mid winter classic

its no real surprise that its cold in maine in the winter time. and while the (seemingly) entire country is 60+ degrees and everyones posting all over the internet that theyre wearing shorts, theres snow on the ground here and its in the 20s. so you all can just keep your damn warm weather, cuz were still running here, just a little more bundled up. end of rant....

for the past few years ive looked forward to running the mid winter classic 10 miler on superbowl sunday in cape elizabeth (where my parents live/i went to high school)... if not for the sole purpose of running 10 miles before stuffing my face with yummy food and downing many liquid calories. the weather can go either way... one year was brutally cold and windy, another in the 40's (and i was way overdressed).

last year it snowed the night before the race and they rescheduled the race, only to have race day be in the 40s and sunny/beautiful. then there was another snow storm on the day of the reschedule, so they cancelled the race. boooooo. i ended up running it on the treadmill anyway (participants in the race were told that people couldnt even come out and run along the course... not sure how they policed that one).

this course is pretty tough, with about 9ish good sized hills.

so running it on the treadmill last year wasnt as tough as the course, giving me a 1:22. the two previous years on the course i got 1:26:08 and 1:26:08. yes i got the very same time. i dont even know how that is possible. i got pretty upset, but its all in perspective i guess. i dont need to PR every race, im just happy i can run.

the weather report for this weekend looked pretty good (a little cold but no snow), and i was excited to run with a great group of people. sadly, my grandma passed away this past weekend so i will be flying to st.louis in the morning to head to her funeral. ive really been training with a lot of speed work over the past few months and i knew that i had it in me to blast the 1:26 on this course, so i thought i would just go run it on my own. the weather report for yesterday looked better than today so i tried to get myself psyched up to run. the rain wasnt helping.



welcome to cape elizabeth sign

the roads didnt look great, but it was 34 degrees and had been raining so i figured they wouldnt be too slushy and hopefully not icy.

the start

before leaving i looked up the pace for each mile in order to try and go 1:22. i didnt know if i really had it in me, and without others around me to push me i figured it was going to be pretty tough. but im always usually up for a good challenge, and i wanted to push myself. so i wrote the mile splits i needed on my arm. along with one of my favorite phrases:

(it looks a little red, rest assured i didnt tattoo myself)



the first mile or so is flat/downhill, so i figured i would be pretty fast. when i got to mile 1 and saw 8:04, i was pleased. the roads werent slippery at all, but i did have to be cautious with the cars since the sides of the road were limited due to the snowbanks (we dont have to deal with that during the race since they close one side of the road to cars... but i managed). knowing this course as well as i do, i knew the next mile had 3 gross hills, so i figured i would slow down a bit on those, and then maybe catch up on the flat mile after that.

the 3 hills came and went (not without me cursing the 2nd hill... yuck!) i like to power up the hills and then recover on the way down, and this seemed to work well. by the time i got to mile 3 i was warming up nicely, my feet were still dry, and i was actually enjoying this run. yay!

mile 3-4 is flat, and then you head up a hill, then a slight downhill, and another uphill towards mile 5. then you go over a marsh which is notorious for its wind. luckily it wasnt too bad (but it smelled!), and i grabbed my espresso love gu and continued on. i had added a few new tunes to the ipod which really powered me along.

another hill... then another one... and another one... blah. mile 6.5 brings the start of the beach to beacon 10k course which brought back memories of fun times and warmth! sadly, those great thoughts were short lived as i felt like i was about to throw up. my legs felt heavy, my stomach was doing funny things... i looked at my watch and it read 7:25. whoops! slooooooow down! i eased off a little and knew i didnt have much further to go. i hadnt even glanced at my mile splits on my arm at this point cuz i knew i needed 8:12s to get 1:22 and each mile had been way under so i knew i had banked a good amount of time. i remembered mile 8 split reading 1:05 something, and when i got to mile 8 my watch said 1:04... i was so excited, i knew i was going to do it! (but the last mile of the course is uphill, ugh...)

i think its about mile 8.5 when it starts to go uphill towards the high school, then its a downhill finish. although its not a huge incline, its a steady hill which i think sucks even more. but i powered through with some good tunes and sprinted towards the finish. when i stopped my watch on 10 miles, i couldnt even believe what my watch read:

holy!

i didnt think i had 1:22 in me... and i did 1:19!! a 6 minute and 56 second course PR :) heres how the splits actually turned out:



ill take it!

im extremely happy with how my run turned out, but im still sad that i wont be there to run with everyone on sunday. i need to be with my family and that is more important to me. and of course ill be back in time to watch the pats kick some new york a$$!!