20 plus miles and tan lines that would make Gisele jealous!

Good news kids, I survived 20 miles over the weekend...whoop whooop!!! I'm not going to lie though, it was tough tamales!

Saturday morning, I woke up to a beautiful sunny fall day. I went through my "ritual" breakfast and preparation process. As I got close to completely ready, I started to stall. Knowing that a 20 mile run awaits is more than just "kinda" daunting. After about 15 minutes of procrastinating, I got it together and got outside. As soon as I started my calves felt tight but to be honest, its a rarity if something on my body DOESN'T hurt in some sort of way these days. I moved along and got the first 7 mile loop done. No problemo. Then I realized I basically had a half marathon to tackle and felt an "OOPH" but shook it off. I trekked on north along the west side. I passed by Pier 71 (a cute lil' outdoor lunch/dinner place), the Boat Basin where I've been known to throw down a Stella or two, then I reached the 104th St Sign. On my 17 and 18 milers, that was sort of a relief because I had 20 or so more blocks to go from there and then could turn around but Saturday, I had another 60 to go....YOWSERS!! I ignored my realization, had a Gu, drank some water and powered on passing 125th Street and Fairway. Then I ran through some parks and hit the 155th St mark (SWEET, just another 10 and I get to turn around!). Unfortunately there was no marker for 165th so I kinda just ran until I felt like it had been 10 blocks. I found a man walking his dog and asked him where abouts we were and he informed me 172nd st!!!! UGH! I did NOT plan to run a step further than 20 but luckily it wasn't TOO much further. I turned around and took in the beautiful day along the Hudson. I must say, if you have a chance to get up along that way (biking would probably be nice vs running) I highly recommend it. Its so quiet and peaceful up there.

The last 6 and 1/2 miles got increasingly hard as I moved along. The sun became relentless as it beat down on me (I'm going to have to get a visor or hat to help on the next run). I prayed for shade but it was afternoon and the sun had started moving West, only to beat on me more. I made it down along by the Intrepid and was relieved to know it was just about another mile more. My hips started to hurt and my buttocks were tightening up. The sun was like an annoying person that just gets in your face and won't back off. I tried putting my hand up as a visor but that didn't do much help. I almost slowed down to walk but literally yelled at myself to keep going and not stop. I made it to 17th street, THANK GOODNESS! I walked a block back to my apartment but I'm not sure if it looked like walking, probably more of a waddle. My entire body was asking, "what just happened?" I made it home, stretched, showered, put the legs up, ate and then became "one" with the couch.


Later on, I felt hot and realized why....I was silly and didn't put sunscreen on my arms or neck...to say that my new "tan lines" are "sexy" is an understatement! I have a lovely "ring" of color around my neck, only half of my shoulders are burned and my left arm has a nice "white" band from where my nano armband was strapped on. Needless to say, I'm probably not going to be wearing any strapless or spaghetti strapped type tops for awhile...