Surf the Murph Checklist

Just a little more than 1 day out and all things are coming together quite nicely. I am in the middle of working out the final details of what I think I need to do to be ready for race morning. I went for a short 3 mile run tonight, no issues except for the branch I stepped on that I thought went through my foot. Then I have work, it is doing a great job of keeping me distracted of course not in a good way but hey, I will have 50 miles to work that all out.

My plans for the race are real simple go out slow, keep going, finish. I thought about posting about the weather and then I thought why? Regardless of what it is I will be there and will try to be ready.

Here is my current checklist:

Fuel
Clif shot electrolyte - 4 1/2 liters (2 bladders - 1 is 2 liters, 1 is 1 1/2 liters, 2 1/2 liter bottles)
Clif shot bloks - 2 packages
Chocolate #9 - 4
Sport beans - 2
Peanut butter sandwich - 2
Water - 6 1/2 liter bottles
Nuun tablets in case the water needs some flavor
S-Caps - 20

Clothing
Race start - Jacket, shorts, socks, running pants, long sleeve tech shirt, gloves, hat
extra running pants
extra long sleeve shirt
extra short sleeve shirt
extra socks
extra shoes
extra jackets
more gloves
costume - still thinking about it

Misc.
Headlamps 2
Flashlights 2
extra batteries
Garmin
usb battery charger for Garmin (need to create it yet)
extra watch

I am pretty sure I have forgotten something, oh well still time to correct it.

Ok, I changed my mind, here is the latest and my last weather forecast and it looks just fine.

From Accuweather - 34 at race start

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 50 °F RealFeel®: 39 °F

Breezy with times of clouds and sun

From Weather.com

Partly Cloudy High
45°F
Low
35°F

From Wunderground

45° F | 34° F

STM forecast update

After last nights blustery forecast I decided to check Accuweather again and less than 12 hours later it is an amazingly different forecast.

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 52 °F RealFeel®: 52 °F

Cool with times of clouds and sun

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 39 °F RealFeel®: 31 °F

Partly cloudy with a passing shower late

It appears the wind forecast has been move to Thursday and Friday. Since Accuweather seems to have some consistencies issues, I checked Weather.com (oh I should add that they seem to have the same type of consistency issue).

Day	Night
Rain / Snow Showers High 42°F Precip 30% Wind: From WNW at 16 mph Max. Humidity: 75% UV Index: 2 Low Sunrise: 6:50 AM CT Avg. High: 50°F Record High: 83°F (1950)	Clouds Early / Clearing Late Overnight Low 29°F Precip 10% Wind: From WNW at 5 mph Max. Humidity: 79% Sunset: 5:03 PM CT Avg. Low: 32°F Record Low: 15°F (1878)

I also checked the wundergrund and it looks closest to weather.com Hard to believe any of the forecasts so I think I will get back to planning for anything.

STM Forecast Update

A little more than 3 days out, I know I am getting excited how about you? Interesting forecast update.

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 44 °F RealFeel®: 29 °F

Very windy; mostly cloudy and colder

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 30 °F RealFeel®: 20 °F

Partly cloudy

Saturday winds

Winds:	W at 24mph
Wind Gusts:	50 mph

Saturday night winds

Winds:	WNW at 14mph
Wind Gusts:	32 mph

Neat symbol to show very windy and I would say 50 mph gusts qualify as windy, the southern loop may be a bit more interesting. Also, the Friday overnight forecast is looking a little less promising.

Friday Night, Oct 30

Low: 36 °F RealFeel®: 22 °F

Partly cloudy and breezy

Sure hope they got the forecast wrong one more time. Time to finish up the planning although it looks like a few warm clothes will be a good addition to the list and a good idea for loops 2 and 3.

STM Forecast, Facebook, Twitter?

Less than 5 days out, here is the latest forecast for Surf the Murph

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 49 °F RealFeel®: 39 °F

Breezy and colder with clouds breaking for some sun

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 34 °F RealFeel®: 23 °F

Partly cloudy

They are saying that the overnight low on Friday will be 44 (high of 60) and except for the fact that they say it will be windy with rain and drizzle it looks like a decent temp for the race start. I added Saturday night as I am pretty sure I will experience a bit of it and it looks ok.

Now about Facebook and Twitter, Ok, I admit it I am getting old and this must confirm it, I don't get Facebook and Twitter.

A while back, I set-up a account on Facebook, looked around and deactivated it. Am I missing something, should I give it another try? I only checked it out as a blog I used to enjoy reading Runalong with Pastor Mark, said goodbye to blogosphere and hello to facebook. In a comment he made concerning his decision, he stated "For now I'm going with the conversation of FB over the monologue of blogging".

Maybe, I am just better at monologue than conversation. Is that my real issue with FB? Why would I want to share info about myself? I am a fairly private person (especially at first contact), non-social, not outgoing, introvert, non group person. Yet I have a blog? I think I have it because it allows me to document my running. As I original said as I have gotten older, I tend to forget the details of past running issues and it's good to have an accurate account that I can look back at. So for the most part my blog is only about my running. When I started it I never gave much of a thought to if anyone would read it. Although I have to admit I do like getting comments. In person, I can and do talk but mostly only about things I care about, am I that shallow or do I just lack the skills of smalltalk? Maybe I will leave that for another day.

Wayne mentioned to me that many in the local ultra community have Facebook accounts, my wife and daughters have Facebook accounts. What am I missing?

I signed up for a Twitter account I think to follow DirtDawg's 100 mile event. I have yet to post any random things about myself as why would anyone want to know what I am doing 140 characters at a time? What am I missing?

Maybe I should just reactivate my FB account and give it another try, maybe I should send out a tweet, then again maybe I should just maintain my current status quo? If anyone reads this and wants to educate me, feel free to post a comment or drop me a note.

Surf the Murph forecast update

7 days out, I haven't started to freak out but I am giving a lot of thought to the logistics you know fuel, clothing, shoes, strategy, etc... more on that later. There is an interesting change to the forecast,

Saturday, Oct 31

More Details

Not as cool with rain

Low: 42 °F

High: 54 °F

Change since last update, low and high temp forecast up 14 degrees and a change from mostly cloudy to rain. Stay tuned as I am sure within a few more days it will change :-)

Surf the Murph Weather Update

Wayne commented that I must be working on my taper since I started posting about the weather, well he is kind of right. Why "kind of", well you see I have always struggled with what to do during and exactly how to taper.

So this time knowing that I had no more long runs scheduled and that I was 2 weeks out from my first 50 miler, what did I choose to do but of course work on my speed. I went out to Lebanon Hills last Thursday and I thought I pushed the pace just a bit, I looked at my splits and said guess not, So on Saturday I went out and since I was feeling good I did push the pace, you see I was irritated that on Thursday what seemed faster wasn't. Turned out, it was my fastest time on my 6 mile loop by quite a bit. At least 8 minutes faster than normal. So what did it do for me, well, when I went out on Sunday for my last 20 miler, that nice hard run allowed me to change it to a 13 mile run. Why because I now had a very sore achilles and a fairly sore hamstring and a couple of other issues which I won't go into. Yes I was tapering just fine.

So last night I went for a run, you know a night run, check out the lights, get a feel for running as dusk turns into night. Again I felt pretty good so I decided to push it, after tripping a few times and almost rolling my an ankle what did I do for the last mile? Of course I decided to run it harder yet. Ok, reminder to self, taper means "do no harm", "don't be stupid", "it's too late", "relax and take it easy". So after 3 good runs and a lousy long run, I think it's time that I take it slower and try to actually taper before I do something really stupid.

Now about that weather forecast, here is the latest from Accuweather.

Saturday, Oct 31

More Details

Mostly cloudy

Low: 28 °F

High: 38 °F

Changes from the first forecast, 7 degrees colder and chance of rain removed. They are calling for rain the 3 days ahead of the race and snow the day after. Of course, let's wait a few more days as I am sure it will change again.

Rachel's Challenge

Last night, my wife and I attended a presentation at Rosemount High School called Rachel's challenge. The event was sponsored by Dakota Electric (our thanks to their sponsorship) and earlier in the day it had been presented to all of the students of Rosemount HS and it is scheduled for many other local schools over the next few weeks.

Rachel's challenge is the story of Rachel Joy Scott, the first student killed at Columbine High School who believed she would make a difference in the world and she has thanks to the journals she kept and her family's willingness to share these with the world. It is an amazing and inspirational story with a great message for all of us.

Her theory is “If one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.” So, if we accept her challenge and make it part of our lives than we too can start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion. I think it is something that we all should accept as part of our lives.

If you have an extra 10 minutes check out this video summary from You Tube, look at the Rachel's Challenge website or better yet attend one of the remaining scheduled dates and hear her story for yourself.

Surf the Murph - weather forecast

It looks like we may have a few more nice days ahead but what about the weather for Surf the Murph. Well here is the initial forecast from Accuweather.com

Saturday, Oct 31

A couple of showers

Low: 35 °F

High: 45 °F

Can't wait to see how many times it changes over the next two weeks.

Final long run in murphy

I went into my final long run thinking that I planned to do 33 miles, basically the short 3.2 mile loop followed by two long loops around the park. The plan was simple run in my Aether Trails, fine tune my fueling.

Good plan, poor execution. What went wrong was pretty much everything. To start with I realized I had failed to pick up more Clif Shot Bloks which was Problem #1, not planning out my run ahead of time, no problem I told myself as I had my Chocolate #9's, a PB sandwich, a package of sport beans, my clif shot electrolyte, some gummies along with a solo bar. Problem #2 came up right after I got to Murphy, I had failed to grab anymore #9's, oh well, I had one, it would have to do. Problem #3, I had forgotten my gaiters, hopefully it wasn't going to be too muddy.

The first short loop went fine, it took about 45 minutes. I had wanted to run it easy so the time seemed fine. On the 1st long loop I did run the first bonus loop, thanks Wayne and Kel for getting me the location. I liked it, I love tight singletrack and the hill that Kel mentioned (in her post on her training in Murphy) wasn't as bad as I thought (yes I do have longer legs so the footsteps worked ok). On around the loop I went, I decided to take my #9, which leads me to Problem #4, I normally eat something about 1 1/2 hour into my run, I took the #9 at just over 2 hours. I crossed over into the horse trail parking lot, thinking that besides my errors, I was doing ok. I meandered around the lake where I had to stop to get rocks out of my shoes, gaiters would have been nice. I made it out onto the open section of this loop where I remembered Problem #5, I failed to grab any warmer clothes and with just a short sleeve tech shirt and my light jacket, I was chilled from my sweat and a brisk breeze. A nice long sleeve tech shirt would have worked better. Where had that sun gone, finally I got out of the wind and I felt better. On around the loop I went. After crossing over the road, I realized I was getting hungry so I ate half of the pack of Sport beans. As I climbed the hill I came to the gate that I had not gone around last week and I decided to climb around the gate and see what the section was like. This section is not too bad, mostly runnable, a couple of uphills and some nice downhills. I moved on around the remainder of the loop and came into the main parking lot with a time of 4 1/2 hours, pretty much where I wanted to be, a 3 hour and 45 minute long loop added to the first short loop.

Now the plan was to run another long loop and finish out my final long run. I grabbed another bladder of electrolyte, the PB sandwich and the solo bar. I was still chilled but what the heck, I had to keep going. I decided to change shoes as my Aether trails only had about 15 miles coming into this run and I thought adding 33 more to them might be a mistake as my feet were starting to get sore, the good news was no toe damage and no blisters but then again I had only gone 18 miles. So I put on my Salomon's. This decision of course created Problem #6 but of course I didn't realize it right away so more on that shortly. I ate my sandwich which tasted really good, I realized I was very hungry. I proceeded around the loop and ran down the first hill, ouch, my shoes didn't feel too good and of course they only got worse as I went. I was not able to run down any hills and basic running was a problem as well. I went ahead and finished my sport beans, I needed energy. Between the shoes and the energy level I was out of gas. What to do? I decided to just continue to walk but it was slow going, when would that food hit home? On I went. Finally made it up the hills and went to the bathroom for the 5th time, which seems like yet another problem the fluids were just going right through me which may have been related to Problem #7, I ate pizza the night before, maybe not the best choice of fuel before a long run. I felt like quiting and couldn't imagine finishing the loop. I ate the solo bar, it was almost frozen. Still the energy seemed low, ok, time to work the mind. I ran down the hill into the horse camp and thought about calling it a day. If I did I would only get in 26 miles, which is where I figured out Problems #8 and 9. I had lost track of my S-Caps and I was struggling with figuring out where I was and how much distance it would give. Since I knew this was my final run, I decided to venture out into the southern section and proceeded to walk some sections that aren't part of the course. I finally was able to run (albeit not real fast) and had figured out how to run in my shoes without major pain, who knows maybe with 4 or 5 miles of mostly walking the swelling in my feet had gone down. I finally figured I had gone far enough and decided to head for home. Of course when I got back to the main parking lot, I looked at my Garmin and it was just short of 29 miles, I had miscalculated my distance and headed back out for one more mile. Of course I failed to restart my Garmin so I just went out a ways and then turned back after not quite 10 minutes and then I guesstimated that my total mileage was just under 30. Not what I wanted but all things considered good enough, since I felt toasted by mile 19 but went another 11 and if not for the thought of "do nothing fatal" probably could have gone farther.

I do have to admit that over those final 11 miles, I kept thinking to myself how the heck am I ever going to run 50 miles, well upon further review here is what came to mind.

1. Don't run 12 miles the day before
2. Buy whatever you think you will need the week before
3. Pack extra clothes
4. Don't run in your Salomon's no matter what for distances longer than 10 miles
5. Last I need to remember no matter how bad I feel, I still have 14 hours and based on Kel's and Wayne's conversation with Les, more if needed. That is not good as I don't want to be out there for 14 hours, longer I just can't imagine.

Final thought, if I am doing 30 miles in around 8 hours on tired legs that still gives me 6 hours to go 20 more miles (18 min/mile) which should be more than enough time, I think.

Time to taper, regroup and then get it done.

Shoes, again?

After my panic a couple of weeks back, I am thinking that I am actually in pretty good shape at least as it relates to shoes.

My panic was caused when my Vasque VST's started to come apart and my toes were bleeding in my Salomon's so I went out and bought a couple of other pairs from Sierra Trading Post. Another good deal, $90 for two pair. This is my second order with them, both times quick delivery (plus free return if needed). Their selection is limited and changes fairly often so you have to watch or just get lucky or be willing to branch out and try new things (oh make sure you search under "Running" as well as "Trail Running" if you are looking for trail shoes as I have found trail shoes under both categories and that you search for on-line coupons to maximize your savings). What I bought this time were Teva Romero's and Vasque Aether Trail's.

The Romero's seem a bit wider (than my Salomon's and VST's, which is good) and they got me through my long run last weekend so they are a good candidate for STM. They seem reasonably stable (moderate weight ~12 oz/shoe), they did pick up a lot of mud last weekend but they provided decent traction going down hill.
I will be wearing the Aether Trails this weekend. They fit slightly better than my VST's, they seem just a pinch longer and maybe slightly wider, so I think they will be another good option. Vasque's always initially seem stiff but after 50-100 miles they seem to start getting comfortable and then after 200 I really seem to like them. These may have the stiffest upper of any I have tried (for the record they are my fourth pair of Vasques, previous pairs were Velocity, Mercury, Velocity VST) but I do seem to like the fit. They seem to be fairly stable (probably less so than the VST's) and they are lighter (moderate weight ~12 oz/shoe) than of the other Vasque's I have worn. I will see how they work tomorrow when I go for 33 or so miles.
The bummer about the VST's is that they were just hitting their prime (~250 miles) but with the heels blowing out, I don't think they would be a good choice for STM. Besides being concerned about them falling apart they also have an odd sound which would drive me crazy over 50 miles, like a bellows blowing air as the air goes in and out of the bubble. Here are some pictures of them.

Now that I have documented the bubble (ok, attempted to) I have placed screws in them and plan to use them for winter running where I hope to reclaim the lost mileage from them.

Another thing I have figured out is why I never buy the exact same shoe, can you tell which pair of my Salomon XA Comp 3's have almost 250 miles and which pair has 20 miles? The other day when I went to put them on for a run, I couldn't. After looking for a while I finally did, at least I think I have.
So I am set for shoes as Surf the Murph approaches and I think I have a good plan as to how I want to fuel, now I just need to figure out what to wear. Let's hope for 55 and sunny to make that an easy decision.

Nice weekend of running

I had a real enjoyable weekend of running even though I didn't feel great during the runs and I now believe that I will finish my first 50 miler in less than 4 weeks. I have to admit up to this weekend I had doubts, ok, who am I kidding I still have doubts but I now know it's achievable.

Why? Well, my plan for the weekend was to run 2 loops at Murphy and I actually did it. My original thinking was to run Sunday as I thought Karyn and I would be running the river bottoms on Saturday and I thought my daughter would have cross country, as it turned out neither happened so I decided to go for it on Saturday. My plan was to run the 1st loop kind of by feel, I would walk all the major uphills, walk when I felt like it, take a drink break every 20 minutes or when walking a hill depending on where I was, take an S-Cap every 40 minutes, take fuel around an hour and a half and whenever I needed it there after.

I got to Murphy around 8:30, I went to the entrance that the race would start from as I wanted to emulate the race at least as far as the loops go. It was a cool morning so I through on a jacket and some pants, I loaded up the Nathan, decided on which shoes (Teva Romero's) and off I went.

I didn't feel good from the start my left IT band was tight and I was expecting my left knee to bug me as it had been recently causing some issues. Nothing too urgent, probably just tendinitis but the hills at Murphy I figured would aggravate it. I thought I might run into some folks as Wayne had emailed that on the Surf the Murph website they said they were having a training run at 8:00 am. I also should admit that I got there after 8 as I didn't want to run this with anyone else. I do enjoy my solitude when I run but on this morning and for this run I needed to do it at my pace and being social means I am not running my pace.

I tried to keep the pace slow, my thinking was to shoot for between 14 and 15 min/mile on the 1st loop and then see what happened on the 2nd loop. I marked out the hills mentally so that when the race happens I can keep the positive voice going, things like just 3 miles and then the hills that hurt are done. Oh there are many other hills at Murphy but only 2 that really cause me issues to walk up. In order to stay true to the course I did have to go around a couple of closed gates but I needed this test to be as close to the race course as I could make it. As I meandered through the north section, I felt ok except for the IT band and a feeling it was going to be a long day. I just plodded along and kept thinking that 2 loops was going to be a struggle, then I stepped back and I told myself to relax, you have all day. My thanks to my wife and my family for allowing me to take on this time consuming task.

When I came into the horse parking lot, I decided I should go for some fuel as maybe my malaise was just low energy. I went for a couple of clif shot bloks and continued on. After a mile or so I was feeling a little better but still not real good. It was cold or I should say I was cold. It had drizzled a bit but it was more from the exposed southern section. It could be interesting if there is a stiff wind for the race. After another hour, I decided I was still having some low energy so I went for a chocolate #9, it was a bit stiff from the cold. I hope they don't freeze. I may have to test that out before the race. I was heading to the single track section that takes you out of the southern section when I heard someone behind me, it was couple of women. I figured they would pass me during that section, I crossed the road and was heading up the hill when I came across yet another locked gate (course marker 15 to 9), this one had multiple signs on it to stay out, so this time I decided I would. I took a left and then looped back to the other side of this gate (meaning from 15-13-12-11-10 to 9), from the map this looked to be about the same distance. I turned around and headed back to the main parking lot, after a bit the two women reappeared and passed me as we came into the main lot, they continued on as I went to my car to grab more fuel. One loop done in about 3 hours 45 minutes, the Garmin said the distance was 14.6.

On to the second loop, I decided I had gotten hot so off with the pants, keep the gloves, more chocolate #9, a liter and a half of electrolyte, a few more S-caps. I wasn't too sure how it would go as I was feeling low energy still and my legs seemed dead. The IT band had not gotten worse nor had it gone away. I was crossing the wooden bridge in this section that is over a marsh and I slid right down the last part (it was like sliding on ice) which kind of snapped me a bit. I was a bit surprised and walked it off, no damage. I made it through the hills and got to the horse trail lot, I was thinking I was going to make it. The energy remained low so I just kept moving, I took a 5 minute walking-fueling break with the hope it would get me going. It didn't but I just kept moving. I was doing a lot of walking in a very runnable section, I just didn't have it.

On I went, until I was back on the single track section and I debated do I just pack it in or do I repeat the exact previous loop. I decided I had nothing to lose so on I went. I got to the gate again(15 to 9) and debated, nope, not this weekend and proceeded to repeat the first loop again. As I worked my way towards the main parking lot, I was starting to feel pretty good not where I could run but more with the realization that if it was race day I would just continue on for one more loop and do exactly what I did on loop 2, walk, run, just get through it. I finished the loop right at 4 hours, the Garmin said 29.3 and it went to 29.5 when I synced it later.

So on a not great day, I got through almost 30 miles and felt like I could have gotten through a third loop, I can do it. I won't be fast and I will probably be on my own as my pace will probably be a bit sporadic. A couple of things did come up, I lost track of when I was taking S-caps, my chocolate #9 was pretty thick and I developed a couple of hot spots on both feet but considering how wet my feet were, that was ok. I ran 8 miles today and outside of the hot spots on my feet from yesterday all seemed ok.

So 4 weeks out, things are looking good, one more long weekend of running and then it's taper time.

Fueling experiments

I have posted before about my concerns with fueling in distance events. I may be closer than ever before to having figured out what might work for me. This summer I have experimented a bit more than in the past, so I figured it might be time to post.

I have tried the following e-gel, e-Fuel, Chocolate#9, Nuun tablets, Stinger chews (Cherry and Fruit smoothie), GU chomps (cran apple), Heed (strawberry), Succeed Clip, ginger, peanut butter sandwich, Boost (chocolate - glucose control) along with my old standards - Clif Shot electrolyte (crisp apple), Sport beans (cherry, fruit punch, berry), Clif Shot blocks (cran razz and mt. berry), GU gels (Chocolate) and S-Caps,

Here's what I think.

S-Caps and Succeed Clip - S-Caps are the most important thing I think at keeping my stomach working. When I feel nausea coming on, I take an S-cap and it usually goes away. I have gotten in the habit of taking an S-cap every 40-45 minutes and I have not had an issue. Granted it hasn't been hot but I think if it was I would just take them a bit closer together, the thing is I have worked my way through some stomach issues with the S-Caps. Clip electrolyte, I didn't like the taste of it, it might work fine but since I didn't like the taste, I have put it aside at this time.

Clif Shot Electrolyte and Bloks - I have drunk Crisp Apple electrolyte since 2007 and I have yet to throw it up. I did get nauseous at Run Toto Run and Chippewa but both times I was drinking it through my Nathan and I failed to properly hydrate in the first hour of the run. Since I started carrying a 1/2 liter bottle and paying attention to drinking it in the first hour, no issues. The Bloks have seemed to work ok, I like the fact that I can take one or two or three based on how I am feeling, that they are easy to carry and I seem to be able to tolerate these fairly well, I like the makeup of the bloks both on hot and cold days.

e-Gel and e-Fuel - Wayne had kindly donated some after my fueling concerns at Chippewa, it has worked for him really well but for me it takes too much like gels. I have thrown up gels more than once so that is a taste I don't welcome. E-Fuel seems ok but I decided to stick with Clif Shot. My thanks to Wayne for his kindness in sharing what worked for him.

Chocolate #9 - this is good, I have just tried it and I like it but it is sweet almost like eating chocolate icing. On my last long run it worked out well, so I am going to give it a try at Surf the Murph. I think it will be really good when it gets cold. It is low glycemic which should mean the avoidance of an energy spike. Speaking of low glycemic, I should post on it, my wife has changed her diet to a low glycemic diet and it has worked for her.

GU gel and chomps - Gu gels have been replaced by Chocolate #9, I found them the best of the gels before chocolate #9 but liked them best on a cold day and I found them not as good on a warm day (too gel like). GU Chomps tasted like a solid version of a gel with a bad aftertaste. I would go for stingers or bloks.

Sport Beans - I carry these when I need a boost, I can usually tolerate them but I carry them more as a quick fuel burst if I feel a larger energy drain.

Nuun tablets - These are so easy to carry and they give me an easy alternative to my clif shot electrolyte. I don't think they work as well but over the course of a day they provide an alternative if my stomach turns against Clif Shot. Plus they are easy to carry and make up. I figured I would be able to easily use these to get a re-fill at an aid station with a handheld.

Stinger chews- No issue, seemed a bit sweeter than Clif shot bloks so I decided to stick with the bloks and beans.

Heed - Didn't like the taste of it at all.

Ginger - I have received some through orders with Zombie, I tried one and the taste was ok. Will it work for nausea, my hope is I don't need to find out but I have some in my Nathan just in case.

Coke - I would be remiss to not mention it as I count on it at the aid stations, I have found it helps give and energy boost and settle my stomach.

Chocolate Boost - I have drank these after long runs and they seem to help with my recovery.

Peanut butter sandwich - a nice alternative to gels, beans and bloks. I will probably throw one in my Nathan or my pack for Surf the Murph as I seemed to tolerate it fine.

So what do I plan on having with me at Surf the Murph? I will have Chocolate #9 gels, Clif Shot electrolyte and bloks, Sport beans, PB sandwich, Chocolate Boost, some hard candy and ginger. Then you add in the normal chips, pretzels, coke, soup (I hope), candy and smiles at the aid stations and I think I will be just fine.

So, will my fueling work for 50 miles? I will know in 4 weeks.