Heartbreak Hill Preview

I'm sitting in Boston's Logan airport and have found a plug a free WiFi so I thought I would try to get a post in today.

At the minute my flight is showing as 10 minutes late but I'm hoping this shouldn't effect my connecting flight as I have a hour or so spare that end. Fingers crossed. Checking in was a bit nail biting anyway, my main bag felt a little heavy and when I put it on the scales I had a whole half pound to play with, so all good.

After a week of basically no running I got up this morning and thought I really had to get something done before flying to the UK. So I looked up the Boston Marathon course and worked out that I could run most of the last quarter backwards and then double back on myself and run it to the finish line. The main thing I have heard about the course is something called Heartbreak Hill which is at about mile 18 just when energy is running low. I though now was a good opportunity to scope out this obstacle so if and when I get to race the course I will have at least some idea of what I'm in for.

I set off and after getting far too hot yesterday I was dressed more appropriately for today's effort i.e. shorts not running tights, still had the gloves on though. After negotiating a few back streets around the apartment I found the tail end of the course and proceeded to work backwards. The wind was even higher today and I was heading straight into and when it blew, gee it was cold. One good thing (kind of) is that the tale end of the course is mostly downhill but as I was going at it backwards the first 4 miles was all uphill into the wind. If I thought I was the only one to think of running part of the course I was very, very wrong. I have never seen more runners other than during a race. There were individuals and training groups out doing hill repeats, long runs, sprints and every other kind of training going. With a couple of months to go it seemed that people are taking the race very seriously. It actually made for a good atmosphere and I was offered water by some of the groups who had tables set up for there runners.

I hit my turn around point and started up the series of hills just outside of Newton that make up the Heartbreak Hills. I would say that they aren't much but even after just doing 7 miles before facing them they were certainly an unwelcome addition to the run so after 18 miles at a faster pace I can see them being a real pain.

I ran back into downtown Boston to where I thought the finish line is supposed to be but I have a sneaking suspicion that I was slightly off as it seemed to be a bit of a back street but will check when I get a second. I completed the run by finding my way back to the apartment which really is very close to the finish (maybe).

After a quick shower we headed off for my Target fix (best shop in the world ever) and found a great restaurant near Carolyn's for lunch.

I've just heard I have a gate change so I'm going to head off and hope to be back in Britain by the morning.