I look forward to our Sunday morning ritual (not just because I need to get my long run over before I go to work but,) because it gives us something to look forward to. By something, I mean the stress-free, seemingly endless progression of the carriage path that starts (for us) at about 1.5 miles into our run.
That path/ side-road will take us from long, flat straight-aways to half-mile/mile ascends up the heartbreak hills of Commonwealth.
9AM Sunday Morning.
It has been a tradition since I've gotten to Brandeis. Usually a captain will send out an e-mail to the XC e-mail list the night before to remind us that, because tradition never forgets, that we're getting up early on Sundays to run a long run. It's like an incentive, for those of us in season, to make sure we don't stay up late Saturday. Doing a cost/benefit analysis, the fewer hours of sleep we would get the night before a Long Run would create a diminishing-returns effect. Which basically means: If we don't get enough sleep, not only will we feel crappy the next morning, we are less likely to get the intended benefits that doing a Long Run would give.
Following a great day of races at BU on Saturday, Most of us were in bed by midnight. Some great results: In the mile, Devon nipped his old PR with a 4:14 low, Ben PRed by 3 seconds to run 4:16. Chris tied his PR at 4:19, Marc ran a (6?) second PR to get 4:21.
In the 3k, our freshman, Alex, ran an 8:32. A very solid performance, the equivalent 2 mile (~3.2k) time is better than his High School PR of 9:18.
On Friday, The girls also raced well. To name some, Grayce got the School Record with a 5:00.3 mile. Erin ran 5:06, Marie 5:09. Julia 2:16 for the 8.
It was an exciting weekend.
We were all in the gym by 9AM on Sunday. John came, told us how many miles we were running (which ranged depending on who raced, or who was sick, or who was coming back from injury.)
We lethargically got outdoors, into the 10 degree F, about 20 minutes later and departed for the hills of Comm Ave.
From Brandeis, it takes us a mile descent to get to Norumbega Rd; which is a windy, desolated, rolling-hill rd that leads us to rt 30.
view from the bega tower (taken from google images)
We take a left out of Bega, onto rt 30, passing the Newton Marriot Hotel.
The guys running 10+ miles formed a solid pack of 8-10 guys once those running less than 10 tailed off from our pack to run shorter routes. The long straightaways of rt. 30 quickly turned into rolling hills and a few short ascends.
Approaching the first of the Heartbreak Hills, we catch a glimpse of the Newton Firehouse on the intersection of Washington St. and Comm Ave. The 19th mile marker of the Boston Marathon, and the marker of the first set of killer hills. This hill has been deemed, by Ben Bray, as "Merga's Hill".
During the 2009 Boston Marathon, a few of us were standing by the firehouse waiting for the Lead Mens pack to come. Taking the famous turn from Washington St. onto Comm Ave, Deriba Mera (Ehtiopia)
made a huge surge, and immediately strung out the lead pack. A VERY clear move to take the lead, at the VERY FIRST heartbreak hill. Awesome, the perfect word to describe the scenario. The lead pack was formed by a dozen of sub 2:10 marathoners, and a number of World/Marathon winners from the past decade. Course Record Holder, Churuyoit struggled to match Merga's move, as did a number of Africans, along with USA Champion Ryan Hall, who naturally stood out due to his bright blond hair and tall, pale arms and legs.
A number of us laugh whenever "Merga's Hill" is brought up in conversation. The term resonates with a clear situation that occurred during the 2009 Boston Marathon. Merga was the tough runner who outlasted every runner in the heat of Beijing Marathon, except for winner Sammy Wanjiru (Kenya). After watching footage of that race, it was only natural for me to want to cheer for him as soon as I found out that he was in the Elite field of the Boston Marathon. I was standing right by the side of the road, next to the firehouse, with a bunch of my buddies right when Merga took the lead. He zoomed directly in front of me, not more than 5 feet away from us, as I yelled something along the lines of, "GO MERGA! THIS IS YOUR DAY!"
A lady, directly to my right, looks directly at me and sternly says "Go Ryan", as if I should have known better than to cheer for a non-American. In the midst of the chaos, I had simply forgotten that Ryan Hall was in the race. I stood there, and semi-embarrassingly cheered "Go Ryan" while my friends laughed and cheered.
As we start running up the hill on Sunday, some of us silently remember the determination that Merga displayed running up the first hill; a move that was decisive for him to win the race that day. We remember silently, not just because our quick pace combined with the steep incline forces our bodies to ask for more oxygen, but because the moment deepens our focus and reminds us of times when our own risky moves have rewarded us with success.
Merga's hill is steep. We know that, once we reach the top, there will be more hills. We blaze one. Passsing individual runners, waving and receiving waves from groups of people training for the 2010 Marathon. We pass Newton city Hall, blaze up the youth-race section of Heartbreak hills, and continue towards Chestnut Hill. Devon, Ben, Chris and I turned at the intersection of Comm Ave and Center St (6 miles out from Brandeis). We get there in a quick 41 minutes. A few of the guys, running longer than a total of 12 miles for the day, continue up towards Boston College and the next set of approaching hills.
The way back to gym is much faster. Instead of ascending, we are mostly descending, and running on flats. Ben, who ran a PR yesterday, lets us go to run his own pace, a more conservative pace.
We run back, past City Hall, as Devon comments on the John Kelley statue that stands along the carriage path.
Part of the positive accomplishment feeling that I get after having run a long run up Comm Ave is due to the fact that so many legends and stories have come out of the remarkable and historical race that is the Boston Marathon.
Countless tales of putting the mind-over-body theory into test by running up the grueling hills. Essentially, as a group of young runners, we are living those stories every Sunday.
We are experiencing the same feelings of longer running; such as aerobic intensive breathing, water depletion, lactic acid building in our muscles. It's just fun to be out there and experience these factors as they come.
Before reaching the descent of Merga's Hill, Chris has already dropped us. Devon and I are running a brisk pace (~6:40/mile) and we are content with keeping that steady. Going down, passed the Firehouse, into the Auburndale section of rt. 30 Chris slowly creeps away from us. There is a point where I say to Devon, "We're not catching him". As we run the flats that lead us to the Marriott, we approach the turn back onto Bega. Referring to Chris, Devon states, "He's flying." We've gained no ground on the sophomore.
We drive past the rolling hills of Bega, and make our turn onto South st, with 1 mile left of our run. Generally, we start out runs by heading down South St, a descent, so coming back we hit a curvy ascent that takes us pass the Chareles River Apartments and leads us to the Brandeis gym. The mile-to-go marker can be tempting, sometimes getting the best of us by making us challenge ourselves and our watches to see how fast we can get back. Guys on our team have been known to come back sub 5:50 in the past. The record for our generation may stand around 5:20, which is incredibly and inappropriately fast for a non-workout day.
Devon and I reach the gym, finishing our run at 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 30 seconds. We went 41 minutes to get to 6 miles, and came by slightly faster (sub 40). It was a pretty solid run, both of us felt that it was nice to run our long runs at a quick, but not overly aggressive pace. My legs felt good, I felt like I could have run over 12+ miles if I had. Definitely a satisfying feeling, knowing that you ran far, and your body desires running further.
Comm Ave is satisfying. During the winter, when the trails are covered in snow, we'll run this run about every Sunday. During the summer/spring/fall we'll drive over to the Lincoln Train Station to run our long runs on an extensive set of trails that takes us to WALDEN POND. We look forward to those runs as well, since you can run upwards of 14+ miles and never cross the same path you ran on before.
I'm happy with the long run. I'm still getting into the swing of things during this indoor season. I hope that I can continue to feel good running, and get some fast racing in. I ran some pretty solid workouts last month, but I came out a bit tired and sick. Now, after having taken some time to recover, I plan to start running well and seeing how fast my legs will carry me this winter.
