mid winter classic

the mid winter classic 10 mile race, held every year (well... we will come back to that later) on superbowl sunday (again... stay tuned) in cape elizabeth has always been somewhat of a nemesis for me. to better explain, we'll take a little trip back in time. 

on race day in 2006 i woke up feeling like eh, i dunno if i want to run. i went outside and it was freezing cold (duh, maine in february). i drove to the high school (at the time i lived at my parents house which is 0.8miles to the school), picked up my bib and tshirt, and went back home planning to get back into bed (clearly i was more interested in the tshirt than actually running). 20 minutes later i felt guilty so i got my running clothes on and went and ran the race. 1:33:13 (9:20 pace). i then proceeded to eat my face off with a mix of all the yummy goodness a superbowl party can provide.

in 2007 the weather was horrendous!! i only have a pic post race, but i remember i wore running tights, wind pants (who wears wind pants?!), a tshirt, long sleeved shirt, fleece, and a rain jacket, along with gloves and a winter hat. and i never warmed up. still finished with a 10 mile PR, 1:31:00 (9:06).

shana showed us all up wearing shorts

2008 i decided to add a bit of a new years resolution to this run, not eating chips or drinking beer until after the race. probably a dumb idea since i pigged out on both after the race. whatever. the weather was much nicer and i was really rooting for the pats. after this day i was never allowed to wear a pats jersey ever again. 1:31:20 (9:06). apparently giving up chips and beer didnt help me with my speed. fail.

mmmmm chips and beer

and i clearly didnt learn my lesson from the year before, because i decided to give up beer again in 2009. i dont remember if i gave up chips or not. it doesnt really matter.oh wait, duh. i gave up chips for the entire year of 2009. yeah that was dumb. the superbowl party was the worst. after that i just got used to it. clearly ive forgotten about that torture i put myself through. i did get a PR however by a couple minutes, 1:26:08 (8:37). sarah showed up and brought a beer for me post race. yuuuummmm, did that taste good!

 i had a really rockin outfit that year

and then we watched the superbowl with our supercool 3D glasses

oh, my 2010 race. if youve followed my blog all along, you know that this race was the ultimate punch in the face. if not, read about it here. long story short, i thought i had a PR, and didnt. 1:26:08 (8:37). 

we love to rock. clearly.

so here we are to 2011. saturday night, the night before the race (superbowl saturday?), it snowed. not unlikely for maine in the "mid winter". the town of cape elizabeth cancelled the race... and i will support their decision, having lived there most of my life. the roads are not that wide, and there are not adequate shoulders to begin with. add in 4 foot high snowbanks, hills, turns, and 800 runners and youre bound to have issues. the actual day of the race (when it was supposed to happen) was a beautiful day to run. i, however, was hung over from the night before (having known the race was cancelled) and didnt leave the house until we went to friends for the superbowl. fail. so the race was postponed until sunday feb 27th. oh, thats today!

hi, welcome to maine, it snowed again. **fun fact: llbean actually sold out of their snowshoes this year cuz of all the snow. i dont remember when maine had THIS much snow, and ive lived here a long time. we wont thaw until atleast may. awesome. but back to the race, they cancelled it again. to their credit, i woke up this morning at 8:30 and it was nasty out so im much happier to have not run this morning. but i decided to take the 10 miles to the dreadmill anyway so as not to feel like i backed out.

i started off running 8:05's which, after 3 miles, seemed to be a bit too fast, so i slowed it down to 8:20's. i was more comfortable at that pace. there was no wind, no snow, and no hills... i was cruisin right along! i went back and forth a couple of times with my speed but still felt really good at 8:20 so i stayed there for awhile. at 6 miles i tweeted: "suck it up, sterling. you would never quit in the middle of a race... dont you even think of stepping off this treadmill". its too easy to quit on the treadmill. that stop button was screaming my name. but the positive self talk, along with "what the hell" by avril lavigne on repeat, kept me pushing despite every part of my body wanting to stop. of course my treadmill stopped on its own at 60 minutes (i thought it would go to 99... apparently not)... but i pushed on and finished. and i finished strong! i really pushed the last mile at 7:45 and i felt good.

so 2011 mid winter classic via treadmill: 1:22:53. a PR. success!