Glad it worked out for you! I rode a couple hundred miles on belts more recently than I'd care to admit and didn't have an issue. I babied it like you did on speed and stopping. I was mostly concerned about traction since I'm assuming steel/asphalt have a low coefficient of friction. The belts didn't seem to show signs of wearing down very quickly.
There was a guy on a ride a couple of years ago who had to ride >100 miles on belts to get to the hospital where his wife was having a baby. Now that's a pressure situation!