hi ho, it's fifteen miles i go (no kidding)

Tomorrow I plan to run farther than I ever have before.  15 miles.  Waves of excitement of dread have washed over me all week. I think the part I am having trouble wrapping my head around is that I am actually running to another town.  Yes, I will end up in a completely different town than where I started, with a different zipcode, post office, and school district.  It's a lot to process.

Amazingly enough, I won't be running alone.  There will be 6 of us running.  Only two of us are training for the Brookings marathon; the others are just hard-core.  Seriously.  Who would run 15 miles when they weren't training for anything? My friends. Who are totally hard core.

To prep for my big run, I have been carb loading all day long.  As an example of my eating today, I have had eggs, bacon, toast, a green monster, yogurt, hummus, Italian wedding soup, and bread.  And, it's about 2:30pm right now. I plan to have a pear in the next 30 minutes or so.  Running 15 miles will burn about 1500 calories, so I need to stock up today. There is no way I will be able to make up that many calories tomorrow.  For some reason I am not hungry after a long run.  I make myself eat a snack afterwards, but I really have to force it.  How do you feel after a long one?

One thing that I have been worried about is water.  Two weeks ago I ran 11.4 miles, and my buddy and I didn't have any water.  We ate sports beans, but were really thirsty.  I don't think I want to even try doing 15 without some water.  I also don't want to lug a water bottle around with me for 15 miles, either. I can't stand the bouncing, and I can't run and hold things.  My fingers need to be loose.  I will tighten up if I have to carry anything at all. 

I have heard about Swiggies before, as a fellow female entrepreneur invented them.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try them out, so I ordered a pair for my girlfriend and I to use on our run. If you aren't sure what Swiggies are; they are a small water bottle that you wear on your wrist.  Each wristlet holds 6.5 ounces of water, gatorade, or whatever you want to have. The best part is that you don't have to carry it, because it attaches to your wrist with a velcro strap.

I got my Swiggies in the mail, and I am not sure about them.  first of all, the plastic is hard, and I was anticipating softer, waterbed-like material for the pouches.  So, when I attach it to my wrist it is a bit painful.  Secondly, my wrists are very small (freakishly so, in fact), and so even though the velcro is tight, the swiggies still bounce and wobble around a bit.  I imagine this might get really irritating after 15 miles.  Needless to say, I am hesitant.  I will try to use them tomorrow, but if they are too bothersome, I will ditch them in a New York minute and just go thirsty.  I can't stand bouncing and rubbing during my run.  It is a small irritant that becomes huge after awhile.

I will let you know how it goes, but until then...it's pear time!