This past Saturday, I decided to suck it up and wake up early to run with the DFMC team at 8am from the Mount Auburn Club. If I had known that the group runs were going to be so well organized and well attended, I would have been doing them a lot sooner! The Mount Auburn Club has graciously donated space in their facility for the DFMC runners. We are given a pretty large room in which we can stretch and have our initial meeting. I must say that not having met many people yet (in large part a fault of my own-making), it was quite intimidating to see all of these athletes gathered in one room, discussing their strategy for their respective runs and the times they were aiming for. I had decided that I was not going to do the scheduled 20-mile run but was going to aim for 14-16 miles.
As we began, I met up with another woman who I had met back in December, Lauren. Lauren and I fell into a natural rhythm, though I think the energy of those around us increased our pace and we were running 9-minute miles for the first 5 miles or so (I usually run a 9.5-minute/mile pace). We started in Watertown and headed to Commonwealth Avenue. I honestly don't know how we got there, which is important for my story...
We proceeded to head up a pretty big hill which was great because I had not been training to run the hills. It's hard to find hills when you train on Memorial Drive and I was starting to get worried that I was not incorporating enough hills into my practice routine. I felt like it was forever before we reached the first water station at mile 3. The water stations though are strategically placed and are a great motivation when running. En route to the first water station, Lauren and I met another runner Matt. He told us he was running for a patient in the In-Patient Running program through Dana-Farber. Matt is running for a three and half year old boy who has Leukemia and is going through his last round of chemotherapy this week. At the first water station, we saw this little boy and his very energetic and inspiring mother.
The route between the first water station and the second water station was pretty much all down hill, which had me very worried for my run back. I learned then that I had just run down Heartbreak Hill. We hit the second water station and I was feeling pretty good. I felt like I could really reach my goal of 15 miles. I proceeded to run another mile and a half, bid adieu to my friend Lauren, and then turned around to make the journey up Heartbreak Hill (and all the other hills) by myself. I saw the little boy again with his mother at the water station and I must say it was seeing him and hearing all that he has been going through that provided me with the inspiration to run up the hills without stopping to walk.
I made it to the first water station again and was feeling really good. I then started heading back to the Mount Auburn Club and was pretty confident that I knew my way back. They had done a pretty good job of lining the route with yellow cones. I hit 3 sets of these cones and then got lost. I had NO idea where I was and freaked out a bit. I ended up at a random Days Inn Hotel on Soldier's Field Parkway :( and had to call Kishore to get me some directions back. I had gone an extra mile out of my way, which made my 15-mile goal, an inadvertent 16-mile triumph! At least I like to think of it that way...
I must say that afterwards, I was hurting big time! I made it back home, soaked in the tub which helped my legs, but was definitely hurting. I think my body was reacting poorly to all the stress and even ran a fever for a better part of the afternoon. But after some rest, ibuprofen (which has become my best friend lately), and a lot of stretching, I felt better.
This coming weekend I hope to either mimic this past weekend, or add a couple of more miles, depending on how I am feeling.
Wish me luck!
nice work, such! you're awesome!!!
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