Notes
This is the last leg of the relay--as we have only four runners, I have to do two legs. After the "easy" race in the 2nd leg, I am excited for the race and our team. In the last exchanging point, we met Chris, the most speedy guy in town, who is going to run the last leg as well. If his teammate shows up later than mine, he is the only threat for me to be passed in the whole race. So when I get the baton from Arthur, the French JP graduate student, I intend to run at a real race with 90% something effort. I know it is risky for myself, given the fact that my big race is coming next weekend. But, this is a race too, and I really want to keep our time decent, with the first leg at nearly 30 min.
The course is hilly in the first 4 miles, starting from Woods Hole. There is some water on the road due to the storm last night and these water slows down a lot of runners who try to pass around. I run in the water and it was cold, but not freezing. The splits definitely reflected my gut and my effort. If I was running the 7 mile road race, I will get a better time for sure today. I managed to pass a few relay teams and a few tens of marathoners. It is truly amazing that I catch a relay team in the last mile that departed at least 5-6 min earlier than I did. We were joking when we walked to the exchange point--my teammate urged me to catch that team and none of us thought it would be true. The final time is 3:04:40, and I hope to beat this time by myself in the next weekend.
Although I know it might be way too intensive for me to have a race one week before the marathon, I hope to be able to recover quickly in this week. Ready for the big race.