Framingham to Wellesley

     Framingham quickly turned into Natick.  I am not sure if it is because I had run this portion of the course previously or if I was still running high on the adrenaline surge from the start of the race, but the first few miles just seemed to fly by.  I found myself falling into a good grove and had my paced locked in.  The streets of Framingham were once again crowded with families and children all of which highly active in cheering on the runners.  Since I had my name on my shirt, tons of people would cheer out "Come on Keith, you can do it!", "Looking good Keith, keep it up!", "Go Keith!" ... I made sure to say thank you to everyone who cheered me on.  While I haven't run any other marathon, from what I have heard this is what makes Boston special.  Many other races don't have the crowd support that Boston has which I am sure can take its toll on the runners.
      Once I entered Natick I started to feel more energy surge through me.  The energy rush was partly do to excitement based on the fact that I felt like I was doing well and partly because as I ran through Natick I ran right past the place I had to be "rescued" a few weeks earlier during my 20 mile run.  I can't explain how good it made me feel to run right past the Natick VFW ... since it served as a personal accomplishment for me.  I can't even explain the hit that failed 20 mile run took on my psyche a couple of weeks earlier, and now I was blowing past my rescue point.
     As the miles were racking up, small aches started to work their way into the picture.  First, I could feel a blister form on the bottom of my right foot.  Honestly, this is going to sound weird, but when it did I kind of just smiled a little bit ... the reason I did that is because compared to how much pain I had run through with my ITBS this was nothing.  As I kept running, i was able to block out the little bit of pain that I was feeling from the blister.  Shortly after the blister, I started to get a little bit of discomfort on the middle half of both my knee caps.  I knew this pain well since it is classic patellofemoral syndrome.  Again, I wasn't really phased by this one since the pain was mild and I knew that it wasn't a serious injury and that I should be able to run through it. 
      The other thing that started to set in a little bit at this point in the race was the fact that I was getting pretty warm.  While the temperature was in the upper 50's, the sun had been out since the start of the race and really started to take its toll on me.  To compensate I started to increase my fluid intake at the water stops and made sure to dump a cup of water down my back to cool down.  I did this pretty much every mile 10 on and it sure did work as a wake up since the water was cold!!! 
       As Natick was coming to a close, I saw the sign up ahead that said welcome to Wellesley.  As a first time runner, I had heard many stories about the Wellesley portion of the run.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the race, the course takes you right by Wellesley College where the girls line the road holding signs looking for kisses.  In addition, I didn't believe it until I got there, but you can truly hear the screams of the girls a quarter mile before you even get to the college!  Everyone's pace seemed to pick up as we ran past the college girls.  They were pretty funny and held a variety of signs ... "From Kiss Me I'm Irish" to "Kiss Me I'm A Senior" to "Kiss Me I'm Latina" ... it was a really hilarious dynamic which functioned well to take our mind off of running.  I included a couple of pictures from google images about the Wellesley girls at the bottom.
       The other important thing to remember when running the race, is although the halfway point of the race is located in Wellesley ... its actually about half a mile past the college!  I made my way past the college and into Wellesley which is where I saw the 13 mile mark.  Again, I had to crack a smile since this was official the first "half marathon" I had run.  If you remember back to the start of the blog, I had trained to run two half marathon's previously but wasn't able to do it due to a stress fracture and an untimely case of appendicitis.   Well, 1/2 marathon was now in the books ... only 13.1 more miles to go to Boylston.

Relatively flat portion of the course through Framingham into Natick.

While Natick throws a tiny hill or two in there, this portion of the course is also pretty level. 

Picture of me at some point in the first 10 - 13 miles of the race.  I felt great and really didn't have that many injuries at this point of the race.  I was starting to build some confidence especially since the knee seemed to be holding up great.

Quick little diagram I made of what started to hurt at this point in the race.  Like I said above, I had some serious blisters on the bottom of my right foot and some slight pain in my kneecaps but overall I felt great.