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Courtesy of Jesse ThomasEugene-based Lauren Fleshman took a training run at Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon earlier this summer.

Lauren Fleshman has just come in from a 22-mile run that doubled as a science project. As she ran for two-and-a-half hours through Eugene, Ore., with her coach, Mark Rowland, biking alongside her, the two were looking at more than Fleshman's mileage and pace. "It was a super dorky long run, where you try to track your sweat loss, because I've never done anything like that before," she explained. "I had a scale in the parking lot where I started, and I weighed myself holding all my full water bottles and gels. When we got back, I weighed myself holding the empty water bottles and gel wrappers."

The result? "Holding all the bottles and gels, I was 137 pounds. Holding all the empties, because I finished it all, I was 131 pounds." Even drinking everything, she dropped six pounds from sweat loss. "Crazy," Fleshman said.

The scale-in-the-parking-lot research was just one data point on the way to a bigger experiment. Fleshman, 30, a 5,000-meter specialist who rarely races off the track, will be running the New York City Marathon on Sunday. It's her debut at 26.2 miles and it's an unusual jump in distance for a runner who, eight weeks ago, finished seventh in the world championships at 5,000 meters.

Fleshman's races usually last around 15 minutes. This one will take her, she believes, between 2 hours, 30 minutes and 2 hours, 35 minutes. The field has seven women who have run faster than 2:25, so Fleshman doesn't expect to be in contention. But on the New York City course, with its hills, turns and unpredictable November weather, anything is possible -- especially if she's within sight of the leaders with 5K to go.

Stu Forster/Getty ImagesAt the London Grand Prix track and field meet in August, Lauren Fleshman won the 5,000 meters in 15:00.57, her best time of the season.

But Fleshman maintains that trying a marathon is all about gaining strength for her signature event heading into an Olympic year. And getting off the oval -- which can feel like a fishbowl -- for a little while. To build up her endurance, "I could have done a half-marathon or, yeah, I guess I could have trained for 10K," Fleshman said. "But who doesn't want to run the New York City Marathon, you know what I mean? It's incredible. It's so far removed from the track that it's a totally refreshing and new experience for me. I've been in the sport for 16 years, I've had the same focus for 16 years. This is completely pulling me out of my element. And I love that about it. I love adventure. To me, that's what this is.

"There are lower expectations for me in a marathon, because it is so far from my main event. I can really just do this and get what I want out of it and not worry about what other people think I should run for a marathon."

In the years since she graduated from Stanford, where she was a 15-time All-American, Fleshman has grappled with injuries (foot problems, a navicular fracture and even a stomach ulcer that went undiagnosed for years), pressure and expectations, both her own and others'. The highs have been high -- in 2006 and 2010 she won national titles at 5,000 meters -- and the lows have been craters. In June, coming off yet another injury, she finished just eighth at the U.S. championships, which she had won only 12 months earlier. Yet by August, she was fit enough to be the highest U.S. finisher at the worlds.

The marathon has become a fun departure from her day job as a track athlete. The only thing she has to worry about is tummy trouble. "I'm confident I can handle pain. I'm confident I can handle the length of time," she said. "But my biggest fears come from things like, what happens if I have to, like, go poop? I mean, what do you do? Really. Do you stop or do you just do it?"

I don't know, I tell her. What does your coach say?

"He's never coached anyone in the marathon before. He doesn't know. He's got an English accent and he says, 'It's up to you, luv. If you want to run around with crap in your pants, that's up to you. How do you want to be remembered?'

"I have these joking conversations with myself, where I'm like, well, you would be known as really, really tough. But you'd also be known as the person who pooped her pants. So it is a legit fear. I'm scared I'm going to have gastric distress or throw up. People do it and they look really tough when they do it, but it's also super disgusting. You don't have to deal with that stuff in the 5K."

Courtesy of Lauren FleshmanThe glamorous life of the international athlete includes lots of goofing-off time at European airports.

This riffing on guts is quintessential Fleshman, who never let a private thought get in the way of a belly laugh. Her blog, asklaurenfleshman.com, opens the books on her race-day thoughts and routines, hard workouts, nerves and what she's up to when she races all over the world. Fans write in with questions and she answers them. The dialogue, she feels, is as much a part of her success as 75-mile weeks, massages and stretching.

"It's an integral part of how I've been able to come back from injury and make breakthroughs," she said. "When I make the time to process things and journal about them and then get feedback from the running community and be able to help other people by answering questions -- it absolutely changes everything for me as an athlete. I think community and social outreach is important for every human. It can get harder when you're a professional athlete, because you're so isolated."

Still, the mileage, the blog, the sweat-loss experiments are just part of her day. Fleshman is marketing a training journal and clothing under the "Believe I Am" brand and, oh yes, running an energy bar business. She started making Picky Bars for her husband, Jesse Thomas, a triathlete who can't tolerate gluten or dairy. They've now got five employees making the bars out of their kitchen in Eugene.

Rowland, Fleshman's coach, knows she has a lot going on. "She'll openly admit and we do joke that she's slightly mad," he said. "That's part of the gig -- you're not looking for elite athletes to be normal. But she has a great ability to focus. She'll be completely consumed by a given task. She's very competitive and she'll always maximize her performance when she's given that task."

Fleshman's extracurricular activities make it nearly impossible for her to grab a nap. Although her coach wishes she'd pay a little more attention to recovery from hard training sessions, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I feel like there's an endless list of things you can do to perfect your running, right?" she said. "All these little intangibles. It can run your life. When I used to worry more about that stuff, I didn't run as fast. And when I started doing Picky Bars, and my blog and started getting really busy working on that training diary, I definitely napped less, I definitely didn't stretch as much, but I started running a lot faster and competing better.

"I think it's from feeling like a whole person, multidimensional. I get positive feedback from more things in my life than just how fast my body can move around a track. I might not ever win a gold medal doing that. Maybe it's not possible. I don't know. But I don't care. I'm going to do this sport basically the way it makes me happiest. This is the way it makes me happiest. I'm willing to take any consequence in my performance in order to keep this lifestyle, because you only get one life."