Plan B

Woke up at 6am this morning to get to training by 7. The initial plan was to do a 9 mile run, but when I got there, the coaches had laid out 20, 18, 10 and 9 mile routes. I am not doing this training to make my life easier, so I decided that I needed to push myself to see how I would do on a 10. It's been awhile since I've done one and I have been feeling very guilty about it. So we headed out to stretch & get some last minute updates. I strategically positioned myself right in front so that no one would be running ahead of me. I did this for a couple reasons: 1) I wanted to see how I would keep pace with the marathoners and 2) I wanted to see where I would come in among the half marathoners. 40 of us were running this morning and it was pretty much split evenly between the two groups.

And then I took off....
Time: 7:40am

Only one person passed me after the first mile. She was a marathoner. I figure she had much more experience on me since it seemed she was running a sub 9 minute mile.

After mile 2, I had eased into my pace and a couple other people passed me. No big deal. They were also marathoners.

Mile 4 was the first water stop, I had already taken my first gu and was ready for some liquid. Grabbed a handful of jelly beans and continued on.

Miles 5 & 6 were spent chatting with one of the mentors about the coaching he gets from an elite runner. Somewhere around this time I hit the hour mark.

Just after mile 7 was the Eliot bridge water stop. By this time, about 7 more marathoners had caught up to me. I was hurting because I'd only had one gu and felt my legs screaming for more energy. Drank more liquid, had an orange and watermelon slice, grabbed a gu and a handful of pretzels. Took off thinking I was the 1st half marathoner heading down the home stretch.

This last part of the route was great - I knew I was almost done and my ego was huge thinking I'd left everyone in my dust. I know, I know. This isn't a competition.

Trader Joe's was the last water stop around mile 9. I asked if anyone else had come through and they told me that 2 people had already stopped by. How did I not see them??? Maybe they only ran the 9!

I headed past the BU bridge (which I now know is about a mile from the Mass Ave bridge) and saw the end in sight. I hit Mass ave, crossed the street and ran the last 1/4 mile to MIT. I ran up the stairs and into the building to see what time it was & who had checked in ahead of me.

It was exactly 9:30 am. That means I was out for 1hour 50mins. And yes, 2 people had already checked in.

The mentors said that the route was about 10.5m. Indeed it was. I am so ready for this half.