After reading about other bloggers running with friends, I wanted friends to run with! Unfortunately (for me!), my friend who’s training for the same marathon as me is a speed demon.

In June, I met Ashley at Yoga on the Great Lawn, and we became fast friends. We both live in NYC, run, blog and are in Junior League. So, we have a lot in common. We started running together in July, and I cannot imagine my long runs without her. We’re roughly at the same pace, so we stick together for the entire run. Sometimes Rebecca rounds out our little running trio, and it’s even more fun! I also had a really fun group run in Chicago at the Healthy Living Summit. Bloggers are really fun to run with because they love having fun with runs and stopping to take pictures.

This morning I met Ashley, her husband Bo, Meghann, and Meghann’s friend Betsy at Ashley and Bo’s apartment in Gramercy—at 6:45am!!!  Ashley and Bo had 15 miles on their plan, but I had 20 to do today, so I ran up to Ashley’s—which also cut out dealing with weekend track work on the subway. Win all around. My Garmin couldn’t get a signal until I was almost to Ashley’s, but it took me about 30 minutes, so I’m guessing I ran about three miles up there. I met up with the group, and we headed out:

Bo had planned out an awesome route that took us over the Williamsburg Bridge (which is VERY steep), through Williamsburg, Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights. We ran along the waterfront in Brooklyn through Brooklyn Bridge Park, and it was pretty amazing. (It was also a totally new area for me to run, which made it that much better.) We ran back into Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge and then took a bathroom break at my apartment and to say hello to Bailey before heading out for the last five as a group.

We continued up the West Side Highway path—which is where I usually run, but I don’t usually run there with others. Ashley got hit by an asshole biker, and we slowed down our pace significantly because she was pretty shaken, but we got our run done! I did some walking with her back in the general direction of her apartment (because if that were me, and I’d been hit and had a not-so-great run, I’d want someone to do the same!) and then I ran two more miles to finish up the run, ending up in Chinatown. 

I felt AMAZING most of the run. The waking up early (5am!) sucks, but once I got going, I chatted most of the way with Ashley and Rebecca. Despite being speed demons, Meghann, Bo and Betsy were also amazing at waiting for us at lights or at corners where we might get separated.

Now that I have a 20-miler under my belt, I feel much more ready for CHICAGO. I’ve been wanting to run a marathon since I graduated college, but I never thought I’d actually do it! Now, I’m 35 days away, and I’m psyched. I’m really glad that I haven’t let my stomach issues derail me from my long runs. I haven’t gotten to do a lot of my shorter runs during the week because I haven’t been feeling well, but I’ve still been rocking my long runs. The past two long runs have been awesome because of the company, but I think also because I’ve been having more salt the night before.

When I got back, Tina and Tamsin were at my apartment, and we went out and grabbed egg sandwiches (yes, sandwiches…) and brought them back to my apartment. I ate mine far too fast to photograph. We spent a lot of the day walking around, stopping at the High Line, Chelsea Market and the Limelight Market, before I bailed on them to come home and rest my tummy and legs. 

Tina and I had sushi at Chelsea Market, and I’ll meet up with them a bit later for a yummy dinner somewhere. 

(Or something.)

I’ve been feeling really off the past few weeks with my stomach. After pushing through a bunch of awful, no-good runs, I decided to take last week’s long run off. My impromptu visit to NJ this week meant I took a few more days off from working out. This meant this weekend’s workouts were either going to rock, or I’d want to kill myself. 

Yesterday’s bridge run (over the Brooklyn, over the Manhattan, back over Manhattan, back over Brooklyn) wasn’t terribly fun—I had a bit of rumbly tummy and was racing against the clock so I could get to the beach.

After a few drinks on the beach yesterday and a pulled pork sandwich (see below) that made me sick to my stomach afterwards, I didn’t have great expectations for today.

But despite getting back from the beach after 11pm last night, I woke up before 7 this morning (earlier than I even wake up for work) and took the subway up to Columbus Circle and ran a mile to meet Katie and Erica. 

We met at 72nd and West End Ave and ran up about four miles before we turned around. Katie and Erica are both training for the Philly Marathon but are at different points in their training, so Erica was doing 7 and Katie was doing 9, while I had 13 on my schedule. We left Erica after we’d finished 7, and Katie and I did about 2 more miles together—for a total of close to 10 for her. I continued on another three miles and ran down to 14th Street, where I hobbled onto the subway after ingesting inhaling a lemon-lime Gatorade. (That’s the kind they’re going to have at the marathon, so that’s what I’m trying to drink when I drink Gatorade. Which I only do after double-digit runs.) I had a Luna bar and banana before, a Gu with caffeine during, and almond butter on a bagel thin afterwards, to make sure I’d had enough to recover. 

My run should have sucked. I took Immodium last night to quiet down my stomach. I had a few beers and some fries. (Yeah, yeah, no wonder my stomach bothered me…) I hadn’t had enough water to drink last night and I had sucked hard at my training schedule this week. But, I took a new-for-me route (I usually run starting at the bottom of the West Side Highway path) and I was running with friends. After my run in Chicago, I decided that I really don’t want to do any run more than 10 miles solo ever again. Having friends to chat with/commiserate with makes things go SO MUCH FASTER. 

I definitely had runner’s high today. I’m still smiling.