Any way the wind blows...

Okay it is windy today, but that title is a stretch. I just didn't want to be the one to break the Queen streak. And I always think of Lisa's karaoke story when I think of that song.

So, it's Marathon Monday! I hail from Newton MA. In addition to being the home of the Fig Newton, Newton is right on the Boston Marathon route. In fact I grew up about two blocks from the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. In Massachusetts we have this holiday called Patriots Day, which I think is supposed to celebrate the battles of Lexington and Concord. Somewhere along the line, they started running the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day so we all got a school holiday for Marathon Monday. My parents used to have barbeques and everyone would wander over to the course to watch the action. Good times.

Anyways, the winner this year did it in 2:07. That is about a 4:50 min/mi pace. Insane!

So I set out on my evening run today with the goal to be faster than twice as slow as the winner. And I was a total rockstar, doing the four miles at 9:24 min/mi (shut up, it's fast for me). On Saturday, I was more than a minute per mile slower for our 11 miler and I was dead at the end. I was cursing myself for putting the 13th Street hill in the last mile of that run.

Song that got me pumped to run at the beginning: As Cool as I Am by Dar Williams
Song that got me up the 13th Street hill today: By Way of Sorrow by Lucy Kaplansky, Dar Williams and Richard Shindell

If anyone knows that last song, they will probably think I am weird that that song would be of any help while running since it is sort of slow. But two things:

1) There is a faster paced fiddle part in the middle that conveniently hit about 100 feet from the top.

2) I like to sing along, even though one would think that singing along (out loud mind you - I am shameless) would mess up my breathing, especially going up a hill. But I have the embarassing habit of totally getting into music when I am singing along so it totally (all encompassingly?) gives me a burst of energy. I also tend to close my eyes when I sing along and running up a hill with your eyes closed (which again makes me look like a total freak) makes the hill go faster.

I am sure I must look insane running with my eyes closed and singing along. I don't know if I could ever look as insane as the really thin Asian woman with massive coke bottle glasses who Lisa and I would pass running in the Hole - she used to only wear shorts and this white bra that wasn't a sports bra, just a regular bra, but it was about 3 cup sizes too big for her. Yet she was out there running several days a week. I guess running attracts the crazy ones.