Well my long run this past Saturday turned into my long run this past Sunday. I was feeling somewhat dejected after my injured-shuffle performance earlier in the week and was simply not in the mood to run with my running group as scheduled. I was still battling the decision to long run by myself until ERC guilted me into getting off my duff by telling me that I had inspired him to run the length of a half marathon on Saturday morning. It was time to end the Michele Pity Party. Sunday afternoon, after sending the Creelman boys off to the golf course (Chad's dad is visiting, too), I broke out the new Nike plus system, attached the sensor to the top of my shoe with some super hot red duct tape (I wear ASICS so I had to "modify" the attachment a bit), strapped on the new fuel belt (pink, of course), stuffed the dreaded PowerGel in the fuel pouch for the halfway point and headed for my ten-miler with Ludacris and my Nike/iPod boyfriend sending me off.
You have reached the half-way point...
A word about Gels- blech. I know that they are good for you and all that rubbish, but c'mon- could they be anymore vomit-inducing? I don't mean to be graphic, but I had to stop for a good 5 minutes at the turn-around to fight an intense gag-reflex as I sucked down Strawberry-Banana liquid slime. Ah, what we will do for a jolt of energy.
You have 3 miles to go...
A lone GU pack, yet another form of Gel, seemed to have found its way to the side of the path I was running on. Always on the hunt for a good deal, and fully aware of GU's Stash Your Trash promotion, I snatched up the empty pack and stuffed it in my pouch with the remnant of PowerGel from my own refueling. Long story short, I accumulated 3 GU packs towards my 50 needed for 5 free packs and came to the realization that I, despite driving a gas-guzzling SUV, had a green streak in me and I was actually somewhat perturbed at others who had decided that Mother Nature was their garbage disposal. Feeling somewhat guilty for the second time last weekend after only picking up trash that would directly benefit me in free GUs, I scooped up another random Gel Packet- Hammer Gel (MC Hammer is apparently making a comeback with his own fitness fuel), a plastic baggie and a crushed Rock Star can to match the number of empty GUs I had recovered.
Congratulations! You have reached your goal.
Moral of the story- do like GU says, "Stash Your Trash"! Bonus points if you stash someone else's trash, too, since not everyone is as enviro-concious as you. Let's keep our running trails clean, please!
For more info on GU's campaign, check out:
http://www.gusports.com/html/stash_your_trash.htm
