It was my work conference yesterday and I had my training all planned out. I did my Friday session on Thursday and during the gala evening I was going to slip away at about 11.45pm, get ready and run for 4 hours during the night.
The food at the conference was nice during the day, although all of the snack type foods in between meals were not suitable for me... however, I'd thought of everything and had took my own. I'd even taken hemp protein and coconut chocolate milk as a recovery drink so I'd covered all bases! I'd emailed my dietary requirements and then last week I'd followed the email up and enquired again. They had it covered, they promised me (although they never ever think of snack times... everyone had hot chocolate and chocolate biscuits after a team building exercise out in the cold... I had nothing!)
So, after walking miles throughout the day, I got to the gala dinner and abstained from alcohol (again) and instead drank water. The starter was lovely, the main course was terrible and when the dessert of lemon meringue pie with raspberry sorbet was put in front of me, I obviously declined. The waitress assured me that the dish was vegan and had been made by their chef. I was delighted as I had been told their chef at lunchtime was a vegan himself and had prepared our meal at his home. I told Emma that if I was a chef I would probably think "sod you all" and would also make a vegan dessert for everyone... just because I could and nobody would ever know. I'd seen recipes for vegan lemon meringue before so didn't question the waitress when she said she had checked and it was definitely vegan. I'd eaten at least half of it (and I have to say, I was thinking I REALLY haven't missed this dessert that much as it was nowhere as nice as I remembered) when she came back and said she had made a mistake and it wasn't vegan. One of the other waiters had given my vegan dessert to someone who didn't want lemon meringue pie. I was devastated and looked at her in disbelief as she asked did I still want to eat the rest of it. I pushed the plate towards her and told her to get rid of it. I don't think she realised the significance!
So, after a pint of lime and soda, I left the party feeling a bit lack lustre. I'd put this down (and still think it had a huge effect) on the fact that I had had to eat so much bread with my meals. The "Please don't give me gluten" memo obviously hadn't been received either! I put my running gear on and was looking forward to seeing how my new jacket would perform. As I was coming back from the venue I noticed the rain starting to build, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try it out. As the plan was 4 hours, I wore full waterproofs, just in case. I'm not good when I'm cold, so took all the precautions I needed. I even had spare gloves in case the ones I started with got wet and I felt cold.
Literally, as soon as I walked out of the door the heavens opened. It's amazing what rain looks like when you're wearing a head torch. It's like the lightest sprinkling of the stuff in front of the beam looks like a scene from 'Singing in the rain'. I wasn't concerned. I had all the warm clothing I needed, I had my emergency gel (that so far has not been needed and has been through the washing machine twice by accident) and I had a great playlist on my iPod to keep me company throughout the early hours. I thought I'd amuse myself and sing out loud if I became tired.
The first half an hour was awful. I've learnt to cope with that though and look forward to getting that over and done with. The rain was relentless and had even soaked through my supposedly waterproof mits. As the half hour turned into 45 minutes I felt even worse and my stomach was cramping in pain. That bloody meringue pie!!! At 55 minutes I took my emergency gel and just prayed for the rain to stop battering me for just 10 minutes. By an hour the rain was running in rivers down the road and I was in awful pain with my stomach. I took an extra walk break to try and pull myself together and I tried to pay attention to my music. It had been on but I hadn't heard any of it. A group of teenagers asked me if I was part of the SAS. I took that as I must look like a bloody idiot out in this weather. I began to get extremely cold and so started to run up the hill. I'd avoided going down the road where my lodge was as I didn't want to be tempted to give in and go for a hot bath. The running wasn't helping and I wasn't getting any warmer. I wished again the rain would just stop as I held my stomach and tried to breathe comfortably. I watched all of my work colleagues walk back to their lodges pulling up their dress hems to try and avoid them getting a soaking and watched as the rain slipped over the tarmac and into their pretty sandals. And that was just the men!!! ;-)
I wasn't getting warmer and I was starting to feel quite depressed. Telling myself it was just a bad patch and I'd feel better soon, I again avoided the road to my lodge. When is this rain going to let up??? I hated the new jacket. The rain dripped down my neck as I was unable to keep the hood up without zipping it tight under my chin. I felt like I was going around the streets for ages when I just happened to look up and see I'd ran down the road to my lodge without thinking. Without a second thought I walked up to my door and called it a night. Disappointingly doing only about an hour and a half. I felt like shit and as soon as I'd stripped off and put all of the wet clothes into a plastic bag, I ran the bath..... Only to find there was no hot water at 2am!!! I could have cried. I then proceeded to have the coldest night of my life in bed. I thought it was just because I had got so cold out running but 2 other people told me the next day they had suffered the same. And to top it all off, despite the reassurances, I was given nothing vegan for breakfast and so had to do without. Fortunately the company I work for are excellent at asking for feedback and following up with any issues, so I know this won't happen to me again.
As usual, I have learnt from the experience. I now know that being cold is the worst possible thing for me and I should avoid it at all costs. I will never come away without a 'plan B' for food, and I need to make an adjustment on my XL vest to stop me feeling a bit yukky when the weight is heavy on my stomach (although the main stomach issues were because of the food, I'm sure).
I now need to go out tomorrow and try and make amends. It apparently is pouring down with rain tomorrow with 50mph winds forecast. I'm already dreading it!
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