16 Miler or "Follow The Leader"

I ran 16 miles a few weeks ago with the Dana Farber Marathon Team. I've mostly been training with The Fitcorp group out of Beacon Hill because my friend Lisa does, and it's become a habit, a nice habit where I've met some nice people. I was a little bit nervous to join the DFMC group because I knew I hadn't been a good teammate, more like a prodigal daughter being away for so long. They probably wouldn't recognize me.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into practice and our coach Jack Fultz greeted me with a cheery "Hi, Julia." He'd only met me once, about a week earlier when I showed up for a Somerville Road Runners track training at Tufts indoor track (where I didn't expect DFMC, but there they were.) Great memory!

When I first showed up, I did feel a bit like the new girl at school, with everyone gathering in their pre-run cliques. But by the end, the cameraderie of having finished 16 bonded us together.

We ran out of the Waltham branch of the Boston Sports Club which is on the Lincoln border, and most of the run was through the beautiful, hilly roads of Lincoln. I hadn't been to Lincoln probably since I was 6 or 7, when my Aunt Elaine lived there, but I had been to Waltham recently because there's a Raytheon facility there, and that's where I met some wonderful ladies who helped me sort out some of my mother's paperwork at a very difficult time. I never thought I'd be back again under these (much better) circumstances.

Since I didn't know anyone, I was pretty much on my own for the entire run, but there were a few different groups that I ran near at different times. I think it's natural to assume that you'll be the slowest one in a new group, and while I certainly wasn't the fastest, it was good to see a decent number of runners who were at a similar pace as me. Even if we didn't really talk much, it was good not to be completely alone!

As I was running, I thought about calling this blog post "I went the extra mile" because the way the course worked out, the "out and back" only got you 15 miles and in order to do 16, you had to add on an extra mile at the end - an extra, super steep hilly mile. The entire time I was running, particularly the last few miles, I was dreading that "extra" mile.

By about mile 12, I was trailing two other girls, being pulled along in their wake and waiting for them to take the final turn back to the health club and up the "extra mile." But they didn't take that turn. They kept going past it for a while and then turned around, wisely choosing to do the "extra mile" on flat ground instead of the hideous uphill climb. I wasn't even thinking, just following and by following the leader, I was spared that grueling hill and so grateful for those girls.

It was, as I mentioned, a mostly solitary run, but that's a good thing. During the marathon, especially in those last tough ten miles, I won't have much left inside, so the extra boost from the crowds will be something new, something fresh. And if you can do 16 alone, you can do 26 with crowds, right?
That's what I'm hoping, anyway!

When I finished and was stretching, I chatted with a few fellow runners, one man in particular who drives from Connecticut each weekend to run with DFMC! He said the marathon is amazing, tough, challenging, and the toughest part is actually after Heartbreak Hill, in those last 8 miles when there's really nothing to look forward to- but you're not really "done" yet either. Basically from Boston College to the end. Little tips like that are good to know, so I can ask friends and family to strategically position themselves in the miles after Heartbreak Hill to the end... Food for thought.


Tha'ts it for now. Onwards and upwards....