But before I get to that, let me rewind a little and go over my training for the last few days. Thursday was another Crossroads run. I was still a little stiff and sore from my intense workout the day before so I decided to take it easy. I ran the hills with my friend Jack, a newly retired Boston Firefighter. It was a great run. We pushed each other. When he started to fade I’d pick up the pace and when I started to slack off he practically sprinted. We finished the 9 mile run at a decent 9:40 pace and both of us felt pretty good at the end. And as an added bonus for all the runners that night, not only did they get the usual free pizza, I brought homemade cookies! Chocolate Chip AND oatmeal awesomeness. Of course they were a huge hit and I made lots of new friends fast.
Friday, all the hard work caught up to me. I woke up wicked stiff and my resting heartrate was 68 BPM (usually in the 50s). So, even though I felt ok by the afternoon and Mother Nature was tempting me with beautiful running weather, I listened to my body and took a rest day. AND made more cookies. I made some oatmeal awesomeness without white chocolate chips because one of the DFMC runners told me she gave up chocolate for lent.
Saturday morning, I got up early to sneak in a short run with a friend before heading to Newton to deliver my cookies to the DFMC runners on the course. We did a nice easy 5 mile loop and I added on a mile and a half each way running to my friend’s house. Newton looked AMAZING! There had to be thousands of charity runners on the course and all kinds of teams training and tents with water stops set up from all kinds of different vendors. It was almost as beautiful as seeing those hills on race day. I got to the BC athletic center and gave the runners cookies when they finished up and helped pour water and gatorade for them too.
After the cookies were all gone, I headed out to run a few errands. I had fried my iPod during my intense interval workout on Wednesday so I brought it to the Apple store at the Burlington Mall. You would have thought it was Black Friday or something, there wasn’t a single empty parking space to be found ANYWHERE. I finally found a spot about a mile away from the Mall and walked to the entrance and found the Apple Store and waited forever for them to tell me the iPod was indeed fried and I would have to wait for them to order a new one because warranty stock is separate from saleable stock. It’s the same damn thing to me, I just want a new iPod. But I have to wait. Stopped at Trader Joes before heading home and got all kinds of yummy deliciousness, including some snack mix (trader joes version of chex mix) OMG, it was so good I ate the whole bag!
Good thing for me I need to load up on some carbs because Sunday was the Eastern States 20 miler. A race that starts in Kittery, ME and ends in Salisbury, MA and runs all along the coast of NH. It’s beautiful. 3 states in one race, tons of fun. I got up early to head to Hampton Beach where the buses pick you up to go to Kittery. I ate breakfast and packed my fuel belt and filled my travel mug with some tea and headed out the door. Somewhere near the NH-MA border I realized I wasn’t thinking when I packed my fuel belt because I only packed enough gels for a half marathon, not for a 20 miler. Thank God for the support of other runners (Jessica Costa) who chipped in a few extra gels for me to use.
My plan was to run the race very conservatively and just get the 20 miles in and save my energy for Boston. So, I found some friends running the pace I wanted to keep and hung out for the first 17 miles. They started to slow down and stop to tke walk breaks after the first 12 miles or so and I was feeling good. I tried to hang with them and help them push through the pain and gut it out, but they cramped up and couldn’t hold the pace so I took off in the last 3 miles and finished strong. 3:18 for the 20 mile run, about 5 minutes faster than last year’s time and I wasn’t really trying.
I didn’t realize until I got home and weighed myself that I was severely dehydrated. I had lost 8lbs. in sweat. No wonder my stomach was upset, I was shivering even after a hot shower, and I had a dull headache. Spent the rest of the day on the couch watching Mean Girls. I’m not a fan of basketball and it was the only thing on. I ended up falling asleep anyway so it didn’t really matter what I was watching. Went to bed at 6:30pm! Let the taper begin!
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