Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon

Yesterday my girl M and I ran the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon in Newton, MA. I was not totally sure about this race. I have been consistently running, my longest run being 10 miles, but not particularly training for a half marathon. So I went in with no big expectations.

We arrived at Newton South High School at 6:30 am for a 7:30 start time. It was raining. Not drizzling, RAINING! I looked at M, hoping she would say let's go home....but, she didn't and out we went to get our numbers. Number pick up was easy, it was not a big race. I believe that there were 400 runners between the half and 5K. The shirts were cute. We ran back to the car to get our gear on and back over to the starting line. The race started at 7:30....

The course was tough. Newton is hilly which I knew going in. Travis and I had lived in that area prior to moving to NH. The hills were consistent, but with each up there was a good downhill which we tended to make up time on. At mile 6 we got to Heartbreak Hill. It was not the bottom of the hill, more in the center and we went up to BC. Before the turn at BC we turned up this road that looked like it went straight to the clouds. I had one of those, "feet don't fail me now" moments. I just kept running, not looking up and finally making it to the top. It was an out and back course so we then started our return back to the high school. It was obviously the same hills, but mile 12 was up and it was up for pretty much the entire mile. We kept on trucking, we checked our Garmin's frequently (I can't help it!) and realized that we were at a sub 2 hour. We picked up the pace a bit, M- went ahead of me. (She is very quick.) and I just kept running. I saw the finish line and flew through....1:57 garmin time...1:57:48 race time. I was thrilled. Not bad for the hills and gave me confidence for my half in 2 weeks.

A few words about the race. It was a great race. Really good course support, good water stops and sweet helpful people. I would definitely do this race again.

I am taking today off from running. My house needed to be picked up and vacuumed and I needed a self day. Also...I started my cleanse today. More on that as the week goes along.

Happy "Rainy" Monday!