On December 20, during Boston’s first Nor’easter of the season, Christine and Sharon faced their first 20-miler in preparation for the Miami Marathon at the end of January. Typically, one would prefer not to do a lot of shoveling prior to doing a 20-mile training run but unfortunately there was no choice for either of us, so we both had a mini-work out before the run even started. We were resolved. We had gear. Thanks to some foresight from Christine, we had Yaktrax for our shoes, hand warmers, and even a new neoprene coated tube for the camelbak (due to some technical issues, Sharon decided to wear a coat over the camelbak and save the new tubing for next time…..).

Since the snow was still coming down at a good clip at 7:45 a.m. and it was unlikely that the old faithful routes (the river, the minuteman trail) would be cleared, we decided to play it safe and run along the Marathon route primarily on Commonwealth Ave so we could take advantage of the carriage road. Of course, what this meant was that we had to conquer Heartbreak Hill twice during the twenty miles! While running we encountered a few other brave souls out there getting there miles in, as well as a very helpful deli owner who offered dry, warm socks and snapped our picture after 12 miles. While we were never able to hit a solid stride, instead focusing the whole time on not wiping out, the run seemed highly manageable, at least for the first 18 miles. Miles 19 – 20 were a test of our wills, our faces so frozen we had difficulty speaking clearly, managing only to throw out a few words about whether Teixeira was a good idea for the Sox (we all know that’s moot now!). When Christine’s Garmin hit 20 miles and we had reached our destination we could rest assured that was the craziest 20 miles either of use had ever run!