Start Time: 8/30/08, 6:40am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 20 miles
Average Pace: 10:05min/mile
Total Miles For August: 93 miles

Crappy, crappy run. The first half was not bad, but I ran out of gas—big time—in the second half. Had Fred or Kathy (at the 16.5 mile water stop) said, “Do you want a ride back?” I would have taken it. Regretted it later, sure, but oh yeah. Totally taken it.

Considering I was feeling tired, lithless, and generally sick from Wednesday night through Friday night, well, I suppose this really shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Doubly so because what was to have been our water stop at mile 13.5, the Vienna Community Center, was closed due to the holiday. Had I stopped there on the way out (making it mile 12.5) I would have been ok because there was a water fountain right before the turn-around. But of course, I hadn’t checked it, and in retrospect I should’ve turned around and hoofed the extra half mile back to the water fountain. So it was just me and my water bottle between miles 9.5 and 16.5.

Honestly, I’m just glad I finished; that was a major victory in its own right.

Oh, and PowerBars? Have an expiration date. I had one I had kept for an emergency, and sure enough this morning I remembered that I’d forgotten on Friday to pick up some more gels. So the emergency PowerBar came with me, and when I took a bite… it was horrible. It tasted like ashes, honestly. I’m not a big fan of PowerBars to begin with, but this was one of the few flavors I could tolerate. Bleah. Needless to say it went into the trash. Lessons learned!