Beach to Beacon (dry run)

7/27/08
Sunday

Met Amanda this morning at 7 am to run the Beach to Beacon course with her. She has never run it and wanted a dry run. We parked her car at Fort Williams and drove my truck to the start area.

We passed dozens of people running the course on our way to the start and many more preparing to run. I guess a lot of runners had the same idea.

The dry run works well as it gives perspective as far as hills, dificulty and course direction.

Amanda stretched as a few runners passed by us. I was anxious to get started, something about getting passed not sure what it is. We finally got going and planned somewhere in the 9:30-10 min range.

I thought the weather was going to be perfect but turns out there was much humidity today. Not a bad thing as it could be this hot next Saturday and that is what a dry run is all about...duplicating race day.

Within the first mile or so, we passed a few of the runners that passed us so I was feeling better. The pace seemed easy and I was enjoying the scenery. I explained the course to Amanda and even though she was feeling pretty good, I warned about the last three miles and the hills.

We passed a bunch of runners as we turned onto Ocean house Road and the downhill felt refreshing. The part of the course is very nice and there is a lot of shade.

Once we started hitting the hills, Amanda was feeling tired and overheated. She talked of walking the big hill in mile five as we were about half way up. I felt it was not wise to do that and sugjested she just slow down as much as she needed to.

It is more important to remember mastering this hill when she hits it Saturday rather than giving up on it. She made it to the crest but complained about the next hill coming up. I told to think of it as the last hill.

We crested that hill and enjoyed the down hill to the park entrance. She mentioned something under her breath about .."the last hill huh?" as we climbed the short but tough hill after the gate.

The rest was quite easy and she was feeling better as we discussed the mere .3 miles to finish. The end looked so different to me. I wasn't sure I was even going the right way. We turned back once as I thought we passed the turn off. Finally we found the finish sign.

I was quite surprised as this did not look anything like I remembered and I have run the race 5 times. I couldn't believe this was the finish. In the end we ran about 9:30 pace so it worked out well for her. I was actually quite tired and had trouble visioning running at my race pace if I felt this tired at 9:30 pace.

I had hoped for a long run today but with a race in a week, it was not a bad idea to take it easy.