race recap #1

I ran the Run to Remember yesterday for the third time but it was the first in the 12 in 12 goal this year.  It was another hot one and in anticipation of that, the race organizers bumped up the starting time from 8am to 7am.

It was a super early morning, up at 4:30am, breakfast at 5am, coffee at 5:30am.  I was in the city a little after 6am, in time to get a warm up in...so what if my warm up consisted of walking from my car to the portopotty, back to my car then back to the portopotty?  :)  I was also able to spot one of my friends running the race.  In a crowd of 10,000 people that's pretty incredible.

The start of the race was pretty crowded, well the whole thing was crowded, but at the beginning people were anxious to get to the starting line and not too keen on the hurry-up-and-wait that always happens at the start of a highly attended race.  Once we got going, though, the crowd was much more manageable.

The first few miles were a little rough as I tried to settle into a groove.  Once I did, the miles started flying by.  We headed out of the Seaport, through the Faneuil Hall area, over the Longfellow Bridge to Memorial Drive in Cambridge.  Mem Dr. is fun because it's an out and back and you get to see the leaders fly past on the other side of the road.  I kept an eye out for my fast friends and was able to spot most of them!  I also spied my friend, Jayme, who was just a bit ahead of me.  I pushed myself to catch her and ran with her for a bit.

When we come back over the bridge back into Boston, we head down Charles St, Arlington, Comm Ave then over to Washington St.  The Washington St. portion of the race is probably my least favorite part of the course, which is actually really nice.  It's hot, smelly and dirty.  But thankfully Washington St. doesn't last too long and before you know it the course is back by the water heading to the finish line.

My time for this race was 2:11:31.  It's not a PR, but it's not a PW (personal worst), either.  I took it kind of easy in the first half but ran better in the second half.  If I could just run both halves well, I might get a few PR's this year...

Overall, this is a great race and a beautiful course.  I'm not sure if I'll do this one again next year...I was thinking that there weren't really enough volunteers at the water stations so perhaps I'll sign up to help with that.

Next half:  Castle Awards Half Marathon on June 10th.