Saturday: Tang's Trip to Somerville.
The packet pick up for my first Boston race was to be at none other than Olde Magoun's Saloon (saloons, the site of all Massachusetts races I've been in. Is this Texas?) The idea of getting to Somerville from Allston is a fun process of differentiating Plano and Texas. I am sure a 15 minute drive would be sufficient in Texas to get between these two distances. Round trip? 3 hours, what with the Red Line of course getting only to Harvard and having to shuttle to Davis Square. This was found out the hard way as I blasted music and didn't understand why everyone got off at Harvard. Good scouting. Oddly enough, picking my packet up of course they hand me a packet for 'Eric Tang'. There may be more asian people in Boston. Bonus points: older Virginian lady was lost on the way back, I (yea, me) helped her get to the Prudential on the right green line. Of course she knows Plano.
Sunday: As I napped from ??? to midnight, took a sleep intermission with Netflix and The Truman Show, napped for two hours, snoozed to 7:30. 8:30, Griggs St Stop for the B Line to Park St, Park to Harvard. I knew there was a shuttle so no surprises there. Due to the race, the Davis Square stop vanishes and now I have to basically walk and follow people who look like runners to the Davis Square stop.
It felt like an away game seeing as how I had to take three different modes of transport. An hour early, I chill. Literally. Freezing my butt off, I may be reconsidering running tights. I was asked by a stranger before transport #3 if I was cold in shorts, I stupidly said there's a race so I'm set.
Portapotty b line at 10 am like a pro, no lines. Walk around to try to keep warm, started warming up at 10:20. The corrals were very generous as they had an 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and walker sign. Bostonians seem to have mastered this idea better than others as there was definitely less weaving. This'll be a short race report as the 5k course started up hill, rolling throughout, and was a simple four turn quadrilateral of a course. The first mile was a mixture of warming up and getting caught in a 7 minute mile motorcade of runners (whatever that would be called). The second mile was just more of the same. If you haven't stalked my log, I have been pounding out 10 milers so mentally I know I had the endurance. What I lacked was the next gear as mile 3 was basically cruise control.
Unofficially, 5k at 21:37. Was expecting more but only a month and a half of consistent running and some soreness from doing so.
So what do I do after the race? Ran 11.4 miles around town. Why? Partly to work out frustration, part glutton for punishment, part OCD as that puts 41 down for the past three weeks.
