maine coast half marathon

in my attempt to run 50 lifetime road races before i turn the dreaded age of 30 (gasp!), i signed up for the maine coast half marathon back in september sometime (maybe it was october actually, i forget). anyway, i thought this was a good idea back when i signed up... i love fall in maine, the air is crisp but not freezing, the leaves are falling, colors are beautiful.... (and andrea kinda convinced me to do it, remember that for the next paragraph...)

somehow i forgot how quickly the weather can change. and the race was on november 7th, thats almost winter in maine. it snowed on halloween morning. my new t shirt and shorts i wanted to wear for this race was a bit of a stretch (but of course i wore them anyway along with a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and my zensahs). whose idea was this anyway?! oh yeah, remember? it was andreas. and then she got hurt, so she was out. sweet.

regardless, i knew i had to do this race if i wanted to get to 50 before november 28th, so i headed down to york beach on sunday morning. outside the temperature was a whopping 34 degrees. awesome. before the race started i decided to dedicate the run to my step dad, who was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. i had all my livestrong gear on. cancer sucks, thats all there is to it.

this race was pretty cool... ive never run an all womens race before. there was also "one lucky guy" that got to run (they put out a lottery every year for that one spot). he passed me at mile 7, haha. it was definitely a different feeling to run amongst all women instead of competing with men mixed in there as well.


within the first 30 seconds of the race i stepped on a big rock and rolled my ankle. luckily my ankles are so shot from basketball that it doesnt affect me any more when/if i roll them. i started off strong and ran the first mile in 7:54. miles 2 and 3 were 8:04 and 8:10, then i lost count. im pretty sure i kept a similar pace for a few more miles but then felt myself slowing down along the hills through mile 6. i dont do math well in my head while im running, but i knew i had to run an average 8:32 to get a PR (i did not enter into this race planning to PR, but i certainly wasnt going to turn it down if i knew i could do it!). around mile 7 i figured i was going to run a 1:55, and i was ok with that. so i just kept going, enjoying the scenery, trying to avoid the crashing waves that were climbing over cars and hitting runners as we ran by the ocean! (check out the car pic stolen from andy- the cars are parked on the side of the road and there is a 3 foot wall and should be a beach under there!!)


somehow the miles, my watch, and my math all went wrong somewhere along the race. i looked at my watch and saw it said 9.4 miles, but i could have sworn i had just ran by the 8 mile marker. i knew my nike + has failed me before (said i ran 1.8 miles at the end of the marathon....) so i figured it was wrong. the time said i had been running 1:23, which is a little slow if i had just gone past mile 8, but who knows. i saw a mile marker up ahead and when i got to it.... mile 10! 1:25! (my 10 mile PR is 1:26:08.... so do i have a new 10 mile PR now?) i couldnt believe it but it brought the biggest smile to my face. i had a 5k left to run and had 28 minutes to run it in... i could do this!

the rest of the run was pretty flat and i pushed extra hard knowing i needed to give it all i had. at mile 12.5 i knew i had plenty of time to get to the finish, and of course right at this time journey's "dont stop believin" came on. this is one of my major pump me up songs... hello hysterically crying. were talking sobbing. many of you know ive had this problem in many of my races, and it doesnt fare well with trying to run and breathe at the same time. i had all my livestrong gear on and my shirt read "on a mission" so i screamed at myself (outloud too, people looked at me kinda funny) "GET IT TOGETHER, YOURE ON A MISSION!" i choked back the rest of the tears and pushed to the end.

i crossed the finish line with the clock reading 1:50:49, and i pumped my fist in the air and the tears fell once more. (kinda odd... online it says my time was 1:51:23. not sure how my official time is MORE than what the clock read when i crossed... this happened to my friend i work with as well, she crossed 25 seconds before what her time says as well. i have heard this company has had their fair share of mistakes in previous races)

pic courtesy of maine running photos

mission accomplished

audrey, me & melissa

it was freezing after the race which didnt help with the whole sweating thing, so i took off for home (i also had to work sunday night, huge planning fail). i decided to drive the course and take some pics since i had never been to the area before and thought it was a beautiful area. these are a few i shot...

the waves were just incredible... and i really wish i lived in that house, dont you? (it had a locked gate with a black skull flag flying at the gate. ive seen the same flag flying a top steven tylers lake house.... coincidence?)


on my way home i got a little lost and ended up passing this place... looks like a ton of fun. sign me up for a ride on that farris wheel!


all in all this was an awesome race and it just so happens to have been my 10th half marathon. official time 1:51:23, #158 out of 933 women finishers. ive come a long way from slowest half time of 2:18:32.


in other news, i came home from work monday morning and fell asleep on the couch, but i made sure to set my alarm for noon so i could get up and try to register for the 2011 new york city marathon lottery. i was able to get on the application site 12:03pm, filled out the contact info, user id and password, emergency contact info, bank account (*fun fact- i had to use my new last name and say i was married... the race is a year away!... not so fun fact, i spelled my last name wrong, lol)

things seemed to be going well... until i pressed submit. error after error. time out after time out. an hour later i was still hitting submit every couple minutes (i seriously hope it doesnt charge me the $11 each time that happened....)

i almost said screw it, but i tried again and was able to get in. and with one push of submit... this screen came up...... i was IN!

someones gonna need to remind me in april that i did this so i make sure i have enough money in my account to cover the ridiculous entry fee. until then im keeping my fingers crossed!