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.