That’s my new max distance… 8.64miles. It took me almost 2.5 hours to complete, but I did it. I came back from the run and my wife opened the door and paused. She was staring at me with this bewildered expression and giant eyes. I didn’t realize it but I had been out there for so long that I had crusted salt from my sweat evaporating all over my shirt. I guess it looked kind of ominous. I guess she thought I was about to collapse on the floor. I didn’t though. I felt fine.

Let’s backtrack a little though. A lot of things have happened and I haven’t posted in a while. Let’s go in order:

1. We moved to a new rental house that is significantly less buggy and rodenty. Hurray! The only problem is I lost a good week of running in the turmoil.
2. A week after we moved in the sewer backed up because the “new” rental is actually just new to us. The sewer system was apparently over 30 years old and made out of some kind of weird asbestos stuff. It was full of roots. The sewer decided to revisit the house via the bathtub and showers. Ugh. Gross. We lived with KTs parents for a few days and that again threw me off my running schedule.
3. I was sick in there somewhere and lost some running time.
4. I restarted my running in late October and was worried that I might have lost too much time to be able to finish my training.
5. A week later I had decided that I hadn’t lost too much since I had originally started on a more aggressive whole marathon program instead of the half marathon program so I signed up and paid for the half marathon. Woo! It’s official.
6. I learned after running 6 miles that drinking just water and/or gatorade isn’t enough for me. I need something more intense… especially on the sodium front. DMC suggested EFS from 1st Endurance Systems so I picked up a jar and it really works wonders. Also Dr. Von Bergen suggested that on days that I run I take a double dose of multi-vitamin-mineral pills. So I’m doing that too. So far so good.

So in short: I’m back on track and feeling good. I even managed to get several good runs on the treadmill at work which usually just results in me stopping after 2 miles because of severe ligament & shin pain. I’m not sure why I’d run better on the road but I guess it’s better than the alternative since I doubt they’d let me finish my half-marathon on a treadmill at the starting line.

Also… I should probably start blogging about other things too instead of trying to limit myself to running or biking as adequate source material.