Shortly after starting up I fell I with my pace pal, Mary and we headed out just under 10 minute miles aided by the downhill trajectory. About a half mile in it stated to sleet which lasted until mile 2 was done and we were at our first water stop.
Despite the cool weather and precipitation I was sweating pretty good at this point, so while grabbing some water I took off my slight sweatshirt. With the sleet sopping I thought I would be good but it didn't take long for me to cool down. I gutted my way through the next two miles thinking I would warm up but it didn't happen so while we waited for the light at the corner of comm ave I out it back on a bit too late.
Making the turn on to comm ave we started the hills of Newton. We make good progress at about a 10:20 pace fighting up the hills. Since we started promptly at 8 we didn't start hitting a lot of other charity runners until these hills. Floods of runners were making their way past us dreading downhill (as we had done) only to go back up to finish their runs (as we will). I've already started to notice the same people week to week.
We hit mile 5 and the next water stop where I grabbed some water and downed a Gu. Back on the course we started to hit new areas for me after just a half mile. We made our way through Newton commons and up and down some more hills and arrived at the start of heartbreak hill marked by Heartbreak running store on the corner. Heartbreak will have two wait two more weeks (we're running by the river next week) as we turned around and made out way back. As we did we got hit in the face by a wind that I swear wasn't there when we were running the other way.
As we made our way down the hills we hit the water stop again but because of all the people this week we had run out of cups so we had to rinse and re-use the two ones left. Glad took my vitamin C this morning! A mile down the road I faced a decision, keep running or turn off and pee at the firehouse (they graciously open their doors to runners this time of year). I debated and debated and finally decided to go in, which turned out to be the best decision of the day since when I arrived back at the church I was informed that the toilet was clogged. Big props to the coaches for wet vac-ing up the exes water so we're allowed back!
After my break I headed back up 16 and was caught by one of ours coaches Jeff who chatted with me for a while. When I looked at my watch I was going well under 10 minute miles without knowing it. It's nice to get my mind off running but was a bit worried with the hill still to come. At the start of the hill back up Jeff went ahead to check on some others and I started my trudge up. My pace was about 11 minutes per mile which I would take and I made it non-stop to the water.
At the water break I grabbed a quick cup (they still had some here) of Gatorade and started back out with Mary again who was there when I arrived. By this time the rain had picked up and just a giant pain. We kept a sub 10 minute pace the last two miles and then sprinted the last tenth of a mile or so.
Back at the church I stretched out and changed into some dry clothes before chatting up some of hone other runners and heading off to Whole Foods. There were a couple of fig glazed sea bass steaks with my name on them!
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