Finally, 15 Miles

This morning I set out to do what I failed to do last week, run 15 miles.  I recently read a guest post on Katie's blog where the person said that they always try to smile during the last mile of their long runs, because it's further than they've ever gone before.  I definitely tried to keep that in mind today when setting out. 

The funny thing is that my last mile was sort-of my first mile.  I did the same route as my 14-mile run, but I tacked another mile on at the beginning since I didn't want to run any further north than I had before because there are some monster hills that direction, so I ran south to 39th Street before heading north on the Westside Path.  I definitely tried to keep smiling during the last/first mile!

I had a pretty uneventful run.  I wore my Fuel Belt and took three bottles of Gatorade and one of water since I knew I could refill the water if necessary.  I also took something that's not new to me, but new to me running ... jelly beans!  I actually have a bit of a jelly bean "problem".  I love them.  They used to sell these really awesome jelly beans at Grand Central Market, but they don't anymore, which made me go into a bit of a withdrawal.  Turns out that Drew was able to find them in small over-priced bags at Cucina, but I'll take it even if it is over-priced for jelly beans! 

I know that a lot of people use those Sport Beans, but I figured that my regular jelly beans couldn't really be that different than those fancy Sport ones.  The first time I tried eating the jelly beans today, I ate three of them.  Shortly after that, my stomach felt a little rocky.  I had a mental battle with myself where I reminded my stomach that I eat these all the time ... mostly by the fistful if I'm being totally honest and that there really shouldn't be any issues!  Interestingly enough, after that, everything was totally fine! 

I ended up eating 8 jelly beans over the whole course of the run.  I liked them.  I'm not sure if they really did anything in helping me finish, but it was something fun to think about having along the way, so I think they did help in that way.  I ended up feeling pretty thirsty today.  But not for Gatorade, which I had in abundance.  I was more interested in having water, so I did stop twice to refill and have more water.  I sort-of wonder if the slightly cooler temperature today (62) meant that my body just wasn't losing as many electrolytes?  I don't really know how all that stuff works. 

So, the other thing of note today that I actually debated about writing about because I don't want to name names.  I decided that I won't name names, but there was a large team of people out training today on the Westside Path for the marathon.  I was running north when they were running south.  Basically, they were trying to run me off the running path and push me into the bike path, because apparently they don't know how to interpret those little stick figures on the pathway.  As someone who is part of a large group that runs together, I know that we are always told (and sometimes scolded) to watch out for others and to respect the rules of the road, which we do. I really don't appreciate that other groups don't do the same. 

All in all, I'm really happy with this run.  Nothing special, which is probably the point of these long runs.  I definitely am glad to think that I am well over half-way there with this run today.  Not that I think I'm quite ready yet, but I feel like I'm on my way! 

Running
Time: 2:46:19
Distance: 15.25 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile