The 18-miler that didn’t happen finally did happen yesterday, and it was much better than I think the one I couldn’t get done would have been. But let’s rewind…

Friday night I went home so that I could attend a baby shower with my mom yesterday. We went to our neighborhood Italian restaurant, Delpino. (So small they don’t even have a website. That link is to a Chowhound forum!)

Since I had a long run on my schedule, I carb-loaded again, this time with capellini a la casa–very thin pasta with their marinara sauce, garlic and big juicy pieces of tomato. I had them add some grilled chicken for some protein.

I woke up early yesterday morning to finally get it done.

I beat the sun out of bed!

Though I’m not quite a morning person, even I can’t argue that I wasn’t lucky to see this gorgeous little scene at Zabriskie Pond.

Downtown Wyckoff.

Boulder Run and the Starbucks we hung out at in high school when we had nothing else to do. (Or we’d just hang out in the parking lot. We thought we were so cool.)

My run took me through Franklin Lakes, Wyckoff and Mahwah. (I’d previously thought I also touched in Mahwah and Allendale, but when I uploaded my route map, I realized I hadn’t.)

As I came back through Mahwah, I ran through the Medco campus.

There was another pond on their corporate campus–it was really pretty.

I was really nervous to run for so long (nearly 3 hours!) and so far alone, but I managed to get through it–with no music, to boot. I always seem to have a song stuck in my head, so it really doesn’t bother me to not have actual music on when I’m running. I finished at a 9:54 pace, which means I can absolutely beat my goal of 4:30 for the marathon if I can keep that sort of pace for the whole marathon.

I got home and my mom had a bagel waiting for me (good god, I love her). She also tried to wipe the sweat off my face, but I told her it was for naught, as I’d just keep sweating. Oh, moms…

—

Baby Shower

Usually I laze around for a few hours after a long run, but yesterday I had to get ready and hop in the car with my mom to head down the shore for a baby shower.

They had lots of cute touches–babies in ice cubes?

The cake!

A baby bottle filled with M&Ms for a guess-how-many-are-in-here game.

(It was 1486, if you’re curious.)

Pashmina shawls as a favor.

Decorating onesies!! (This was maybe their most adorable idea.)

And no Italian party is complete without lots of good Italian food. Like an antipasto.

And chicken francese, penne a la vodka (I think), and eggplant rollatini.

I came back to the city last night with full intentions of going out but after waking up at 5:30, running 18 miles, attending a baby shower and sitting in the car for approximately 2 hours each way there and back and then another 45 minutes back into the city, I was in bed by 10.

Right now I’m watching the 9/11 memorial on TV. I grew up just outside of NYC, I was a freshman at American University in D.C. when 9/11 happened, and I now live in NYC, so I can’t watch this without shedding a few tears. (I don’t think anyone can.) On September 11, 2001, I was a college freshman sleeping through my first class. When I woke up, the world had already changed.

This is my fourth 9/11 in NYC. The first two, I was living downtown and working at 120 Broadway, near Ground Zero. I could faintly hear the ceremony as I walked to work those years, and I never arrived at work those years with dry eyes.

My thoughts today are with all of those who lost someone, especially the first responders who lost their lives trying to bring others to safety, my high school classmates who lost parents and the families of the NYJL volunteers whose lives were claimed that day.

…because my running lately has been AWESOME!

I think I’ve learned a lot since the last time around. (Also, my coach is pretty awesome.)

Because long posts are better when boldface type and colons are involved:

Fueling:

(Otherwise known as eating to you normal people.) It’s no coincidence that my favorite activity has a lot to do with eating. I mean, you have to eat before, during and after to properly enjoy running. I’ve had more than my fair share of stomach issues this summer, but I think I’ve mostly found out what works and doesn’t work for me as far as pre, during and post-running.

Last night, that meant a chicken sandwich and splitting an order of waffle fries with my friend Sara at the U.S. Open. (Yes, again! :))

I didn’t eat her. She sang. She was 11 and had an amazing voice.

This morning, I didn’t have any Luna bars, so I had a Clif bar instead (and my usual banana). It has more calories than a Luna bar, so I think those extra calories helped me on the run.

I also think I found the perfect combination of during-run fuel: one vanilla bean Gu packet at mile 6.5; one Honey Badger  (uhhhh, I mean Honey Stinger) started at mile 11.5 and nibbled on for the rest of the run.

Why am I putting a picture of a bagel when I always have a bagel after a long run? What have I possibly learned from a bagel?

Well, last year, my post long-run breakfast included a bagel with cream cheese and an iced coffee. For my sensitive tummy, all that dairy plus iced coffee equaled a trip straight to the bathroom and feeling sick all day.

So this year, I don’t do iced coffee or cream cheese after my runs. (How did it take me this long to learn that?) I do a bagel with sunflower butter, sometimes banana slices, and always coconut water.

Ice Baths:

Last year, I was pretty much terrified of them. They sounded pretty miserable.

You just…sit in ice for 15 minutes? After you’ve run for hours? How is this a thing?

Well, tea and a hoodie help. (And reading an Iron(wo)man’s blog to learn all the ice bath tips.)

It’s really helped with post-run recovery. And making me feel even more badass.

Pushing Myself

I think this is the biggest thing. Last year, I definitely pushed myself, but this year I’m taking it to a whole new level. I do speedwork, I stick to probably 90-95% of the runs on my plan (this was not the case last year), and I run with faster people and people who are the same speed as me. As a result, my pace for long runs has significantly picked up from last year. Which is awesome.

Suck It Up Afterwards

You’re going to be sore. You’re going to be tired. Your stomach may still be bothering you from sloshing around for hours while you run. Unless you’re running to the bathroom every 10 seconds or can’t keep your eyes open, there’s no reason to turn down invitations to do stuff with friends.

All of these factors combined to make for one awesome run this morning, but I didn’t think it was going to be so great. I woke up with every intent of running 8 alone and then meeting up with Rebecca to run 8ish with her, but when I woke up I was exhausted, and so I laid around and screwed around on Twitter for too long before finally leaving around 8:15.

I ran 3 miles alone (running into Ashley) on the West Side Highway and back to my apartment, where I met up with Rebecca. We headed back out to the West Side Highway and ran up to 97th Street before running across (and up a damn big hill) to the park. Rebecca left me around E. 72nd Street, and I finished the park alone (and somehow lost the loop? How am I such a park idiot?) and exited at Central Park South and ran across back to the West Side Highway, running up to 68th before turning around to run home and finish.

The one picture I took doesn’t quite reflect it, but it was a gorgeous day–perfect for running. I was certainly sweating but never too hot. I stopped for a second at mile 13 to take this picture, and I was surprised how great I was still feeling. Usually, I’m pretty spent and dying for a run to be over at this point, but I was still feeling amazing. In fact, when I finished, I felt like I could have run a few more miles. (But I didn’t. I just took that feeling and brought it home and dumped it into the ice bath with me, where it died.)

Here’s my relatively consistent, right around 10-minute-mile splits.

What have you learned since you started racing that helps?