The magic number is 12!!!
(zoom out so you can see the full map)
Woke up at 6:00 am bright eyed and bushy tailed for the long slow distance run. Had half a cup of low acid coffee and some water. Breakfast of champions.
Shortly before leaving I thought I better have a little something in the stomach. I hacked off a slice a bread and smeared some peanut butter and ate it. No problem (yet).
Aurora and I were out the door at 7:40 to meet our group at the park for an 8:00am start. Half way there Aurora and I realized neither of us brought the fuel belt.
I had a backpack full of Gatorade and water for after the workout, but nothing to drink during the run. I jogged back to the apartment, looked and couldn't find the belt. I know we had it because I had filled the bottles myself. Frustrated and feeling like I was gonna be late, I thought, "I got a few bucks on me, I'll buy anything I need. I don't need the water belt."
Aurora, was not feeling the same way, so when I caught up to her and told her I couldn't find it, she ran back to the apartment to look for it, while I went on to practice. Aurora showed up shortly before we left with the belt in hand (it was hanging on one of our doors!).
The coaches told us of a few things to be mindful: have food (Sport Gels) and hydration. I didn't have any gel (this stuff ranks right up there with bananas for me, blech!) but I did have these things:
I think you can read that correctly: JELLY BELLY SPORT BEANS. This is a real product meant to serve a real purpose (delivering calories and salt, mmm salty jelly beans). When I first saw this I thought this was something Homer Simpson invented, but no, the coaches confirmed these are a viable alternative to the sport gels (see this comparison chart).
I got food, I got some cash for water/Gatorade, and Aurora has the fuel belt. We were good to go.
We headed out of the park on our way to Manhattan. It was a gorgeous day! Sunny, not too hot and very little humidity. We ran down 9th street to Third Avenue through the lovely soon to be developed part of Brooklyn called Gowanus. Right about this time that piece of bread with the peanut butter started to let it be known that I should have eaten it much earlier. Fortunately that feeling went away quickly. At Atlantic Avenue we turned left and headed up to Boerum Place and then on to this :
I ran right across that there bridge. Once on the other side , we crossed lower Manhattan via Chambers street. On the west side there's this lovely park where you can right next to the water. Maybe it was the endorphins kicking in, but New Jersey never looked so good. Way To Look Good New Jersey!! I ran up to Houston and I thought, "I could make it up to 14th street," but thought better of it and turned around and came back.
A neat thing over there on the west side is the Runner's Aid Station. I think it's sponsored by Nike (there's a big NIKE truck where you can try out Nike shoes).
Halfway across the bridge I spotted a guy with two dots on his shirts and I was like, "what is that?" As I got closer I saw the dots were red and they looked like they were running down his shirt. This poor guy had bleeding nipples. It hurt just to look at him. If you read my previous post on the subject, you'll know I suffered no such trauma; I use Body Glide!
Once I got over the shock of the bloody nipple dude I started to feel a little out of sorts. I realized I hadn't eaten my beans! I pulled them out of my pocket and started chewing them suckers. Mmmm, nothing satisfies like warm salty jelly beans! But I tell ya, I'll take warm salty jelly beans over that goo stuff any day. That did the trick but I needed a little water to wash them down but I wouldn't get that until I was across the bridge.
I made it across got a bottle of water and made my merry way back to Prospect Park. The hard part about the return trip: 9th street from 4th avenue up to the park is a long slow hill. At fourth avenue one of the mentors, Eric (experienced marathoner) caught up to me and said "you ready to go?" I said yes, after all I was feeling pretty good, I thought I can keep pace with this guy up the hill. Wrong!!! Eric took off, looked over his shoulder to see me half a block behind him and kept on going.
It's all good though. I ran 12 miles. Never ran that far before in my life. And when I got to the park I felt good. Tired, but good. Had some Gatorade, some water, a little stretch and like I said it was all good. 12 MILES!
-Jim
(zoom out so you can see the full map)
Woke up at 6:00 am bright eyed and bushy tailed for the long slow distance run. Had half a cup of low acid coffee and some water. Breakfast of champions.
Shortly before leaving I thought I better have a little something in the stomach. I hacked off a slice a bread and smeared some peanut butter and ate it. No problem (yet).
Aurora and I were out the door at 7:40 to meet our group at the park for an 8:00am start. Half way there Aurora and I realized neither of us brought the fuel belt.
I had a backpack full of Gatorade and water for after the workout, but nothing to drink during the run. I jogged back to the apartment, looked and couldn't find the belt. I know we had it because I had filled the bottles myself. Frustrated and feeling like I was gonna be late, I thought, "I got a few bucks on me, I'll buy anything I need. I don't need the water belt."
Aurora, was not feeling the same way, so when I caught up to her and told her I couldn't find it, she ran back to the apartment to look for it, while I went on to practice. Aurora showed up shortly before we left with the belt in hand (it was hanging on one of our doors!).
The coaches told us of a few things to be mindful: have food (Sport Gels) and hydration. I didn't have any gel (this stuff ranks right up there with bananas for me, blech!) but I did have these things:
I think you can read that correctly: JELLY BELLY SPORT BEANS. This is a real product meant to serve a real purpose (delivering calories and salt, mmm salty jelly beans). When I first saw this I thought this was something Homer Simpson invented, but no, the coaches confirmed these are a viable alternative to the sport gels (see this comparison chart).
I got food, I got some cash for water/Gatorade, and Aurora has the fuel belt. We were good to go.
We headed out of the park on our way to Manhattan. It was a gorgeous day! Sunny, not too hot and very little humidity. We ran down 9th street to Third Avenue through the lovely soon to be developed part of Brooklyn called Gowanus. Right about this time that piece of bread with the peanut butter started to let it be known that I should have eaten it much earlier. Fortunately that feeling went away quickly. At Atlantic Avenue we turned left and headed up to Boerum Place and then on to this :
I ran right across that there bridge. Once on the other side , we crossed lower Manhattan via Chambers street. On the west side there's this lovely park where you can right next to the water. Maybe it was the endorphins kicking in, but New Jersey never looked so good. Way To Look Good New Jersey!! I ran up to Houston and I thought, "I could make it up to 14th street," but thought better of it and turned around and came back. A neat thing over there on the west side is the Runner's Aid Station. I think it's sponsored by Nike (there's a big NIKE truck where you can try out Nike shoes).
Halfway across the bridge I spotted a guy with two dots on his shirts and I was like, "what is that?" As I got closer I saw the dots were red and they looked like they were running down his shirt. This poor guy had bleeding nipples. It hurt just to look at him. If you read my previous post on the subject, you'll know I suffered no such trauma; I use Body Glide!
Once I got over the shock of the bloody nipple dude I started to feel a little out of sorts. I realized I hadn't eaten my beans! I pulled them out of my pocket and started chewing them suckers. Mmmm, nothing satisfies like warm salty jelly beans! But I tell ya, I'll take warm salty jelly beans over that goo stuff any day. That did the trick but I needed a little water to wash them down but I wouldn't get that until I was across the bridge.
I made it across got a bottle of water and made my merry way back to Prospect Park. The hard part about the return trip: 9th street from 4th avenue up to the park is a long slow hill. At fourth avenue one of the mentors, Eric (experienced marathoner) caught up to me and said "you ready to go?" I said yes, after all I was feeling pretty good, I thought I can keep pace with this guy up the hill. Wrong!!! Eric took off, looked over his shoulder to see me half a block behind him and kept on going.
It's all good though. I ran 12 miles. Never ran that far before in my life. And when I got to the park I felt good. Tired, but good. Had some Gatorade, some water, a little stretch and like I said it was all good. 12 MILES!
-Jim
posted by JP at 2:26 PM
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