My husband to the rescue!

Ran my first 20-miler of this training plan in preparation for the Grand Rapids Marathon on October 18. The run was great! Finished in 2:46. I didn't take it easy on myself. The route was super hilly. It was rarely ever simply flat. There is very little flat in this area - unless you run on the Rails to Trails routes, which are nice but have become rather boring. I used them almost exclusively for long runs during my last marathon training session.

What made this run memorable was my sweet, sweet husband. I commented to him after my 18-miler a few weeks ago that I nearly ran out of fluids and was worried what would happen during my five 20+ milers. This morning he innocently asked me to show him my planned route which I mapped out on the RW training log (Orion Area 20-miler from Home). Sure enough, at about mile 17 I was seriously low on fluids again. But then I looked up and saw a very familiar Jeep coming around the corner right toward me! It was Matty! Bringing me an ice cold blue Powerade to refill my bottles. My hero! He calculated where I might be based on my pace and the time I left and he found me right away.

Of course, I don't know if he'll be available to bring me fluids for the rest of my long runs, so I'm still left with the problem of Fuel Belt bottles that don't hold enough for 20+ miles. I was fine with this belt when training for my Spring marathon, but those runs were in MUCH cooler temperatures! Summer long runs require lots more fluids. So now I need to either find larger bottles that fit my Fuel Belt or get a whole new belt. I know the Nathan Speed 4 has 10 oz bottles. Fuel Belt bottles are 8 oz. So 4 Nathan bottles would hold the same volume as 5 Fuel Belt bottles! That would do the trick! I also found a women-specific Go-Lite waistpack that has two 21 oz bottles. That might work too. Choices...