Oh boy

Well I was on the bus at 9:05 this morning heading out to Saanichton Exchange to start my 22km run. I felt a little carsick on the bus which is very unlike me but it was nothing serious. When I got off the bus, I was glad that I had worn the right combination of clothing. I got myself organized and started off. It was in those first few steps that I knew I felt good to go. So I went for it. On long runs, I try to keep my pacing even but today I wanted to add some speed, as a test. I had packed some water/gatorade mix, a Clif bar and some ShotBloks to test to see how I tolerated them. By 5km I had a great pace going and had realized that the ShotBloks were not for me. They are like gummies and I'm not a fan. I started to feel a little crampy shortly after but I don't think the two were related. By 12km the cramps weren't abating but were not causing me discomfort, only concern. I turned over some really quick km's as even though I wasn't checking my pace per km I was glancing at my current pace and it was telling me good things. I pressed on feeling the pace starting to eat at my reserves. The Clif bar was another loser as it was too hard to eat and run with, very sticky and without LOTS of water was fucking near impossible to swallow. With 3km to go the cramps were getting the best of me and I suddenly realized that what I think I had known all along, runners trots. I pushed to run the half marathon distance (21.1km) and finished up just a little over that. I will leave the rest of the story for another time but suffice to say it all worked out well. I ran amazingly well and way fast. 1:45:39 ~ 21.5km, 4:55 per km. I ran a 1:43:43 half marathon which is only 6 minutes off my PR.