LONG RUN | Feb 28 | A Repeat of Sorts

More Heartbreak Hill. Superhero costumes taking over. And a familiar road.

Miles: 14

Song in my head: Sugar by Adam Levine

Brunch food motivation: Barcelona’s Homefries

At 7:30am I laced up for the outdoors, grabbed my new Garmin, and raced down the steps to hop in a white car and greet a smiling Crystal. Sugar was playing on the radio, and the sky was clear, allowing the sun to scatter sunshine all over the snow-covered streets.

This run felt like a repeat of many runs before. Sugar was playing on repeat in my mind and making me crave something sweet. Heartbreak Bill was back on the course taking pictures with the crew. And for a fourth week in a row, the team was facing the carriage road on Beacon Street heading out of BC. Granted, this was my first time venturing back on the roads as opposed to the warm indoor track. We must have missed the memo because there were superheroes everywhere. At the waterstops. On the roads. Outside of Heartbreak Hill Running Company. On John Kelley’s statue. I found out later it was for another charity team, Team Martin W. Richard, the 8-year-old boy who was killed at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. We had our own superhero-themed waterstops, and I saw so many familiar faces – Lindsay, Murph, Kellen, and Grace. I don’t think I properly hydrated because I was too busy doling out hugs to faces I hadn’t seen in a little while.

Repeating the same 4 mile out-and-back for a third straight week did not sound appealing to most. I was just happy to be back outside. It was the first run that I’d done outside since hurting my hamstring and knee a few weeks before. It was also the first run in awhile that didn’t start in the negatives. We decided to go a little further out on the carriage road so we would not have to repeat the same strip of road too much. I’m really not exaggerating that the topic of conversation tended to fall on what is going to be consumed at brunch post-run. Today were the homefries specifically at Barcelona, which Eric described in detail just before we made our way up Heartbreak Hill to give us a little extra boost. It always gets very quiet when we ascend Heartbreak Hill. Everyone turns on another gear to get her done. And then share in high fives at the top.

We got back to BC and tacked on an extra loop around the campus to hit 14 miles, waiting for our Garmins to give that sound of completion.

The best part was after the run I got to hang out with this kid and make plans for more runs and Boston exploring.

To complete our repeat run, we ended this long run with a make your own bloody mary bar, which in and of itself is amazing. It also obviously means bacon IN bloody marys, which I think is a pretty great combo and not one I mind repeating.