Couch2Boston

So I did the Rochester 13.1 yesterday. It was a blast. High 40's, no wind with a sunny day on a heavily shaded course. Basically, very fast conditions on a slow course. It is hilly, with a net uphill from start to finish and 2 short climbs that are at a pitch that can only be described as obnoxious. Both of them make you feel like you are going to stall out while climbing. I finished with a 1:33:42 which felt great for a day that I was just out to have fun. I started behind 2 women but blew past them on a fast downhill right away. They caught me on the uphill so I tucked in behind them and let them set the pace. After a couple of miles I asked what they were planning and they said an average around 7 minutes a mile. Cool, that works. We chatted for a while off and on and it was nice having some running partners. I left them behind on another big downhill and said I'd see them in the middle of the next big uphill about a mile later. Sure enough, halfway up that big hill they s...

The final tally was 13.19 miles @6:40 pace for a 174 HR and a 1 minute 4 second PR.  Garmin gave me a TE of 5.  I haven't seen that in a long time.  Apparently, it was a hard effort :-) The course was an out and back along the lake that got run twice.  On the 'out' direction it was a complete headwind that was blowing about 20 miles an hour.  It was awful. I warmed up a little bit and then waited for the start.  The jacket I brought was going to be too light, so I wore the 2014 Boston jacket instead since it was heavier.  The first 3ish miles of the 'out' was rough.  I was running too fast for the start, but I wasn't pacing it so much as trying to stay with people to get out of the wind.  At the turn around, I immediately started overheating and before long the jacket was in my hand/arm being carried like a football.  I kept switching hands, which took some juggling because my fogged over sunglasses were in the other hand....