At the scene of the Crime!

This weekend I finally had a chance to get out for a run with the Team In Training group for a 15 mile run along the actual course I'll be running in April.   I got up early on Saturdya morning and left a sick wife to get out with the group.  We met at the Wellesley Community center, which is at about mile 14 on the course.   There was about 75 men and women there, many of whom are in the same boat training for thier first Boston, many thier first marathon.  I spent most of my time as we were getting ready to go out talking to a guy who had left his house in New Jersey at 4 Am to make it to the group workout for 8.   Like me he was looking forward to forging some relationships and hoping to get even more from the experience.  He had ran in 5 prior marathons but this was his first crack at Boston.

This was also going to be my first run, outside after the last two weeks working my long runs indoors and spending most of my weekly workouts on the bike in order to rest my toes as well as give me shin and knee some time to heal.

With the excitement of running with a large group for the very first time as well as being on the course, it was hard to hold my self back as we got out.  The first half mile or so was pretty cramped as we were forced onto the sidewalks for the run. I was able to hold back but one we separated ourselves, I was running at about a 9 minute mile which is race pace for myself.  I should be running these long runs at 45 seconds to 1:30 slower than race pace, so I definately ran the run too fast.  I will definately be more deliberate next week to keep at a slower pace that is more suited to what I should be doing.   On the very positive side, no real knee or shin pain to speak of, although the toes were sore Saturday and Sunday.

The course it self was fantastic. The neighborhoods and areas we ran through in Wellesley, and Natick were just beautiful and really a fun time.   While I was running basically solo it was nice to have some water stops provided by TNT as well as encouragement from other runners who really understood what it was I was going through.  Looking forward to continuing to build mileage and get to my half marathon in New Hampshire in three weeks as well as the big day in April.