Long run on the Boston Marathon Course

When I came home from work on Friday, I found this at my doorstep…

Waaahoo!  This got me mentally pumped up for my 20 mile run!  My friend Denise and I decided to do our 20 miler together today since we both had full days on Saturday and couldn’t make the Cambridge Running Club long run.  I was really sad I missed it.  It is so much fun running the last 20 miler with all my club members as well as all the other people training!  On the other hand, I was glad I missed the run because I attended Blog Better Boston!  Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it this week!

When I woke up this morning, I was a little weary about my run since my piriformus on my right side has been really in pain, but I wanted to power through it anyways.  (I know-runners can be stupid sometimes)…

Dave was an awesome boyfriend and deserves some credit for it since he took some time away from his grad school work to drive me and Denise out to go running.  The plan was for him to drive me and meet Denise at the 20 mile  mark for us to park her car and then chauffeur us out to the start.

It took us a while to find a parking spot along the 20 mile mark of the course, but we finally found one.  As we were driving to the start, Denise said, “I forget what street I parked my car on.”  Dave and I kind of laughed.  We had forgotten too!  Oh well, we will find it eventually…or it will be a really not fun game of hide and go seek!

We finally made it to the start…or what we thought was the start.  Denise ran in to confirm the location and the man at the gas station helped re-direct us just up the hill a bit.  Dave dropped us off at the start and asked if we had a phone.  We didn’t.  He was a little hesitant of leaving us since we are both directionally challenged.  Denise assumed since I ran Boston last year I would know the course.  Little did she know that I just follow the pack! haha.  We had a map so thought we’d be fine, but kidded around about Dave spying on us at each mile to make sure we didn’t get too lost!

Dave really did leave though and we headed out past the gas station.  As we were passing by, the attendant shouted, “Wrong way!  Wrong way!”  And then he ran over.  We stopped and he had told us that Boston was the opposite direction. Off to a good start…haha.  We turned around and headed for Boston.  If Denise hadn’t asked about the location of the start, the attendant might have just let us keep going!  Whew!

As for the run, my blasphemous piriformus hurt almost the entire run and my watched died just before mile 14.  I had charged my watch last night but it sucked up 30% of the battery life before we even got to the start!  Denise’s watch was still good though and she brought a regular watch as well.  Very prepared!

Maybe around mile 17 my piriformus started to feel normal or at least the pain wasn’t as apparent.  We had tried to maintain a 9:00 pace up until  mile 18, where we picked it up to a 8:10 pace then returned to our average 9:00 for the remaining miles.  I finished going up Heartbreak Hill and when I reached the top, I thought one of the street names seemed familiar.  I jogged a bit down it and saw Denise’s car!  Perfect!  We didn’t have to worry about wandering around trying to click the car beeper to find her car.  No one wants to do that after a long run!

21.6 miles in 3:11@8:52 pace (Avg HR 144 for first 14 miles)

When we got back to Somerville, we headed to Diesel Cafe and both got the breakfast burrito and a coffee.  I really wanted a smoothie from Blue Shirt Café too but the line was too long for me.  Too much to do today so probably won’t have time to nap either, but I probably will try to head to bed early!

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Do you ever get lost on a run? 

Yes.  And in life.

What is your favorite type of food after a long run?

In the summer and nice weather, I love smoothies!  Egg sandwiches or omelettes are another one of my faves!

Do you have problems with your Garmin staying charged?

This is probably the first time I’ve had problems.  I guess I can’t really complain since I’ve had the watch for 3 years now!