Running on the course...

This past Sunday I decided to do my long run on the actual Boston Marathon Course. I live about 5 miles north of the starting line. So, I got up early Sunday morning and headed down to the corner of Main St. & Ash St. in the heart of Hopkinton. No matter when you visit the site, you will always find the starting line painted across Main St. Of course, it is quite faded now as it is 8 months since the last race. But, it is still there.

I planned to run a 5 mile out & back route. This would take me from Hopkinton through Ashland and finish in Framiningham before heading back to the starting line. I was actually a little bit excited about actually running on the course. I have lived so close to the start for 4 years but never thought about running down the marathon route. I toed the line, hit my Garmin and headed out.

The first 5 miles of the marathon course are mostly down hill (see elevation chart). The first 2 miles take you through a typical western suburb town with houses on either side. As I ran along I could still see the kilometer and mile marks painted on the street which made it easy for me to know where I was on the route. There are a couple of small rolling hills during the first 3 miles. But, nothing I couldn't handle.

As I neared the 4 mile mark, the route started to really flatten out and I found myself in central Ashland. There are several shopping centers along this portion of the route. I noticed a serious increase in traffic around me. So, I started to pay a little more attention to my surroundings. I also noted that the terrain was slowly going uphill. The uphill portion was gradual and nothing I hadn't run in training around Westborough.

As I came up the hill, I reached the split in the route where I had to go onto Waverly St. Waverly St. is the street that takes you into Framingham center. I finished the first 5 miles of the planned route at the Framingham Town sign on Waverly St. I turned and headed back to the start.

I have to say running back towards the starting line was actually much tougher than running towards Boston (east). The hills are actually steeper than they appear when you are going down hill. But, I did make it back and felt I had a good preview of the first 1/5 of the marathon route. I think I will try to run 5 miles segments of the course over the next several months to get a feel for it. It will take some of the mystery out of the race and allow me to relax when I am running it for real.