Cowboy Hazel

Helen and I headed up to her hometown in western Massachusetts this weekend. The trip went really well, nothing like Meet the Parents (phew...) and provided a nice escape from the city. We got in solid runs both days we were up there. The scenery was beautiful and the hills were intense.

As we were getting ready to head out Saturday, I realized that I had managed to forget running shorts. So I ended up wearing a super-stylish bright purple pair of Helen's old cross country shorts. The elastic was gone from the waistband so I had to safety pin them to my tights. Comical.

I had taken two nasty falls last week (neither while running) and had a ridiculous cramp in my calf (also not from running) that was lingering so I was feeling pretty beat up even before we started on Saturday.

Then, a couple miles into the run, after already tackling bigger hills than exist anywhere in NYC, Helen informed me that we were about to run up a hill called Agony. We did, and then I discovered that it was at the foot of another even bigger hill which we were also to run up. The whole first five miles or so were almost solid climbing. I was definitely enjoying the route, but it was tough – I'm just not used to those big hills. The next rest was a mix of up and down and we picked up the pace quite a bit, finishing the 14.7 miles in under 8's, which I was very happy with.

That run took more out of me than I realized. Our plan was to do 10 yesterday, but a few miles into it, I asked if we could shorten it to 8. It was more beautiful scenery and more big fun hills, but my legs were super sore and I didn't want to push it the week before the marathon. The run was super casual and we even made a couple stops for photos. I just couldn't get over how good it felt to be running out among the trees, the snow, and the blue sky.

With those, I finished the week with 47.6 miles. It was definitely light on mileage quantity, but that was the plan. And, there were some quality runs in there, so I feel really good about it. Less than one week of the taper left now...