running six miles a day, five days a week.  I was hooked.  Running made me feel strong.  Not only did I learn how to push my body and make it work for me when it was otherwise failing, but I found a beautiful place in my mind that stretched far beyond my sixty daily minutes of movement and sweat.  

And soon, a long-missing desire reemerged to me.  In the months between the time that I became ill and the time I discovered running, I had lost a lot of drive.  I had mostly given up on eating because of the frustration it caused me.  I felt helpless when I regurgitated what I ate.  The act of forcing food into my stomach and just hoping it would stay there long enough to give me some nutrition seemed futile.  So I stopped caring.  My body shrank and my functionality decreased.  I did not care.  I knew that this state of mind  and this practise could kill me and I did not care.  

But then, that first time I ran for a full hour without stopping, I started wanting to eat and drink.  I wanted to run and I could not run without eating.  I wanted to fuel the exploration that I engaged in through my running, I wanted to build muscle so that I could run farther and faster.  I wanted to try.  I wanted to take control of my nutrition so that I could run, so that I could live.

In October 2008, after 2 years of being sick, I had surgery to physically take away my body’s ability to vomit.  My recovery afterwards was slow and strange, but about 14 weeks post-op I ran my very first race, a slow and steady 5k.  I then took a very huge leap and started training for my first marathon immediately afterwards.  2009 was full of racing for me and I discovered my true calling as a distance runner.  I ran a 4:05 at the New Jersey Marathon that year and kept up with my running afterwards.  During my first year of college, running was my sanity keeper once again.  Although I never found the time to race with a hectic schedule and heavy workload, I continued to impress myself with my private performances of increasing speed and distance.  I knew that in the next marathon I made time for that I would shatter my PR and from that point on would improve and improve.  I couldn’t wait.

Life happened and many months went by without racing, even though running independently remained a huge foundation to my lifestyle and person.  And then in November 2010 something happened.  The anatomical alteration done to my stomach 2 years previous failed and I began vomiting again.  While it was just slight at first, I soon became worse than I ever remembered being before and I could not eat anything.  I was happily living with my boyfriend in Ireland but soon after falling ill had no choice but to move 3,500 miles away to go back home to New Jersey and pursue attention of the doctors who had “fixed” me in 2008.  So I did on January 9th of this year.  After a few wretched tests and weeks of waiting, the fix-all-end-all surgery that I was hoping to receive was shown to not be an option for me.  I was then told that the doctors had done all that they could do and that there were no more options.  I had to live with my condition and figure out a way to get by.

That... sucked.  I spent a few weeks laid up in bed, half out of physical exhaustion due to my malnutrition, and half out of sheer depression at the prospect of being this sick forever.  Once again, I stopped caring.  I did not eat, I did not drink.  I did not care.

And then one day I woke up and looked at the calendar.  I expected to see January written at the top of the page.  I felt like not a day had passed from the day I came home.  I had made no progress with my health and no advancements with my life.  But, the calendar read March.  Three months of my life had gone by and I felt like I hadn’t blinked once.  I had been wallowing so deeply in my self pity, let my illness once again take ahold of my body and mind so ferociously, that I had forgotten to live.  I could not and would not let this go on.

So I went outside and went for a run.

The second my feet hit the pavement, I felt like myself again.  I tired more easily and could not run as quickly, but my legs and mind remembered exactly what this action was that I was doing, and I knew inside and out that this is what I am meant to do.  And let me tell you, I have no intention of stopping this time.

**description of my experience at the LBHM begins here!!

So I ran the Long Branch Half Marathon yesterday.  I have spent months rebuilding my mileage and regaining my speed, but most importantly I have been waking up the warrior and runner inside me.  Laugh if you want, but there is no better way to describe it.  Anyway, you can imagine this race being a big deal to me.  My first race in over a year.  My first long distance race in two years.  My first accomplishment since becoming sick again.  My first milestone in a long line of achievements that I desire in becoming the person I once was, the person I want to be, and in uncovering the runner that I know I can be.

I was really lucky to be able to run this race with my big brother Kevin.  This was his first race.  He started running a few months ago and really took to it, just like I had when I first started.  I like to think that there’s something in our blood that destines us to be runners, but I don’t know.  Kevin and I broke out at a strong but comfortable pace.  We weaved through the other runners and kept pounding out each mile between 8:30 and 8:50.  We both were feeling good at the halfway point and kept going strong for a few miles after that.

If you are a distance runner, you know about mid-run fuelling.  On distances around 12 miles or more (though that number varies person to person), you need to supplement your expelled energy with carbs and electrolytes in order to complete the distance and keep going strong.  Most runners use gels designed for this purpose- they are a pasty substance in foil packets made of pure carbs and a few vitamins or electrolytes, depending on the brand of gel.  On my distance runs in the past I have used GU gel.  I always planned my fuelling ahead of time and kept myself going strong and feeling good.  I have had to be slightly more careful than other runners due to my unique digestive system, but I have been smart about it and have always had great success with my fuelling.  Unfortunately, I have never run a distance event with my stomach in the condition that it is in now.  So you can imagine that fuelling for me now is a relatively  huge problem.

I have depended heavily on gatorade for the past few months on my longer runs, finding the pre-mixed carb/water ratio to be easier to handle with my sensitive stomach than the thickness of a gel and self-measured water.  But gatorade does not give me enough of a boost to complete more than 9 miles or so with vigour, and I even find myself kneeling over to vomit it up from time to time.

I made a mistake in my training and refused to experiment with fuel sources on long runs.  I was in a bit of denial that I needed to.  I was scared to find out what doesn’t work, because I was afraid that it would be everything.  And I was most of all afraid to once again awaken that sense of helplessness and futility in the inability to take command of my incoming energy.  So I ignored the need to experiment during my training and the day of the race I decided to use Sports Beans (jellybean-like supplements with added electrolytes and such).  I figured that these would get into my bloodstream quickly and that their small size would allow me more control of how much I take in at once.

I ate my first few beans around mile 4 and felt their kick about a mile and a half later.  I felt fine.  I felt great, in fact.  I was keeping up with my solid pace comfortably and I was enjoying myself.  I made sure to have just a few beans at each water station so that I could wash down their surprisingly goopy texture immediately.

Kevin and I were still running together at this point, separating by just a bit at a time due to crowd dispersion (it was a crowded race) but we would always meet up side by side again after a few minutes.  Mile 9 came and Kevin was a little bit ahead of me for a stretch.  I was really in the zone of my running when I tripped on a manhole cover and I was sprawled out on the pavement before I knew what had happened.  It happened quickly, as falls do, and I was filled with a whole bunch of endorphins and was really confused for a second.  I had fallen right at the edge of the road and there was a small group of spectators who immediately came over to me and offered me a hand up.  I looked up and ahead, and two runners had actually STOPPED running (I couldn’t believe it) and turned around to get me on my feet.  There were a lot of “are you alright?”s and such things, but I was having a hard time answering.  Physically I was fine.  My elbow was bleeding but it was nothing.  I was choked up and my mind was saying, “RUN”.  So the second I got pulled up by the astoundingly kind spectators and runners, I managed to nod to an, “are you okay?” and spurt out a “thank you” (I hope it sounded sincere, because I have never meant those two words more) before turning heel and continuing to run.  

But I was upset.  I couldn’t tell you why, but I felt my entire emotional state flush into a little whirlpool and I felt completely choked up.  I knew I wasn’t going to cry but I felt like I should, and my throat began to close and I was wheezing for a few hundred yards.  I knew I couldn’t go on like that and that I had to relax and allow my airway to open again before going on, so I pulled to the side to catch my breath.  And you know what?  That made things worse.  In the few seconds that I was stopped I felt a lifetime go by as I watched runners pass me as I stayed stagnant, standing and wheezing.  Then, after a perceived decade (but actually less than ten seconds), a fellow running grabbed my shoulder and pushed me forward, saying, “No, come on.  You got this.”  My body responded before my mind could and I was running again.  My throat opened up and I was running, but I was dizzy.  But I was okay, and I kept going.

That is when I started getting chills.  It was a hot, sunny day, and I knew damn well that I should not have goosebumps.  The chills became so overwhelming that I almost stopped at two separate ambulances to ask for help (how they could help, I did not know.  But I knew that something was wrong with me and I needed to do something about it) but I knew that if I did so that they would not let me finish the race.  And there was absolutely no way in hell I was leaving that course without traversing every inch of it.

But that’s when it all went to hell.  I stopped to vomit for the first time at mile ten and lumbered on vomiting every quarter mile or so for the remainder of the race.  I have never walked during a race in my entire life, nor during a training run.  It’s against my code of conduct as a runner.  But I walked for probably a total of a mile of the last 3.  I hated myself for it.  I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but if I wanted to finish I had no other choice.  I found strength in the last mile and had the most excellent tranced out sprint in the last quarter mile, where the crowd thickened and the finish line was in view.  It felt more effortless than any final push ever has, but I felt my heart sink into my stomach and digest into nothing when I saw the clock reading 2:17 as I ran across the timing strip.

My official chip time was 2:04:38, a full ten minutes slower than I had hoped to run.

This race was humbling and a learning experience.  It was a lesson in how we are constantly evolving as runners and people, and how we have to adjust our expectations as we do.  It was a lesson in listening to my body honestly, in not avoiding the hard truths just because I don’t want to deal with them.  It was a lesson in taking pride in my achievements, even when a part of me wants to call them a failure.

I am proud of myself for finishing, don’t get me wrong.  But not matter how much I’d like to say that I could, I could never be perfectly content with a simple finish without a time goal.  I did not achieve my time goal but I learned what to do in order to give it a better shot next time.  I do not think that I fell short in this race due to a lack of fitness.  I know that I have trained hard and that I have earned my ability to hold a solid pace that I can be proud of, and I will continue working to maintain that fitness and ability and I will train to get better.  Where my true intellectual focuses need to be are in the areas of race routine and fuelling.  I need to conquer my racing obstacles in order to achieve all that I want to, and so I will.  Unfortunately I need to conquer a few demons in the process and accept the fact that I am not invincible and cannot control my body’s malfunctions simply with will.  I have to learn how my totally messed up digestive system works and either work with it or trick it.  It will take a long, long time, but I will do what I need to do.

It’s going to be a long road, but I am going get back into marathoning.  I am going to train hard and race confidently, and probably become an expert on alternative fuelling.  I feel like this blog is going to be an important tool in this whole process, so I hope you’re ready for some reading!

Thanks for reading this if you did.  I know it’s probably only really interesting to me, and that some things that I choose to elaborate on may bore other people, but I’m getting what I need to out there, and I feel a whole lot better after having done so.  This is a huge part of my life and I appreciate you sharing it with me by reading this blog in part or in whole.  You have a lovely day, reader!