Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon

I woke up this morning with a weird pain in (or really more ON) my left knee. Not a scary pain, but it felt like I had bumped it on something. But I hadn't. I was lying in bed thinking, I have 13 miles to run this morning, I haven't even rolled over yet, and my knee ALREADY hurts?! Not a good sign! Fortunately, it was only slightly below freezing and I hadn't run in a couple of days, so I was raring to go. We set off down the hill towards Newton, and my knee immediately stopped hurting. Awesome!
I was feeling remarkably confident, despite the fact that 13 miles is about the longest I've ever run in one stretch, and added to that today were all the hills of Newton (including Heartbreak!), TWICE (up AND down!!). Amy and I ran all the way up together, and I was really proud of both of us--this is the first time that either one of us had run all the hills in a single run. We got to the top at BC, and she decided to get a ride back with one of the volunteers (her knee was still bothering her from last time). Right when we turned around, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up, blowing right in our faces. I was (more or less) prepared this time, though, and had kept my windbreaker on (though I wished I had stashed an extra layer somewhere!). I started to get a LOT more tired and sore, and even though the way back is more down than up, there are two or three steep uphills that I didn't have much energy for. Sarad had waited for me at the top, and he serenaded me with Snoop Dogg lyrics much of the way down as we pointed out the nicest of the McMansions on Comm Ave. It helped. We picked up another straggler (a woman I hadn't met before named Cindy) near the Newton fire station, and ran back together. Crossing the 95 on Washington St. is always dangerous, but this time, a car stopped for me. As I ran out in front of it, though, I saw the driver make an exasperated face and yell "GO already!!" I'm thinking, I just ran 12 miles of hills, douchebag, I'm going as fast as I can! That extra two seconds, though, were apparently SO important to him that he almost ran over Sarad.
The last hill, from Lower Falls up to Wellesley, was absolutely impossible. Even walking up it I felt my butt muscles burning. I picked up the pace majorly for the last 10 blocks or so, because I was so excited to be done! My knee hurts again, but not more than it did in bed this morning, so I don't think it's anything serious. I do have one sore butt, though!

All in all, not a bad showing. I was tired and sore, but I definitely felt better than I had in Maine, even though the course was so hard. I think I'm just more USED to being tired and sore from running. From here on out, though, I'm in uncharted waters. As of next week, I'll be running longer than I've ever run, every week. This is the part of training that I like, and the part that terrifies me. No more slacking off, no more skipping runs. I've reached the show, friends, and it looks pretty good!