Hitting the Wall

By Tara Gidus Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, ACSM-CPT

PHYSICAL HEALTH FOR WIDOWS

When we got married, my late husband Stephen and I decided that we would go all out for our honeymoon and run two marathons in Paris and London. The marathons were a week apart, so we spent a week in each city — sightseeing, eating, drinking, and running our way through Europe.

We had both run several previous marathons, but running a marathon in a foreign country was a different experience. The biggest shocker was that the Paris Marathon did not have sports beverages available on the course (just water to drink). They offered dates, prunes, and apricots at the replenishment stations, along with sugar cubes to pop into your mouth along the way. Stephen looked at me when we went through the first food station and said, “Seriously? Am I supposed to eat prunes?”

I don’t think he took in quite enough sugar and dried fruit along the way because at mile 21 he faded fast. Putting one foot in front of the other was a struggle for him with absolutely no energy. He “hit …