An excuse to eat Halloween Candy!?

Yes.  Seriously.  Hear me out though!  My husband and I have a HUGE bowl of Halloween candy leftover, because I'm still used to buying it at our old house where we had to buy 2 big bags of it just to last a couple hours.  (Our old street in southwest Virginia was a main through street, close to the high school so people from out in the boonies would park or drop their kids off at the high school and make their way down to our neighborhood.  We were lucky if our candy lasted until 8:00, and this was if we had started giving kids candy that wasn't intended for Halloween but still safe to eat...so some kids walked away from our place with Valentine's hearts.)  Now we live at the end of a nice, quiet cul-de-sac where we have dramatically fewer trick or treaters.  So much so, that we could've been fine with just one big bag of candy.  Because we are still trying to make a dent in this pile...

And for the most part, it's Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish.  (Fortunately/unfortunately my husband and I both like them a little too much.)  But an idea popped into my head Sunday as he and I were getting ready to head out for a 4 mile run together because I was feeling a little peckish but didn't want to eat a huge meal beforehand: Halloween candy for running fuel!

Yes.  I am advocating using leftover Halloween candy as a pre-run, mid-race snack.  Runner's World has recommended using gumdrops as a makeshift energy chew, and gummy bears (#22) for during long runs, races and as a post-run snack if you're not hungry.  Anybody who has run the longer Baltimore Running Festival races have seen the trays of candy corn spectators will give to runners.  Granted, Sour Patch Kids might not be the best idea...but Swedish Fish are pretty similar to gummy bears!  So I downed the packet of 5 fish on the drive to the park and drank a little water.  Normally I eat chews as a fuel source on long runs, and I got lucky in that my system treated the fish the exact same way.  

Little disclaimer here:  If you haven't tried fuel before on a run, DEFINITELY try it before when you know you'll be close to a bathroom.  Running is not always the most glamorous of sports, and testing different running snacks is one of those least glamorous times.  You never quite know how your stomach will react to a new food item while running.  A lot of it is just trial and error, like I mention in an older post about fuel.