Over the Hills and Far Away

With a balmy wake up temperature of 5 degrees in Framingham, I gathered my things, said good-bye to Katie and the kids, and made it out the door on time to get to the Mt. Auburn club in Watertown for 8:00. This was no small feat considering Katie and I were at a 40th birthday party for our good friend and neighbor (sans children) until roughly 1:30 AM (you know it's going to be a late night when you plan in advance to take a taxi in the suburbs). A special thanks goes of to Katie's mom for staying overnight and babysitting. Even though I "paced" myself the night before, I was tired due to only grabbing 5 hours of semi-restful sleep.

By the time we began the run, the temperature had almost tripled to 13 degrees. I had planned to go around 12 miles (if that) at a light pace. That lasted all of about 5 seconds after I told Mike what my plan was. He convinced me that I should shoot for 13 so that I could take advantage of hitting all 3 hills in Newton. Due to the fact that the furthest I had run since the half marathon in October was a little over 8 miles, I was a little reluctant to agree. I said, "We'll see how it goes", knowing inside that I would be going 13 today.

As we started out away from the club, the cold didn't seem that bad with all of my gear on. I was looking around as we made our way through Watertown into Brighton so that I could pick up on landmarks along the way, as this is one of the areas around Boston that I don't know very well. My biggest fear was getting lost on the way back and having to explain to someone what happened. Once we hit Comm Ave., I was able to get my bearings and I knew where I was. Mike and I ran the entire way out to the 6.5 mark at the fire station. And surprisingly, I felt pretty good. I had some goo along the way and grabbed a water at the second stop around B.C. which definitely helped. A big shout out to the water volunteers who froze their faces off today to help us out.

I started to finally feel tired while tackling the hills on way back. I found them to not be too steep, but very long and gradual (which I think is tougher to manage). To make matters worse, my IPod died yet again (second group run in a row) just after I made the turn to head back. This was a classic rookie mistake on my part, having not charged it before I left the house. What a blunder.

Right around the corner of Comm and Walnut, I introduced myself to Larry and Jeff as we waited for traffic to pass. Jeff told me that this was Larry's 15th Boston Marathon with DFMC. The only word that I could think of when I heard that was "commitment". Very impressive. As I pulled away from them after a few strides, Jeff gave me a "Good job, Mike". Considering how I was feeling at that point, those were three very important words and I appreciated the encouragement. I ended up struggling on the way up Heartbreak Hill and walked for about 25 seconds. I gathered my breath and continued to head up and over the hill. I'll get you next time.

Miraculously, the running gods were with me and my IPod made a comeback around B.C. and started working again after it warmed up a bit. I could feel myself getting tired and slowing down, but I tried to keep a steady pace as I continued up Comm through Brighton and back into Watertown. The wind started to pick up a little bit as I got close to the Mass Pike and I caught up to Mark, who, from what I can tell, is only one of two people taller than me on the team. I "drafted" him for about half a mile and caught up to run with him for a minute or two. I ended up going ahead of him, but then found myself at an intersection in Watertown where I wasn't sure where I should go. There was a small group of runners across the boulevard and they looked confused as well. As I looked around and we all looked at each other, I recognized a few apartments across the river from earlier and decided to take a left, which thankfully was the right call.

I pulled back into the club almost 2 hours later. Overall, I had a pretty good run and even though a hamstring was a little tight, I felt great at the end.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22064448

Looking back on today, it was a huge help to have others encourage and help you push a little more vs. if you were left to your own devices. There's no way I would have gone into this morning's run and planned to do 13+ on my own. I guess that's what the group runs are all about.

I finally feel like I'm back in a solid training rhythm and I'm happy with where I am physically right now, just inside of 100 days until the race. With another busy week ahead, I'll get to bed early tonight and take tomorrow off (maybe a walk on the treadmill??). It looks like the weather will be calm all week which is great. Maybe the worst of winter is behind us. We'll see.