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Miles
17 - 21
As expected.....Commonwealth Avenue was at the bottom of the hill. I made
the turn and there it was....the first of the Newton hills! Although my
legs were really starting to hurt now, I knew that it was only another
mile until I would reach my cousins house. I just have to keep pushing
on to that point then the rabbi would join me. I think that having someone
to run with would be helpful. Don't think about the pain in the legs....just
get up the hill.
At mile 17.5, my brother popped out of the dwindling crowd and told me that he would run with me till mile 18. That was great! He gave me a fresh bottle of water and two extra strength Tylenol. I think, however, that taking the Tylenol was like trying to put out a forest fire with an eye dropper of water. My legs hurt and we were into the next hill. He told me that the family was just over the top of the hill so I tried to stay focused by joking with him, telling him about raising my arms, my one-liners and asking again.....how far till the house?
Finally...mile 18! Thank you to my family for driving from Ashland to Newton to cheer me on again! I'm assuming they drove and didn't run. It was good to see the Offits, Altman's, brother, parents, wife and kids, and our Temple representitives, the Rippin Family. While stretching, I recall Sam telling me that it was time for a second wind....and it was! But no Rabbi! Where's the Rabbi!!!! I was told that she hadn't shown up yet and while I was standing there my legs started to tighten up. I couldn't stop anymore and had to keep moving. I was not going to let me legs tighten up and stop me here. I got a kiss from my girls, made it a half a block and ran into the Rabbi, Aaron and Kathy Kerstein. Yay!!!
I think the conversation went something like this....
Martin: "Rabbi! Hop in...lets go!"
Rabbi: "I don't think I'm going to run it"
Martin: "WHAT!!! YES YOU ARE!!!! LET'S GO!!!!"
I am grateful that she joined me. My legs were really hurting and I still had more hills and 8 more miles. We walked a bit and I made sure to run some as well. I was down to about 17 minutes in my bank and I really was determined to get there within the 6 hours.
Of
course, I had my doubts on heartbreak hill. This was my slowest mile on
the race and it was the one point where I really didn't think I would
make it. In the middle of walking up the hill, I had to stop. I squated
down again to help stretch out my legs and I wasn't sure if I could stand
up again. I remember hearing someone in the crowd yell out..."Keep
going Martin. You can do it". So I got myself back up and kept going.
Every time I would tell her, the Rabbi would tell me to not think about the pain in my legs. Every mile marker meant so much more. Then we were at the top of Heartbreak and we reached mile 21. Just 5 more to go. We saw the Rabbi's mom and Irving and we kept moving. I had to mentally concentrate on my walking to keep my strides open which helped stretch my legs a bit, although my jogging at this point was more of a fast shuffle step. A check of my watch...five miles to go and about an hour and a half to get there. I could do 15 minute miles.....