I learned a few lessons this weekend. Running for three hours in 18 degree weather with significant wind chill was not a lot of fun! I guess we've been pampered this winter with mild weather and plenty of sun. I decided to do my shorter run on Saturday morning at 6:00 am as the forecast was for the snow to increase in the morning. Having little experience running in snow this season I thought it best to run early rather than risk injury falling on slippery streets. I had a great short run and picked up a little speed over my usual slower longer-run pace. The snow never seemed to materialize but at least the run was out of the way.
Sunday morning I went out early as planned as I knew my longer run was going to take me between 2 to 3 hours. It was 18 degrees out and much colder than I expected. I left my house at around 7:00 am and started out past Wellesley College heading toward Newton. There was barely a soul out - they must have had a lot more sense than me! By 8:00 am there were a few more runners passing me by (let me make it clear, I don't usually pass anyone else, my pace is that slow!) I ended up sticking to my Rte 135/Rte 16 route from Natick through Wellesley to the border of Newton and back. It was quite the experience. At around the four-mile mark I saw about three or four school buses of people heading through Wellesley. I figured they could only be there for one thing and that wasn't high school football! A little after I had turned and was heading west again I came face to face with about 100 runners from Tufts University/John Hancock Boston Marathon training group. It was like trying to swim upstream and avoid a head-on collision. After weaving in and out of them for a few minutes I decided it would be better to just cross the street for a mile or so. It was quite a sight and I started to feel like this Marathon is coming up soon and how cool it is to be part of something this amazing! One of the things that first got me motivated to run a marathon was watching a documentary on PBS called “Nova Marathon Challenge” where they took around 10 regular people and put them through training at Tufts to see if they could run the Boston Marathon. As I saw that group of people running towards me it seemed like my goal was finally a reality.
About nine miles into my run I was passing Wellesley College in the opposite direction when none other than Sherwyn Rocke flew by me! I had to wave him on, he would have frozen running at my pace! I think the hardest thing about this week's run was trying to stay warm. When I got home I was still freezing and a warm shower only turned my legs from bright red to purple!
I learned a few important lessons on Sunday morning:
1. Warm the Gatorade before you go out. Mine turned to ice in my fuel belt after about 45 minutes!
2. Bring some Kleenex. I have had a stuffy nose for a week or so and the whole blowing over my shoulder wasn't working for me. I resorted to shirt sleeves, which also became frozen!
3. Put two pairs of running pants on. I had three layers on the top, which was barely enough but my legs were freezing!
4. Do a better job planning my runs against the weather this week!
Looking forward to a couple of shorter runs during the week this week and then another long one next weekend. I'd better check the weather to figure out which day!
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