On Sunday morning, I hopped in the car and headed out to the starting line in
Hopkinton. Not having seen or been on the course in that specific section, I felt that it would be a good idea to hit it at least once before the race. With 22 miles staring me in the face, I was already tired. Both of the kids were up for various reasons beginning at 4 am, so I was short on sleep and long on grogginess. I originally wanted to start the run by 6:30, but due to the lack of rest, I stayed in bed until 7 and ended up leaving the house around 9.
When I parked the car at the center of town, I counted 2 school buses and 1 touring bus full of runners. The green was packed with people. I wasn't expecting that many people out there, but I guess I should have, given the fact that this is the week before the taper begins for most people. Seeing all those runners made it a little more real and fun to see that many people at the starting line. I got my gear together, fired up the music on my IPhone, made sure I didn't lock my car key in the car, and headed out.
I had heard that the first few miles were downhill, but it didn't hit me how much downhill they were until I started out. My first two miles were way too fast and I tried to put the brakes on a little bit once I hit
Ashland. Once I got to
Framingham, I was able to get into a decent pace through
Wellesley. Meanwhile, the course was packed with people from start to finish, with people running in clumps and passing each other all over the place on the sidewalks and the breakdown lanes. I only saw one person fall all day (a girl took a
huge digger in
Natick, but to her credit, she got up and kept right on going).
Once I hit the 128 overpass, I could feel myself getting tired on that little bit of an uphill. As I passed the hospital, I tried to hold back a little bit knowing the bigger hills were coming. Once I turned onto Comm Ave., I realized I was really low on water and that I was going to need some over the next few miles. Fortunately, Adidas had a tent set up with water for all of the runners, so I stopped to fill up my water bottle at the oasis, said "thanks" to the volunteer, and kept going.
Due to the fact this was the first time hitting the hills in Newton after coming from
Hopkinton, they absolutely trashed me. By the time I got halfway up Heartbreak, I felt like someone ripped my legs off and started beating me with them. I ended up laboring through the last couple of miles to finish with and even 22 miles and a really tired body.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28304481(In my post-run haze, I must have forgot to stop my timer on the Garmin and I realized it was still going when I was driving home, so I had to post the run manually.)
As I walked down to Cleveland Circle to meet up with Katie and the kids, I started to wonder if breaking 4 hours was a reasonable goal or not. If the race is anything like it was on Sunday, it's going to be a close call, and I'm going to have to be smart about how I approach things that day. The good thing is that I've seen the whole course at least once, and I now have a better understanding as to what to expect at each interval along the way. And now for the taper.....
I had a few more donations this week, taking me over the $4,500 mark, which is great. I'm planning to get a few more emails/reminders out within the next week or two. I really hope I hit my goal.
