Learning a lesson

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but my other job as a features journalist took me to Vegas covering the mad and the sad of the wedding world!
Anyway, I'm back and over the next month I'll be starting new posts including a killer exercise move of the week, celebrity workouts as well as a plan on how to get in bikini body shape by spring.
Today, I have to confess that I learned a lesson that I thought was worth sharing for anyone who is training for an endurance race.
After procrastinating for days about whether to take my place in the Sussex Beacon Half Marathon today,(www.sussexbeacon.org.uk/halfmarathon/) I decided to go for it. I've spent the last three weeks flying across two separate time zones, and have hardly done any running training, but I usually train so much I was confident that I'd be find.
But I didn't hydrate properly. I got up early enough to have porridge and fruit, a slow releasing carbohydrate that would get me through the 13 miles. What I didn't do was drink water.
It was all going so well, and I was on track for a personal best of just under 1hr 40mins. Then I hit the wall at 12 miles. it's never happened to me before, and it was not pleasant.
I had blurred vision and my legs felt like they weren't my own. Although I secretly wanted to duck out of the race so no one would see me shamefully crawling in over the finish line, I persevered and still got over the line in under 2hrs. But it was not a pretty sight.
So, just how much should you drink before a race of this distance? The advice I always give my clients (and totally ignored myself) is to drink at least 1 litre up to an hour before the race. Then, sip on a half a litre in the 30mins leading up to it. Of course, if you know you tend to want to run to the toilet after you've had a drink, change the pre-30min drinking accordingly.
Everyone talks about carb loading before a half or full marathon, but all too often hydration is missed. And this is just as vital - if not more so than nutrition.