My first Run to Remember!
Pre-race: Drove down to the North End and was able to park easily on Hanover St. Met up with Team HB, hondo & I walked over to the Seaport. The expo hall was crazy crowded – as I was exiting to the street at about 6:30am there was a mass of individuals pushing in as another group was pushing out and I started to have an agoraphobic episode – to me it seemed dangerously crowded, bad organization to have this many people going in and out the same doorway. Since the bombing I’ve had a few mental issues in spaces I can’t escape from.
Start: Quite a few cops (including Ed Davis) spoke before the start. Lots of love for Sean Collier. Pace was a bit slow for the first half mile, but not too bad. I was lined up with the 7:30 pace group and people mostly respected the times. Hondo said the back of the pack came to a dead stop a few times d/t bottlenecks here at the beginning.
Mile 1: Saw Steven & the boys here. I’m not sure Eben saw me. Running a 6:47 split here, need to bring it down.
Mile 1.8: Saw LEZ at the corner of Staniford & Cambridge. She was on the far side of the course, I’m not sure if she was stuck there for the entirety of the race or not. From there, up over Longfellow (a red line train passed us on the bridge) then west headed on Memorial Drive.
Mile 3ish: Up over the BU bridge overpass. This has been shut down to traffic but they let us run over it. The surface has been stripped down so that there’s a series of parallel metal bars between what looks like small cobblestones. Interesting surface to run on, to say the least. Happy once I’m past this nonsense back to the pavement.
Mile 5.2: Katyucia’s house! She is off partying in Brazil right now but still I wave hi. The cupcake van that’s there sometimes on Sundays is not awake yet.
Mile 6.2: Turn around on Mem Drive. Back to the east! It starts to rain a bit more here.
Mile 7.7: See CNHB & Erin on the far side of the road. They actually see me before I could find them. I try to pick it up my pace a bit once they’re gone since I’m not scannning for them anymore. The outbound side of the course looks very crowded – I think they said there were 10,000 runners today, too many really for the course.
Mile 9: The Mass Ave underpass – someone standing above the overpass made eye contact with me and screamed (loudly) for me by number. Funny how these random interactions with strangers can be such a boost.
Mile 9.5: There’s a bunch of hay alongside the road here (Cambridge-side just prior to returning over Longfellow) – wet hay of course has a distinctive smell, reminding me of circuses, and makes me think of CNHB’s elephant encounter which was right around here somewhere.
Mile 11: The course here overlaps a bit of the BAA 10K course, then the 5K course. First it runs around the south edge of the Public Garden, up Comm one block then down through Downtown Crossing. Lots of homeless here at this hour, there’s a disconcerting smell of hot dogs. I’m vaguely aware that my pace which has been pretty steady sub-7:15 isn’t dropping, and here I start thinking that I might be able to PR.
Mile 12: Post-office square & Steven again. Again I’m not 100% sure Eben sees me, dang it! One mile & home. I kick my splits back under 7:00.
Finish: Across the line by the Seaport. Good crowds here, good support, vibe. Finish with a watch (and official chip) time of 1:35:32, a new half marathon PR for me by 11 seconds over Chicago. I’m not at all frustrated by such an incremental improvement over 9 months given the ankle injury I suffered the week after that trip – I’m actually quite happy to be back where I was before. This is my second distance PR in the past month (the other being Nashville for the marathon on 4/27), both in the rain. :)
Song of the week, prompted by the busker in Government Center last night and stuck in my head throughout the race as I had no music today – You are what you love by Jenny Lewis.
Next up, the TARC 50 in three weeks. A lot to get ready for between now and then.
