Insult to Injury

Funny how some things seem trivial in hindsight, but were monumental at the time.

Here's another story about Tuesday's long, painful run. I do out-and-back loops from my car and use my car as a central refueling station. A big motivator is knowing that "mmmmm.... in 2 miles I get to have some Gu and some Gatorade!" Sports drinks are lousy with dinner, but man are they scrumpdillyicious during a run.

I had about 2 miles to go for the entire night when I was pretty much dead. Most of my thoughts were "just get back to the car and have your gatorade... everything will be much better. It will be yummy." I got back to the car, depleted of all salts/carbs/fluids or whatever else I'm supopsed to have in my body, and grabbed my last bottle of Gatorade.

I couldn't get the cap off.

I didn't know if it was possible that my legs were so tired that they actually stole strength from my arms, but the cap would not budge. I tried biting it, wrapping it in a towel, banging it on the floorboard- nothing. I'm not sure how long I struggled with it but it was the most frustrating/futile feeling imaginable. I had to drive home before I could replenish.

Turns out it was a bad bottle. The next day, fully rested, I still couldn't get the cap off. Stupid Dutch (err.... COACH Stupid Dutch) was able to open it (natch) but even he struggled with it.

Here's some marathon training advice from Mister P.: Pre-open all your sports drinks before each run.