Reality Check - Heidi

This past week has been a bit of a reality check that the Marathon is just around the corner. The business of life and the bitterness of the weather is making the escalating mileage a bit of a challenge. My Saturday morning started with transferring a high-risk patient into Boston at 6:00 am while finishing up twenty-four hours of call. My plan was to run with Martha once my call was over but when I got home from Newton-Wellesley I realized the sidewalks and roads were sheets of ice. We postponed to about 9:30 am in hopes that the bright sun would melt our paths, but still found the roads slick and crunchy. Martha had told me about a product she had purchased to attach to her shoe with little spikes to prevent slipping on the ice. We started our run from my house and Martha was kind enough to let me make a quick stop in the early part of our run at Marathon Sports in Wellesley to buy a pair of running crampons for myself. I was glad we made the stop as the sidewalks were not in the best shape, but both of us felt pretty secure with our shoe devices. We’ve done the “hills” twice so decided to try the other direction of the Marathon route so headed out to Natick Center. We finished our 13-mile run close to noon and parted ways.

I had a little time to relax over lunch with my husband and then fueled by endorphins from the run and mid-day coffee, switched gears to entertain at our house later that night. Our neighborhood has a “progressive dinner” every winter and our assignment was to host 21 people for appetizers before walking down the street to someone else’s home for soup and salad with a different group of people. It’s a wonderful way to get to know your neighbors. We had a great night but decided to head home after dinner and skip the dessert house to get some sleep as I had another day of call ahead of me and my husband was still recovering from being on the West Coast last week. Needless to say, I slept like a rock until the alarm awoke me from a deep sleep this morning. Thank goodness today is a “rest” day on the training schedule!