Boston Bound

This week has been crazy busy with work and late night training.  Before Wednesday night’s run, I happened upon some Caps tickets (local NHL hockey team)…for the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs…in a luxury suite.  SWEET!!!  And without paying a nickel (heck, I even got free dinner and other food/drinks to boot!).  Here’s some pics of it:

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Nice…they gots themselves a fancy sign on this level!

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And here’s some pics of the action.  It was a fairly aggressive game between them and the Rangers…But it was pretty good action, even if they didn’t win. :(

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The only problem with the game, was that I had a 65 minute run scheduled – a tempo run at that.  20 minutes each of Z2/Z3/Z4A, plus a 5 minute cool down.  While my intent was to run around the National Mall pre-game, the organizational giver of the tickets wanted to meet up for a pre-game dinner…so the run got postponed until after the game.  At dinner one of the people there made a joke and asked if I was planning on ‘running home too’.  Which…upon 1.2 seconds of thinking – was BRILLIANT!  It was roughly the distance I needed, and it would be way more fun than driving home, plus I love point to point runs.   Luckily a friend/coworker and I carpooled in, so I had my running stuff with me and then he could just drive home.

After a quick change in the car, off I went.  He dropped me off right in front of the Washington Monument, which was mostly a random point I chose when the traffic stopped for a second to jump out of the car, just past 10:20PM.

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Oh yeah, it was raining.  And about 50*F.  Not ideal picnic or star gazing weather, but in my little brain – it was perfect running weather.  Then I ran by the Cherry Blossom trees, or…what was left of them anyway.

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And then passed in front of Jefferson…ya know – the Jefferson Memorial.

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Shortly thereafter I cross over the Potomac and into the ‘Commonwealth of Virginia’ and caught the Mt. Vernon trail along the water for half a dozen or so miles.  It was basically pitch black out, and I only saw one person out there.  But it was rather nice.  And relaxing.

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Well, as relaxing as this ridiculously fast tempo run could be.  Despite only getting 5 hours of sleep the night before and being rather late, I was H.A.U.L.I.N.G.  It took a few shots to get a descent photo…while still running.

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Seriously, it was crazy how fast I was going given how low my HR was staying.  All low 6’s.  In the end I managed to cover 9.5 miles in 65 minutes including the 5 minute super-easy-slow jog at the end. Btw, I hit 65 minutes and 20 seconds, that’s darn impressive for randomly picking a point almost 10 miles away and having no idea how far it actually was (my run was scheduled at 65:00).  Anyway…seems like this are shaping up nicely for a casual 26.2 mile jog on Monday.

Which…brings me to….

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I’m at on the plane cruising at altitude with the Girl (which…was almost without the Girl, since they oversold the flight and she didn’t have a seat, so some significant begging later…we got the last seat).  We’re landing in Providence here in a few minutes (just a short 50 minute flight) and will be hanging out with some of my relatives for the weekend.  Yes…just look at this beauty they just got.  Nuff said.

Tomorrow we’ll go check out the massive expo.  And then the rest of the city a bit.  Perhaps even a game at Fenway (Red Sox), that’d be awesome!  Then on Monday there’s that little detail of having to run 26.2 miles.  I’m as relaxed as I’ve ever been for a race.  Mostly because I’m just going to have fun.  No PR’s planned, no hard running.  Just a nice easy little jog across the city.  So don’t be looking for any sub-3 hour times here.  If I see entertaining/interesting things along the way I’m stopping to take a picture…or 20.  That’s the way this race will roll.

Anyway, I’ll have a solid post sometime this weekend with all the deets and craptons of pictures from the Expo.  And hopefully a LOT OF FREE STUFF!  Have a good weekend!

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13 Comments

  1. So jealous that you’re in Beantown! Have a great time with the girl, running, grilling and taking in your Boston experience! I’m sure it’ll be awesome. Love your dedication that you will even run at 10:20pm after a full day.

  2. Best of luck in the race and the weekend!

  3. Best of Luck at the Marathon…enjoy your weekend!! :)

  4. Good luck with your race and have fun!

    My family and I went to Boston once. We took a tour of Fenway which was pretty interesting. Also took one of those boat tours. Windy!

  5. 1) the run home is insane. i love it.

    2) i wish i could be there to cheer you on! i am glad you will have lots of support. have an amazing trip!!! let me know if you have any boston questions. have fun!

  6. A hockey game followed by a run?! AWESOME.

    Enjoy Boston!!!

  7. Holy smokes, that is some serious dedication! A hockey game and then a super speedy tempo run? Safe travels to Boston, and have a great time out there!!!

  8. That run looked amazing. When I was over in DC a few months ago I went walking around the monuments at night. It was spectacular!

  9. Jenn

    Have fun Ray! I’m sure you’ll do great!

  10. Dad

    Growing up Rhode Island I have many great memories of Patriots Day in the 60’s and 70’s it meant three things to a kid in Rhode Island. First the kids up in the Bay State had the day off from school and that did not seem fair. Second the Red Sox always had a 10 AM game by the time I got to High School most of the times I think I was always sick on that day. But I always made a quick recovery and the guys all made the drive up to Bean Town. Something about Patriots Day was special it was a lot like opening day because we were still kids without much money we would always buy cheap bleacher tickets. If you know Fenway Park the bleacher seats exits are a quick walk to where the finish line was the Boston Marathon or as we all know it as the “BA”. I still recall seeing the athletes who had just competed in the Olympic Games run the BA. And often we would just hang round for hours and just watch the rest of field come through. We witness people young and old complete the BA but I still think the handicap athletes who competed in the BA always will have a special place in my heart.

    The BA is very special and you should feel a special honor to have the privilege to compete in this great race. The BA is a great race and you will trace the footsteps of some of greatest runners in the world. Enjoy your first one and as you run by every fan on the course remember that most of them are in great awe of what you are doing on this day.

  11. Oh thank you for the delightful pictures of your magical (impromptu?!) late night run in the rain.

    We enjoyed the great Boston expo.
    Not impressed with the spaghetti dinner.

    Best wishes for a memorable successful race!

  12. Good luck Ray, have a great race!

  13. you might get this too late…

    hopefully you see the good wishes before….enjoy…its a helluva event……

    looks like you’ll have many good experiences with
    The Girl