Revenge

Did I ever mention that I completely crashed on the hills in Newton during the marathon? No? Well, I did. It was not pretty- my ultimate fear come true- I had to walk up part of Heartbreak Hill. It has eaten me up ever since. I can't tell you how badly I have wished that I could go back to that day and just suck it up and run all the way up that stupid hill. The thing is, on that day, 18 or so miles into the marathon, I was pretty sure that I might die if I made myself run up that entire hill... or worse yet, I might not finish the marathon (which I guess if I had died I wouldn't have finished the marathon anyways- but at least then I wouldn't have had to live with the humiliation). Regardless, once I finished the race that day, I knew that I could have run that hill and still finished- too bad I came to that realization 8 miles too late (hindsight is always 20-20).

Well, this past Tuesday I had the opportunity to return to the site of my demise and do a TNT run on the very same hills that had eaten me alive back on April 21st. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit nervous about the whole thing, but after a great race in Stowe the weekend before (yes, that thinly veiled fairy-tale was about me... surprise surprise), I felt pretty good about getting a good run in, regardless of the hills I would have to tackle. The run started out, and I immediately felt like I was going too fast to even possibly have enough energy to run the hills down and back- but my desire to not be last got the better of me, so I kept trucking along with my fellow TNTers. Before I even realized it, we were at the firehouse and turning around to go back over the hills the same direction as the marathon route. I charged up the first hill and was amazed how great I felt when I reached the top- instead of slowly ambling down the other side in an attempt to catch my breath and give my legs a rest, I kept up my pace and began mentally preparing myself for the next hill. Hill number two came and went without too much trouble and then it was time for Heartbreak. As I was approaching the incline, my teammate Matt came running up behind me and we talked for a minute. I explained to him that I was using this run as my revenge for the marathon- getting the hills back for embarassing me the way they did. He responded "Kick this hill in the balls" and with a high five- he raced up the hill. I "raced" up after him (at a slightly... ok, fine, way way slower speed) thinking the whole way up "I've always thought of these hills as female." Regardless, I ran the entire way up that stupid hill and spit on the top of it (I'm not really much of a spitter, but it seemed appropriate at the time). As I finished the run, I felt an overwhelming sense of redemption. Sure, the hills may have gotten the better of me on marathon monday, but I certainly showed them who's boss on Tuesday, and hopefully I'll keep showing them until next April when I can really get my revenge.