Saturday, September 23, 2006

Hard to stomach 20 miles

First off don't laugh at me. Ok I've been reading a book titled, The miracle of garlic & vinegar. I found a recipe for a high power energy drink which was:
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar,
2 teaspoons of honey,
mix with 8 ounces of water.
Apple cider vinegar contains 19 of the 22 necessary minerals essential for human health.

When I first read about the drink I tried it a few days ago and it tasted good. I planned to try it on my last 20 mile run before Columbus marathon for today, except I modified the recipe to about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 3 tablespoons of honey and mixed it with water in my water bottle.

My wife riding on her bike was my crew support for the run. She had 1 plain water bottle and 1 miracle drink bottle in the bike bottle cages. She also carried the 2 packs of Power Bar gels.

I began to sip the miracle drink after about 25 minutes into the run. And every 15 to 20 minutes there after. At one point maybe after nine miles my wife took a sip of "the drink" and with dramatic facial expressions spit out the elixir. I couldn't understand why the dramatics.

We made it to the turnaround in good time of 1:09:21. I slurped a gel and washed it down with plain water. Not long after the turnaround my stomach was doing somersaults and feeling gassy and after 16 miles I was hurting. I counted my workout as a bad day but then I realized it was the magic potion that did me in. When we got home after running for 2:21:52 I went straight to the bathroom and relieved a couple more pounds which added to my already 6 pounds of sweat loss. I felt like $hit and when I looked in the mirror I looked it too. My lips were white from all the vinegar. I laughed. Now I understand my wife's dramatics.

Later that evening my son found the bottle that had some left in it and he began to enjoy what was left. A few hours later he complained about stomach pain. Oops, I should have dumped it right away when I got home. Poor kid. He's sleeping now.

OK, I learned my lesson. Make it right. I will still try it on my other runs and biking workouts.
Now you can laugh and make fun of me.

8 comments:

Trisaratops said...

Oh nooooo! Poor Papa Louie. Sorry to hear that! Hope you all feel better soon!

Jodi said...

Oh, I feel your pain! Nothing worse than GI distress during a long run. For my half marathon all I ate before was peanut butter toast. Then I ate and drank nothing throughout the whole race. Bad news, let me tell you!

Thanks for the advise to avoid the vinegar!

Jodi

Deb said...

I am laughing...but bummer! I've read a lot about the benefits of apple cider vinegar but it is tough to get down, no matter how diluted. Hope it doesn't take a 'miracle' to feel better! ;)

Neese said...

PL i am laughin so hard i'm crying.
lololololol, i'm cracking up i cannot even formulate a comment

JeffM said...

At least you learned what not to do before the race! That would have been bad during the marathon.

E-Speed said...

I love that you try all these different things Lou! I think it is great :)

Hope you feel better!

Lloyd said...

LOL! That's a long way to go on a foul stomach. At least you have a great attitude about it.

I wonder what concoction you have in mind for Columbus!?!?!

Cliff said...

ouch..

at least now u know what to do drink if u are not 'regular' :)