Third 20( 21 miles) Miler

Today was the 3rd 20 miles I had to do. Actually it was 21 miles. All week I thought about where to run this. I did not want to do the twice loop that I did for the second 20 miler, that was painful. I wanted something new and flat. I found out that the minuteman trail is a 10 mile trail that goes through Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, and Belmont. I had never done it before, so why not.

Today the weather was 37 degrees, sunny, blue sky, and good for running. I drove to the Alewife T station ( start of the trail) to start the run. What I didn’t know, which was great, the trail has mile markers along the route. So running back was “ easy” because I could gauge how many miles I had left. Also the markers helped because my phone died on me around mile 18. Because of the mile markers I knew I had 3. 6 miles left on my run.

This run is straight and flat. At points I was annoyed with the similar nature scenery. What I did notice was a group, running group of Asian/Asian Americans on the trail around Lexington. Besides the group and seeing one black man on his bike, I was the only black women on that trail for three hours.

I did see the gang of BU men’s and women runners on the trail. I never understood pack running.

I assume the trail is popular there were people walking, walking their dogs, holding hands and walking, walking with canes, and some joggers.

My body felt strong and good but around mile 18 is when things got tight. I became body aware of my hip flexors and hamstrings and how they got tight. My feet started to hurt. I know part of it was went my phone died and I had to stop and weight for traffic to go through.

My time got a little slower. I was thinking on race day, I’ll have 8 more miles to go. I have to do a lot of adjusting in the next 30 days because I don’t want this pain to be a factor.