Reed Dunn, Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager:

This week, I’m really feeling race ready.

The Las Vegas Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon is a short month away, and I am confident I could finish the race right now. If the race were right now, of course.

Last weekend, I completed my longest run to date – a 10.5 mile trek through the streets of Seattle. I ended at my neighborhood gym and finished the last two-or-so miles on the treadmill. I quite seriously ran into the front doors of the gym and onto a treadmill with little stopping time.

I wanted to finish at the gym, because I knew it would be important to spend some quality time foam rolling my legs and doing extra cool-down stretching.

My finishing time for the long run was around an hour and 45 minutes, which is a bit slower than I’d like to be for that distance. But not disappointing, by any means.

Some things I learned during this week of training:

• Shot Bloks by the Clif family of products are what seem to work well for me for race refueling. I tried the strawberry flavor and was not at all struggling to chew the gummy cubes while maintaining my run. I really liked the fact I could just have one or two cubes at a time and refuel as necessary.
• When you’re not as hydrated as you should be, your body will go from warm to the chills right around the seventh mile of your run. I’m not sure there is a 100 percent direct correlation of hydration and the chills, but it’s certainly what I’ve deduced as the reason for the sudden chills I experienced around this point of my long race.
• Stepping on the scale immediately after a long run will make you feel quite fantastic about your weight goals. Let me just say dehydration makes me feel skinny.
• I can down an entire 16 ounces of water with one tip of the bottle after running 10.5 miles.

Three of the above points – the ones all about hydration – may not be positive signs of my progress. While it was an isolated run, I do know I need to be better prepared to be fully hydrated before starting off on a long run.

Luckily, I still have an entire month to experiment and learn the tricks of mental preparation and being properly hydrated ahead of time. I also need to start spending some time at my computer putting together the best compilation of music for race day.

Reed Dunn is senior recruitment marketing manager at Alere Wellbeing. Follow his journey with regular updates on the Alere Wellbeing blog, as he prepares to run his first half marathon on December 4 in Las Vegas.