And it starts all over again . . . by claireenee

Hi all

Training has been going ok, went out with charity for training run last weekend, only wanted to do about 7.5miles and ended up doing 8.5 and felt really good! Legs definately felt stronger, could have possibly gone on further but was glad I didnt push it and then end up knackered! Felt tired this week, did 3 runs in week and did my long run yesterday. As i wanted to do about 10 miles I thought I'd try a gel just to see what they were like. So after 5 miles popped one in, nice lemon taste quite refreshing then couple of miles on felt the pangs of needing the toilet! Ok thats not great but I carried on. Got near home felt ok, could have gone further again but thought I had done the 10 miles so did a cool down walk for ten mins then home. Got inside straight upstairs to toilet (sorry guys) & didnt feel great. Had a shower got dressed etc another trip to toilet & then I felt awful!!!! Upset tummy, felt so sick, sweating & serious pains in belly! Tried to stay downstairs with family but had to go to bed & wrap myself up in duvet as felt so cold! An hour and a half later felt back to normal! Phew! The only thing I can put it down to is the gel I tried as i have never had this before on training runs and when I worked out the mileage I had only done 9.3miles so it wasnt that much further to the previous weekend.

When I ran the marathon in 2009 I experienced something similar. I was taking the sports beans & having lucozade sports drink they give out & at about 18 miles lets just say I had a 'laxative' effect & I had to keep having to ask the police if they knew where the nearest toilets were and also on the coach on the way home I was sick and generally felt crappy. At the time I put this down to the effects of running 26 miles but think now it could maybe have been down to the sports drink/beans. Now heres my question - what can I use to help me get through the 26 miles?! Will I survive on just water??!!! Or do I need to have people strategically placed around the course with bananas?! One good thing though, it has given me postive thought that if it is the sports drinks/beans and I dont use them then hopefully after this marathon I will feel ok enough to have my well deserved take away that I missed out on last time!!!!