This morning at 11am, the Boston Chapter of the Abominable Slowmen (all four of us!) ran the Walter’s Run 5K in West Roxbury. The race is held in honor of Parkway Runner Walter Burgess, who passed away suddenly in 2003. It’s a great race, and I can’t say enough about the people I met, the volunteers, and the wonderful spread they had for us after the race. Plus, inside bathrooms!

The temperature today was at least 15º warmer than last week’s race, and was much more enjoyable in that regard. We were able to stand around inside the gym at the Y, where the race starts & finishes, so that helped too.

The course followed streets I’ve run on hundreds of times during my 2.5 years in West Roxbury, but I have to say that I don’t believe I’ve ever run those streets in the direction I ran them today, which was interesting and a little challenging in parts.

The good: stupid Grayfield street? Downhill, baby! (I hate Grayfield Street with a passion. Seriously.)  Bellevue Street – same deal. Awesome.

The bad: LaGrange Street, which might have well been the way I run Bellevue, given how steep it was. But then again, what’s a race without a few hills.

I finished 10 seconds faster than last week’s race (by my watch. My official time will probably be the same), which was pretty impressive given that I had to walk for about 45 seconds at the top of the hill on LaGrange to work out a side stitch that had been killing me for about half a mile. Turned the corner, turned again, and booked it down hill to the finish.

As I was headed down the hill, some kids who had run the kids race earlier were walking up the hill to cheer for the runners. The mom said, “way to go!” And the one killed yelled, “YAY FOR YOU!” This made me laugh a lot. Until, that is, some lady who had been behind me the entire race passed me right before I came into the chute, as I slowed down to avoid some ice that was in the road. Stupid lady.

After I finished, I walked back to the finish line to wait for Maureen, Victoria and Chris, who weren’t far behind and finished strong. We made our way into the Y for bagels, coffee, and cookies (from Sugar Bakery!). I saw my neighbor, Meg, and we talked for a few minutes. She had run the R2R Half this year and finished well ahead of me. We talked about doing the Resolution Run on New Year’s Day. I talked with an older runner named Jack, who I’d been chatting with at the starting line. We took pictures to send to Philly Slowmen (Maureen has them), and then we made our way back home.

Great race. Great day. Great running.