4 Miles and a Gel Taste Testing

I ran 4 miles today. That's the longest I've run to date. It felt really great to complete it, but it felt even better to be running at 5:30pm with a temp closer to 79 degrees than one that was 95.

I plan to keep running these 4 milers for about 2 weeks or so, then increase my mileage to 5, and repeat the process until I can run the 10K. If everything goes well, I'll be running the 10K Run for Hunger on Thanksgiving day, instead of the 5K. But if the body says no, I'll listen. I don't want injuries, especially with my injury prone right ankle.

Another good thing about the break in our heat wave, I walk the dogs again. It was took hot for my hairy friends, even shaved down, to walk their ~2 miles at 8pm. And then there is always the issue of them being snacks for the wild life. We have had coyote and mountain lion sightings, by neighbors not us personally. At about 10lbs my dogs are snack size treats!

On to the tasting. Yesterday I bought 7 gels of 5 different flavors from 2 different companies. I chose Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Outrage, TriBerry, Lemon Sublime from Gu. From Hammer Gels I chose Vanilla, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Apple.

They all tasted pretty good to me. Both vanilla flavors reminded me of frosting. The chocolate is chocolate, although they both were more of a pudding consistency than the rest. The TriBerry reminded me of a berry jam, in flavor and consistency.

My least favorite was the Lemon Sublime, mostly because it was the tartest of the bunch. If I had it on it's own or with a lemon-lime energy drink I may have liked it better.

My favorite was the Cinnamon Apple. It reminded me of fast food apple pie filling. I say reminded, not tasted like, as it's still an energy gel. I'm not sure that I'd use this one on a run though, it's a dessert!

I'll try these on runs soon. I'm running a little over 45 minutes, so it may be on the borderline of actually needing them, but since I have them opened and in my fridge, I'll go for it.

Running in Skirts

I have a new product I love, running skirts/skorts. Skorts have shorts, skirts have panties, although both can be referred to as skirts.

I own 2 that I've run in, the Brooks running skort and the Running Skirts Athletic skirt. Both have two pockets and can eliminate the need for a waist pack, depending on how much stuff you carry with you.

I like the skirts because they give me all the benefits of shorts (meaning less clothes when it's freaking hot) without worrying about what the people behind me are seeing. I don't usually go crazy over something this fast, but I love it. I'll have to take a picture of me in one and post it.

Oh and I ran hills today. Really just 2 hills, they're reverse hills really. I run down, run flat for a bit, then run back up, repeat. It wasn't fun, but I was able to get up both of them. I'll try it again tomorrow!

Game Day - Disneyland 5K

Here are three reasons why the Disneyland 5K wasn't the best race evah:
1. It's a run/walk that didn't separate runners from walkers at the start
2. It's a Family Fun Run so it wasn't chipped.
3. It's full of funnels

Honorable Mention:
1. It was hot (high 70's, low 80's hot) and humid at 7am.
2. I had to pay the full $11 for parking.

I'm not an uber fast runner, but I'm even slower when I have to dodge walkers. I'm not discriminating against walkers, I just know that when I've walked, races the runners line up first and the walkers second. However, the stroller police were out in force, pulling people with strollers out of line. I didn't see a single stroller on the run.

It wasn't chipped, 'nough said.

There were many places along the race route where we narrowed and widened. I hated when I was finally getting into a rhythm and it was ruined by a narrowing of the route.

Things that went right:
I ran in my Brooks skirt with compression shorts and it was wonderful. I think I might have died if I wore pants. I got to run through Cinderella's Castle. My uncle cooked me yummy pancakes afterwards. And I beat my last time, if only by ~40 sec. I did have to use my rescue inhaler, but I didn't let myself stop running.

I think I would do this event again, but walk it. Or try to get there much earlier. I arrived at 6:15, but didn't get into line until 6:30. In talking to people there who were doing the 1/2 marathon the next day, I was encouraged to train for it. Apparently you get to run the through Angel's Stadium. When will I ever be get the opportunity to run on a MLB field and not get arrested?