Runner’s World Heartbreak Hill Half & Festival: 5k and 10k Recaps!

This year’s Runner’s World Heartbreak Hill Half & Festival offered 3 main races (not including a fun 1 mile dog run): a 5k, a 10k, and a half marathon. You can do one of the races, or choose the “five and dime” (5k + 10k), or go all out and do the “hat trick” (all three races). Since I like a challenge, I decided to go big or go home. Hat Trick it was! I originally had all three races recapped in one post, but that was a little intense, so I’m splitting it into two posts. First up: the 5k and 10k!

5k Recap

The first race of the weekend was the 5k! It took place on Saturday morning at 7:15 a.m.; since Runner’s World put us up in the dorms at Boston College (where the races started), we were lucky enough to be able to just roll out of bed and over to the race start. Nice!

It was a beautiful, sunny morning, if a bit warm! My goal for the 5k was to make sure to keep my pace in check. I knew I had a lot of miles awaiting me and I didn’t want to burn my legs out, especially since I was actually decently sore from the November Project hill action the day before!

Julie, Presley, Marnie, and I lined up in the corrals around the 9:00 minute mile area and got ready to go.

And we’re off!

I chatted away with the other bloggers near me and we enjoyed the beautiful views.

I thought this part of the course looked like Disney – or Hogwarts – with the castle-like building looming!

Thanks to the fun company, the race flew by and the finish line arrived before we knew it.

One down, two to go! Official 5k finish time: 29:55 (9:38 min/mile average).

The 10k started at 8:30 so I grabbed a bagel to refuel in between races.

And then it was time for race #2!

10k Recap

Weird, it feels like we were just here… oh wait, we were!

Here we go again! Once again my goal was to keep the pace in check. This wasn’t a problem since my legs weren’t feeling particularly speedy anyway.

Weeeee! I had way too much fun with running selfies this weekend. (As always, I carried my trusty point and shoot camera during the races so I could get action shots. Much easier than trying to do mid-run photos with a phone!)

I ended up running most of the 10k with Dani, who I hadn’t met before this weekend and who was SO much fun. We had a blast chatting nonstop and the miles flew by! If you’re someone who thinks you could never become a runner – check out her blog. She has lost 80 pounds since deciding to turn her life around in 2009, and has since gone from a total non-runner to an 18 time half marathoner, 6 time marathoner, and 2 time triathlete. Isn’t that incredible? She’s such an inspiration (and hilarious, too).

We were also great running buddies because we discovered we have nearly identical half marathon (1:43) and full marathon (3:56) PRs (personal records)!

Anyway! The 10k was the first race of the weekend that included the infamous Heartbreak Hill from the Boston Marathon. Dani ran Boston spring with a charity partner (she lives in Boston) and informed me that Heartbreak Hill doesn’t refer to one single hill, like I originally thought, but actually a whole series/group of hills that stretch from about mile 17 to 21 in the Boston Marathon. I was quite glad that we were only on about mile 4 or 5 and not 17 (and so was she!)…

It was really cool to think about running up Heartbreak Hill and following in the footsteps of years of amazing runners. Very inspiring! Kept me from walking, too.

This race gets two big thumbs up for organization, by the way. Everything was really clearly marked and the volunteers were plentiful and very friendly. A huge thank you to them for supporting us, and props to Runner’s World for putting together such a well organized race!