Hydration, Who gives a darn......ME, You?

Growing up I never really thought about keeping hydrated or drinking water. If I was thirsty I would drink whatever was around, usually the milk in the fridge, and keep doing whatever I was doing. When I played little league football we would drink at half time or when we were on the sidelines. It never really occurred to me that there was much of a correlation between the activities I was doing and my hydration level.

Fast forward to the summer I was finishing my undergraduate degree and heading off to law school. I decided to run in a marathon that summer. This was my first marathon and I really didn't know what I was doing. I trained the best I knew how. I would go out and run 10-15 miles and try to eat healthy. When the day of the marathon came I was fairly confident I would do well and ran hard out of the gates. Mile after mile I kept passing up the hydration stations because I didn't want to slow down to take a drink, worried that stopping to drink would hurt my overall time. Well I did finish the marathon in under 4 hours, which was my goal time. However, by the end of the marathon and afterwards I was exhausted, sore, and just wiped out.

Doing Okay

I wish I could say I learned from my mistake, but nope. The next year I decided to run another marathon and had the same results. I guess I was a slow learner. However, before the next summer's marathon I decided to figure out how to make the marathon less painful. I read up on different people's experiences and advice and came to the conclusion the best thing I could do was to take a few seconds at the hydration stations each mile and rehydrate myself. That is what I did my next marathon. Wow, what a difference. Even with less time to train given my busy law school schedule and a new child to take care of, using this "new" strategy I was able to run a quicker marathon (okay by just a couple minutes) and I was not nearly as sore and wiped out at the end of the marathon. Don't get me wrong, I was still tired afterwards, but I wasn't nearly as sore and was able to begin my normal running schedule the next week.

Not so Okay

So with this hard learned lesson about hydration, I am a convert to hydration. After learning of the importance of hydration in running in marathons, I continued to learn the importance of hydration in my daily life. I started to notice those days I had a little headache or was dragging a bit were the days I hadn't drank much. The more I started to pay attention the more I noticed the direct correlation between my hydration level and my health.

Why did I do this?

This has led me to starting this blog. I wanted to share what I have learned about the importance of hydration, ways to stay hydrated, technology developments, hydration related issues. I also wanted to learn from others, what they know and their experiences. I hope I am able to share what I know and hear from others about what they have learned, thereby helping everyone to better their lifestyles by staying hydrated.