Sorry this is a little late, but last Saturday two of my teammates and I drove out to the starting line in Hopkinton and ran 12 miles back into Wellesley to see what the first half of the course looked like. It was a beautiful, warm, and sunny day so it was nice to be outside enjoying the weather. I am really glad that we decided to do this run together because it taught me two very important lessons.....
First, the infamous downhills everyone always talks about are not so much down but rather rolling hills! Yes, the first mile of the course does have a pretty steep drop, but the rest of it definitely didn't feel all downhill. None of the uphills were very significant....nothing like Comm Ave in Newton, but I think it was really important to get out there and see for myself so I won't be shocked on marathon day when I have to run uphill early on!!
Second (and probably the more important) lesson I learned was the need to pace myself well early on. After that 18 mile run, I felt so good and I started wondering if I should have pushed harder and faster. For these 12 miles, we decided to all push our pace a bit since it was a shorter run......well we definitely pushed hard!! To give you an idea of our speed, I typically run my long runs around 9:00-9:30 min/mile -- this run we averaged 8:40 min/mile and we all agreed that we went faster at the beginning and slowed a little as we came through Framingham and Natick. It felt awesome to run that fast for 12 miles, but I definitely learned my lesson.......I can not keep that pace up for 26.2 miles!! I learned how important it is to hold back some at the beginning to conserve energy to get through the rest of the marathon. I don't want to be one of those people doing the "runner's shuffle" during the last few miles of the course. I want to enjoy the last 10k through Brookline and Kenmore Square. And I want to still be smiling as I cross the finish line! If that means holding back a little at the beginning then I am fine with that.
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