I've got 18 miles under my (fuel) belt!

This morning I completed my first (and possibly last) 18 miler in the ING New York City Marathon Tune-Up!  The race was 3 laps of Central Park, which unfortunately meant we had to climb Harlem Hill (the steepest in the park) 3 times too!  It was a tough one.  At the start line an exploding Gu managed to cover me from head to toe (literally, I had Gu in my hair and somehow even Gu in my sock!), making for a sticky 18 miles.  Let me tell you, Gu chafes.   There's definitely power in numbers... if I was running on my own I would have been responding to my thoughts 'I'm tired' and 'I want to walk'  with  'Go ahead, walk, noone will know'.  I definitely needed the Team, and especially my running buddies to motivate me to keep going.  I'm really proud of all of us for finishing strong, on top of making it all 18 miles without any walk or pee breaks!  Here's a look at the run:


The race was good to practice taking water from the fuel stations- being able to drink from a paper cup while running and without inhaling any of the content is really an art form!  I made the decision that I can live without my fuel belt on race day- so I'll be running the marathon without all of the weight around my waist that I've been training with.  I also gave the jelly tots a test drive.  This is what you get after running with them in your back pocket for a few hours- I powdered the sugar!

 
After lots of gatorade and an ice bath, I made my way down to Chelsea for a sports massage.  I guess you can't expect one massage to work miracles, but I feel sorer now than I did before trekking down there.  I'm currently struggling with the question "is a McDonalds ice cream worth the pain of getting out of bed and waddling 2 blocks?".  I think it might be.  

Fundraising Countdown- 2 weeks to go!

The Brooklyn Indie Market was a washout.  Judging by the thunderstorms at my first CPK fundraiser and the miserable day that occurred on Sunday, the weather gods clearly don't want me to reach my fundraising goal!  So now I have 2 weeks and just under $800 to go until I reach my goal of raising $3,900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society- eeek!  You can click HERE to help me do it!

Here's a photo of my market stall.  The market was a bit of a ghost town, so Melinda and I unfortunately ended up carrying practically everything we'd made back to my apt, where I'll be hosting a clearance sale this weekend to try and get rid of the stuff!  Big thanks to Andy for helping carrying everything to Brooklyn, to Melinda for helping me with the crafting and spending all day at the market with me, and to my running buddies Sindy and K for coming out to the market, hanging out and contributing to the cause!

I skipped the long the run last weekend as my ankle had been bothering me.  It was feeling fine yesterday, until I ran 5 miles on it!  At last nights GTS we had a pacing workout, where were supposed to increase our milage ~10 secs/mile to focus on the difference in speed and heart rate with subtle pace changes.  Maybe I was just having a bad night, but it really made me re-think my marathon goal!  Ideally I'd now like to finish sub 5 hours, but I know that the main focus needs to be enjoying my first marathon, and crossing the finish line healthy and happy!

On Monday I bought a months membership to Crunch gym on Groupon, so I'll be busy cross training (and icing, ibuprofen-ing and resting) until the 18 miler on Sunday.  Luckily I found jelly tots at Fairway on Monday, so those should make a nice change from the Gu and keep me going when it gets tough!  Three loops of the park will be a challenge... I hope K has her stories ready!

The Final Canvas!

Here's the last painting that I'll be bring to the market tomorrow... I'm kind of relieved that I can hang up my paint brushes for a while now :)

Dahlia, acrylic on canvas, 10 x10"

I'm off to lab now... check back tomorrow for an update on the indie market!

Day Off

I was sad to miss the Hartsdale run today.  My ankle has been bothering me since last weekend's 16 miler and my coach recommended that I skip the long run today to give it a chance to heal.  So instead of completing my planned 10 miles, I took to the gym instead and spent a significant amount of time on the bike and strider.  The time dragged without my running buddies!  It sounds strange, but it was hard not to run this morning.  I haven't missed a weekend run since May!  Anyways, hopefully the break, along with lots of icing and ibuprofen, will help heal my ankle before the 18 miler next Sunday. 

I'm about to start working on my last blank canvas for the Brooklyn Indie Market- it's tomorrow!!!  I'm really excited to see how it goes, and how much closer it will be bring me to my fundraising goal!  I have only 2.5 weeks to go to raise just over $1,000.  Here's a pic of my latest painting- 'Parrot tulip', acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10".

More Brooklyn Indie Market Creations!

I have to say a huge thanks to Melinda for coming over and helping me put together some of these goodies for the BIM this weekend... only 3 days to go!  Here's a selection of our creations: post-it notepads, halloween goody bags and doggy treat bags!

10.2 miles to go!

It's been a while since my last update, but I'll try to keep this one short!  This weekend just gone, I made it up to 16 miles!  It took a while, but we got there in the end!  I even made it out for, and survived, a 30 minute recovery run the next day.  I was excited to be back in the park for our long run, mainly because I'm too lazy to commute to a run so early in the morning, but by the time we were on our third loop of the park, my excitement was quickly wearing off.  Running new places definitely helps the time pass quicker... luckily for me we're heading out to Hartsdale (wherever that may be) this weekend, where the distance will come down to give our bodies a chance to recover.

I took advantage of the long weekend to work on a few more paintings for the Brooklyn Indie Market- only 11 days and 2 blank canvases to go now!  Here are a few pics of my latest creations...

 
At tonight's practice we're having our second fitness test.  I'll be racing a 5K on the lower loop of the park to see whether my speed has improved over the last couple of months.  Update to follow!