Mike's Marathon Blog

The Miles for Miracles team offers many great resources including trainers, coaches, clinics, nutrition classes and team runs. The team runs started about a month ago and with the holidays, I never got a chance to attend. This past Saturday I decided to join the team for the weekly long-runs. I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know how many people would be there, I didn’t know how the runners were grouped, the pace, the distance, if they provided water along the routes, nothing. I went pretty much blindfolded. I knew we ran parts of the actual Boston Marathon route, which is one of the main reasons I needed to start joining these runs. Knowing the route beforehand is obviously extremely important. It would also give me a chance to ask the coaches some questions and more importantly, compare how I am doing against some of the other runners.

It’s never thrilling when your alarm clock is going off at 6:30 am on a Saturday. Especially when it’s 15 degrees out and you’re about to drive an hour to Wellesley. The team meets in an old church on Washington Street, which is part of the route. The church is located around the 14th mile of the race. There were about 40 people there when I arrived. We listened to a half-hour presentation on injury prevention and stretching and then we were off. I started in the back of the pack since I had no idea where we were going or how far we were going. I wanted to run 11 or 12 miles that day, but I had no idea where I was, where to turn around, how to get back if I lost the team, etc. So I just followed everyone else.

It was pretty cool running the actual route. There were other teams on the route as well. The route had many attractions, especially since this was my first time in this area. The run was difficult. I’ve heard about the hills of Newton and Wellesley. The road was never flat. I was either running up or I was running down. Neither felt very good on my legs, especially my knees. The 20 degree weather was certainly not helping either.

We came to a water station about 3 miles into the run. Both coaches stopped, so I stopped. Many of the runners had a drink and started back the way we came from. I was puzzled for a minute and realized that this was their turn-around point. Most of the 40 or so runners were only doing 6 miles that day. I did not want to run 6 miles! I can do 6 miles in my sleep. I thought this was the long-run day? Before I could speak up, the 2 coaches continued running the same direction we were previously heading. I threw down my cup, pressed play on the iPod and jumped behind them. Next thing I knew, we were stopping at another water station. I asked them how far this was. They said this was the 6.5 mile turn-around. I knew then I was running a half-marathon that day, 13 miles.

I had been running behind these 2 professional marathon coaches for 6.5 miles and I was not about to lose them on the way back. Even though they were running a slower pace (for them), it was much, much faster than my normal speed. It was cold and I was sore. The hills were killing my knees. We stopped at a water station around mile 10 and the 1/2 jug of water was frozen solid. We finally made it back to the church, all three of us together. I never time my runs, but I wanted to know this time for sure. I asked one of the coaches and he told me 2 hours flat. I couldn’t believe it. That was the fastest I had ever run 13 miles. And it wasn’t a minute or two faster. I beat my 2nd fastest time by almost 16 minutes! That is over a minute/mile faster and on a much more difficult course than I normally run. One of the coaches told me that I was far ahead of the other runners that come to the team runs. I was pretty proud of myself!

I am taking today off because of Saturday. My knee did not like the hills and definitely did not agree with my decision to run behind the 2 coaches for 13 miles. I am icing and resting, which I hate! Hopefully the pain subsides tomorrow. Jack got me a few sessions with a personal trainer for Christmas. Tomorrow morning is session #1 and I need to be ready. It would be great if the trainer was Jillian Michaels!