Sunday...10Miles.

So today was supposed to have been my Komtar tower run, I decided that instead of doing that, I would join in on the I-Run group 15K run. I decided against the tower run for a few reasons, the first that I have never been much of a "stairs" runner...give me a nice flat Florida road and I'm good, so the idea of 60 floors was not appealing. The second being that my hamstring finally feels like it has healed, so I did not want to screw it all up again for one race, in other words the consequences outweigh the benefits. The last reason is that a good portion of the running group was not doing the race, so I could not hook in for a ride, so that meant taking a cab, which meant having to try and get one back, which meant having to leave my stuff somewhere, I would actually worry about it less here than in the states. I felt good with my decision to not go. So then it was a short run from home up to the youth park, about 1.2 miles, of which about 1/4 of I was waiting for my GPS to come up. Once at the youth park it was a nice run down to the Penang Esplanade, past the E&O Hotel...I shorted the run about 1/2 mile as I knew I had the run up to the youth park mileage and the run back home mileage. I really did not want to start pushing 10+ just yet. So the bulk of the run was about 8 miles with another two tacked on at the end. Really good pace to begin with, following a few of the faster members of the group...then I just dialed it back to insure that I could try (I said try) for some negative splits. The run went well for me, I felt good, hamstring did not crap out! The problem, if I could say there was one, was the Accelerade, made by Pacific Health Labs. I have never used any pre race or in race energy drink accept HEED, by Hammer Nutrition. I love HEED, i have never had any stomach issues with HEED and always felt that it helped me to maintain stamina, it tasted good, and was not as sugary as some of the energy nutrition drinks are (In my opinion). I cannot however get HEED here, no one can ship it here including Hammer Nutrition....I think. So I found Accelerade at a local GNC and figured I would give it a shot...mistake...I felt like puking most of the run, continued to burp the stuff up throughout, and generally did not feel any real benefit from it. So not sure what to do now, I will just stick with water, although as I have said the filtered and mineral water here does not feel as though it refreshes...that might be a mental thing though. So the run went well and for an overall 9.9 mile run, I managed 1:20...about an 8:35 pace, which is good especially when the Hansons program calls for anywhere from 1 to 1.5 M/m greater than intended race pace...I think 7:30 is doable for me in the heat here, just not yet obviously. I am really enjoying this part of my running adventure and look forward to more races and runs with this group of passionate and welcoming runners. Well loyal reader, Run Happy!!