I Think I'll Go To Boston

AM: 5+ miles
15 mins. core
PM: 4 miles + 4x100m strides

This morning I departed with Jenna, Pezz and Maraya for a girls' weekend in the greater Boston area. We're all slated to compete in tomorrow night's New Balance Boston Twilight meet--Jenna and I in the 5k, Maraya and Pezz in the 1500. Maraya and Pezz both qualified for US Nationals (Pezz in the steeple and Maraya in the Junior 800) and are looking to get in a fast tune-up race. I initially planned on using this race to set a new 5k PR, but that was before I realized how completely and utterly depleted I would feel after Nationals. Plus, my left foot has still been nagging. I'm thinking it's tendonitis, and icing seems to help, but I don't expect that wearing spikes tomorrow night will do it any favors. At any rate, we set off on Friday eager to spend the weekend in the city.

Upon arriving after a pleasantly brief flight, we snagged our rental car and hit up the city for the remainder of the afternoon. Pezz grew up in nearby Narragansett but neither Maraya nor Jenna had ever been to Boston, so we spent some time downtown checking out Quincy Market and all that good stuff. Also, random side note: So we were downtown at Whole Foods grabbing some snacks for the trip. I was meandering around the bakery (naturally) when I heard a male voice calling my name. I assumed he was speaking to someone else, since I was absolutely certain no one in the city knew me, but when I looked up I was surprised to see a familiar face. Turns out a kid I lived down the hall from in the dorms my freshman year at TCU now lives in Boston and works part-time at Whole Foods. So random. I'd been in the city for all of an hour and had already been spotted by someone I hadn't seen in years.


View of the iconic Citgo sign and the Charles River in Boston

The rest of the evening was fairly tame. We headed out to the 'burbs of Waltham, where our race would be held, then changed clothes at our hotel and headed over to the track. Despite a day of travel my legs felt fairly good, no doubt due to the manageable humidity and markedly lower temperatures. I think the high today was 70 and it's expected to be 65 tomorrow. Considering the daily lows in Charlotte have been warmer than this, I'll take the New England weather any day. Hopefully this will be conducive to fast running tomorrow night.

The picture below is of Jenna icing her Achilles in the bathroom at the hotel while I took an ice bath in the tub. It makes me smile.