the day in which we didnt run the race

yesterday while everyone we knew ran the mid winter classic 10 miler in cape elizabeth, sarah and i enjoyed 4.25 miles, hanging out with my mom talking about girl scout cookies and waddling, cheering, swearing, complaining, and eating muffins/elephant ears.

ive run this race 7 times... well, kinda. last year i couldnt make the race because i was going to be out of town for my grandmas funeral. but that didnt stop me from taking on the course a few days early! and for a PR. win.

2012 1:19:12 in which i ran alone, three days before the actual race

in 2011 we got a snow storm on the day before the race... which resulted in them postponing the race for two weeks later due to high snow banks and potential uncleared roads. the next day it was almost 50 degrees and beautiful. the day before the rescheduled race day we had another storm... race got cancelled. i decided to do the race anyway... kinda.

2011 1:22:53 in which i ran alone, on the treadmill (race officials told people they were not allowed to run on the roads of the course. um... public roads? whatever)

2010 1:26:08 in which i cried (see previous years time)

2009 1:26:08- i had stopped drinking beer for my new years resolution... until this race. sarah came and spectated (i think this was the first race she had specated!) and then i drank a lot more beer and we watched the superbowl halftime in 3D. and my outfit was clearly fabulous.

2008 1:31:20- another stellar running outfit. pats lost.

2007 1:31:00 so. freaking. cold. i think i had on about 17 layers.

2006 1:33:13 - no pics... i had gone up to the school to get my bib and shirt, went home and got back into bed for about a half hour, then got back out of bed and went to the race. clearly i was really into it.

so yesterday i picked up sarah at 8am (who hadnt eaten anything and had in fact just rolled out of bed) so that we wouldnt miss the 9am race start time. come to find out once we got there, the race didnt start til 9:45. oops. luckily we knew everyone running so we hung out talking with a bunch of friends until it was race time.

me and michelle

sarah and me

apparently jen wanted to give me a pep talk before she raced haha

sarah and i headed out towards the start to cheer everyone on before we got breakfast and went for a run ourselves. suddenly eric and sara came running up behind us (they had used today for a last marathon training long run and did the course once before the race started)... needless to say, in true sara fashion, they were late. sara had to get their race bibs from the car and as she was heading to the start, the gun went off and the lead police car was headed out onto the course. i expect no less haha.

a wave of 600+ neon crazies ran by, we only recognized jill and her awesome running skirt, and then we headed to IGA for breakfast. we ran a mile to my parents house (8:45!), hung out with my mom for a few minutes, then ran the course for about a mile and a half to cheer for a few minutes. we saw a few friends come through, then headed back to the finish. sarah told me i wasnt allowed to walk the last hill, and we powered thru it with the last mile being 9:12. i dont know what it is about the dumb treadmill but i feel so much better running outside. ill take what i can get at this point!

this is surely the race people love to hate/hate to love, but it seemed like everyone had great runs despite the cold and the wind. maybe ill be back again next year!