I have achieved new shoes and met my fundraising goal. On Saturday, I met the Key West Team in Training team. It is quite an assortment of people training for Disney, ING marathon in Miami and a few people who are doing a marathon in Ireland next month.
The coaches strategically place water, and this week gel packs, along the route so that we are all properly hydrated and fed. The route took us along the beach, so how bad can it be? The beach is beautiful once the sun comes up (which would be on the way back.) Some in the group run the whole way, others walk and some do a bit of both. Hopefully soon I will be in the first group. I have a long way to go.
It is really the breathing thing that I cannot seem to grasp. You’d think it would be easy – we breathe all the time, literally. But no, apparently for the athletically challenged like me, it is more complicated than one would imagine. I seem to get horrible side cramps, which everyone tells me is from improper (or lack of) breathing. “Just breathe,” they say. Sure thing.
Saturday I managed to make it about 5.5 miles, with a couple of water stops, but none of those gross gels – I just can’t imagine they will be my carb of choice for marathon day. I will need to experiment, but I did learn that Jelly Belly makes “sport beans” which are, apparently jelly beans with some type of nutritional value. I’m in for the jelly beans, but still a bit worried about the 13.1 miles during which I will be consuming them.
Stay tuned for progress reports, and feel free to chime in with tips.
