10 Miles of Talking

Hello True Believers.  This weeks run was not what I was expecting at all.  I went into it with a bit of trepidation, 10 being a bit further than I felt ready for, and I didn't have any "gu" packets to help keep my energy up over the distance; 10 is my usual lower limit for that stuff.  Fortunately though, I wasn't hungover this time.  

We started off on the usual course down Beacon Street, and by about mile 2 or so I was seriously thinking of only going 8 miles.  I just felt miserable.  Low energy, cold, achy muscles and joints, bad bad bad. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the first time I've felt like quitting on a run, but it's the first time in this training course, and it's still early yet.  I did end up finding the strength or energy or whatever it was, to make the 10 miles.  The secret?  Conversation.  

I made two friends out on the course yesterday, one a young teacher from Boston running for the Boston Medical Center team, the other a guy who works in the trademark department at Harvard and is running for the Brigham & Women's Hospital.  They were two people very different from each other, and neither of them had any idea who I was, but we knew that we were out there going through the same tiring, if not painful, experience, and that it's good to not be alone for that.  Neither of them knew it, but talking to them carried me past my doubts about energy or increased distances, and for that I'm grateful.  

This is one of the great thing about being a runner in general, and in Boston specifically.  It's great to run because you have these odd experiences as you make your body move all that way, and it's great to do that in Boston because on occasion you have someone to share it with.  

Running, even in the rain.

So I ran in the rain tonight.  That's not something that I do all that often, and most people feel like it's something to be avoided.  I agree, and usually am able to work around the weather which, let's face it, isn't as bad as everyone from New England makes it out to be.  Usually if it's raining in the morning when I'm supposed to run I can wait until the evening and it won't be that bad.  I was tempted not to run at all tonight, but all of my other attempts at running this week had been thwarted by frigid temperatures and general not-wanting-to-get-out-of-bed-ness.  I needed to run today otherwise the 10 (or 12) miles on Saturday would not be good.

Tonight was a group run set up by an Irish Pub in Boston called Crossroads.  They host a regular Thursday night run out of their second floor bar that is free to all but is mostly populated by people running Boston for charity.  Oh yeah, when a runner says that they're "running Boston" it's shorthand for the Boston Marathon, that's just a thing.  Tonight the running group was small, I think it was 2 groups of about a half-dozen each.  

Like I said, I wasn't super psyched about running in the rain and was a bit worried about not having a waterproof shell to wear over my cold-weather clothes like everybody else.  The idea was to run a 4.1 mile loop around the river, passing the Double Tree hotel that my folks stayed in last time they were here.  Word before we left was that some people were running an extra loop to get up to 4.5 miles.

Outside the bar the wind seemed to have come up, but it wasn't quite pouring yet so that's something.  We got to the river on on the ramp on the way down I pulled ahead of everybody.  The funny thing about running is that I never feel like I'm running fast, it just sometimes feels that the people around me are running slower than normal.  I was by myself right up until the bridge crossing that would've taken us 4.1 miles.  In my mind I had committed to doing the 4.5, I was feeling pretty good, so I joined up with 3 other people who had caught up to me and we headed towards the next bridge.  About three quarters of the way there Sheri Olivet, Chair of the Runner's Council, suggested that we go one more additional bridge for a total of 5.1 miles.  This was a bit more than the 4.1 I had been planning on, but who am I to say no the Council Chair?  

The wind got bad at times but never as bad as I feared it would -  it can get pretty bad on the Charles - even crossing the nearly half-mile long Mass Ave Bridge that is the home stretch.  At some point I went from tolerating the run to really really enjoying myself.  It's a weird transition that is hard to understand or to put your finger on, but it happens during some runs.  I found myself wishing that I had my camera with me several times because the city was draped in fog and the lights of the buildings were lighting up the clouds.  The lights of Fenway were on for no particular reason, but that happens a lot.  Plus there these random times when traffic along Memorial Drive would come to a lull between red lights and for a few precious seconds it would get quiet and dark - a rare thing in Boston.  Totally worth it.  

I felt really strong crossing the Mass Ave bridge, and felt great when I got back to the bar.  not just because I was done running running, but be because I had had a good run.  

"Into to Long Runs"

That's what the schedule from the ALF calls the run we did yesterday.  Basically they had a shorter long run set up for us with the intention of us getting used to the routine of getting up early on a saturday, heading to a gym the we're using as a rally point, and then running from there.  The gym is called FitCorp which very generously donates their facilities to us every week.  Not only do we meet there, but we also can use their showers and training equipment.  We had the option this week of running 6, 8, or 10 miles.  I choose the 8-mile option.

I'll be honest with everybody here, I had been drinking the night before.  Now, there are some runners who are driven almost to a monastic level about their training; people who will only eat specific things the day before a long run, won't go out the night before a long run, and try to get a good night's sleep.  I like those ideas, and will at times follow them, but on the whole I'm not that guy.  I am not going to give up my social life because I'm in marathon training.  This doesn't mean that I'll be binge drinking the night before every long run, but if something is happening the night before I want to be a part of it.  This week it was my office's holiday party, which was very generously held at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, and I wasn't going to miss that.  I enjoyed myself and knew I'd have to take my lumps in the morning.

So it was a very groggy morning for me as we headed down Beacon Hill in 24 degree weather.  But the turnout for the run was fantastic, we had that gym space filled and it's hard not to get psyched up with all those runners around.  It was also beautifully sunny and not windy at all which is a blessing during such low temperatures.  The FitCorp runs all have a similar route.  We start at the top of Beacon Hill, immediately pass the gold-dome of the newly renovated State House and head west down Beacon Street.  Before long we pass the original Cheers, and then head into Kenmore Square about a mile later.  This is where we pick up the actual marathon course, though we do it in reverse.  We cross over what is called Citgo Hill by veteran marathoners even though it's actually a bridge.  Still on Beacon Street we have a water stop outside the Holiday Inn which is about the 3 mile point; runner's doing 6 miles turn back here. I push on with a good portion of the group and we pretty quickly start an uphill trend into the Coolidge Corner section of Brookline, just after that the geography takes an inextricable uphill turn.  There's a a huge hill that runs north and south from Bookline to Allston where I used to live.  I remember hating that hill with a passion and would come up with elaborate longcuts around it so that I didn't have to take my bike over it.  In marathon training though, you just have to go up and over.  Ugh.  About a mile from the water stop we turn around to head back into town, which means we head right back at that hill.  Fortunately from this direction it's a bit more gently sloped, and after that we're on a general downhill back to the water stop and Citgo Hill.  I use the bathroom at the Holiday Inn and feel pretty out of place walking through the restaurant a sweaty cold mess.  The group I had been running with had thinned out at various points in the run and my stopping for the toilet only exacerbated this, so my trip through the Back Bay was pretty solitary and quiet.   I did get one of those frustrating side stitches that come out of nowhere for me every few runs, and so I did walk a bit to stretch it out.  At this point I was in front of Myles Standish Hall (A BU dorm and minor landmark) and I got passed by some of the faster runners who had done 10-miles.  Awesome. In front of Cheers I see a few people standing around in running clothes and race numbers and at the foot of Beacon Hill there's a set-up for a road race.  Looks like fun, but it's odd to me that I probably ran further on my "intro" training run than these people would in their race.  

Molly was waiting for me back at the Gym and I got to check in with a lot of people that I only see on long run days which is nice.  All in all it was pretty good run I have to say, there's not much to complain about especially since running had helped cure the hangover I had!

More next week.  A

Let's get this blogging started right

Hi all, my name is Andy, and I've just begun training for the 2009 Boston Marathon which is something that I'm pretty excited about.  I'm blogging about it as a way for my family and friends to keep track of where I am in training and in my fundraising goals - both of which are critical and difficult things to undertake.  26 miles is a long way to run, and then they throw that last .2 miles in for good measure and it just about crushes any strength that you had left in your legs.  The Boston Marathon is an especially exclusive race to run, and if you don't qualify (which I haven't) then you have to enter as part of a charity team and raise money as your entry fee.

Running is hard, and training for a marathon is one of the hardest things I've ever done.  But if you're going to do something hard you might as well be doing it for some sort of good cause.  I'll be honest, I do get a good feeling out of running, but some days when it's cold, raining or snowing, that's not enough.  What makes it enough is that I'm doing it as part of a group of other runners like me all dedicated to the goals of finishing the race and raising money and awareness for the American Liver Foundation.  Liver disease is pretty scary and despite what many of us think, isn't limited to people who drink heavily, there are other forms of liver disease that can strike people who have never drank before.  In future posts I'll be telling you about a girl who got sick at age 7.  So, at this point if you're reading this you should consider yourself asked to make a donation to an important organization with the goal of curing all forms of liver disease, an organization that is well enough organized that it has a really good chance of succeeding in that goal, provided the correct support.  

So, in the future you'll be hearing more about the ALF, and I don't mean the puppet from the 80s TV show, and my training.  We're having an introduction to our long run program this saturday so look for an update about that.  

Thanks for reading this far, and I hope that you'll follow me on this long journey, and help me by making a donation, there's a link in the side bar.