This morning's run felt brutal! When my alarm got me out of bed at 4:15, I had had only 3 hours and 45 minutes of sleep. I was determined to run today and got ready despite feeling extremely sleep deprived. This was a bad idea in itself but to top it off, I didn't have any bananas - my usual pre-run energy snack - on hand at home and so had decided to run on an empty stomach. Some experts on weight-loss recommend running or working out in a fasted state for increased fat burning... but no one, absolutely NO ONE would recommend it for running long distances. My goal was 19.5k.
Sleep deprived, feeling dehydrated and absolutely depleted of energy, I trudged through kilometer after kilometer - yes, like a crazy person. The first 7k were ok... the pleasant weather made for easy running and I was going at a pace considerably slower than my last couple of LSDs. I had covered 7.5k by the time I reached the beach and the sea breeze and the lovely being-at-the-beach feeling kept me going till my half-way point.
At 9.75k, I forced myself to take a long pause. By this time, the only thing that was keeping me going was my energy drink in my fuel belt - my sugar & salt water concoction. I took the opportunity to take my first ever "running selfie", a few deep breaths and a little stretching before deciding to plod on.
I ran the entire stretch of Marina Beach Walkway and back (6k) and felt better when I came to the beginning of the return leg of my route. I was at 13.5k at this point and I don't really know how. I think I was sleep-running by this point and my pace was at an all-time low. To make things worse, it was around 8:00, the sun was out nice and bright making it uncomfortable weather to run in. At 16k, and afraid that I would pass out otherwise, I slowed down into a walk to complete the target distance.
I just about managed to crawl up the stairs to my apartment and somehow did my cooling down stretches and within about half an hour's time collapsed into deep sleep.
Never Again.
Never Again.
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