the maine mile

last monday i said "fuck it oh sure, why not" (ya know, trying to watch the mouth around the baby! ha) and submitted to win a free entry into "the maine mile" from jen at Running With The Girls.

as a long(er) distance runner, ive done some mile repeats and sprinting shorter distances here and there during marathon training, but ive never gone out and sprinted an all out mile knowing i could just give it my all because i didnt have to do any sort of repetition or running after! well, as my luck would have it, i won! and promptly figured it was a terrible life decision and just prayed i didnt get hurt.

the race was at 7:30pm (ugh) so i did my scheduled training run in the morning and then spent the day shopping in freeport with the boys. we also got hen his first haircut!

so handsome

i didnt really know how to fuel for this race, so in pure danielle fashion i had half a burrito leftover from dinner friday night, some chips, and hen didnt want his ice cream cone from dairy queen so guess who got to eat that! i really felt like just taking a nap and not going, but i left the house at 6pm and headed to back cove. i got the start/finish mixed up and parked in the wrong spot, ended up running almost 3 miles before the race when i really just wanted to run 2 (and had to steal jens phone to call ty and tell him where to go, since where i sent him was not going to be where we finished).

carrie, wade, ward and i ran to the start to warm up, and then we sat around stretching in the road. eric and sara arrived with about 15 minutes left to go, and then we all warmed up a little more. it was slightly cool but once we were warmed up it felt pretty warm, and there seemed to be a tailwind. woo hoo! right before the race started, the director gave us some rules and thank yous, and he headed to his bike. he told us to follow him for the tangents, and then a lady said "runners on your mark" (this is where i told sara i was going to throw up and i didnt want to do this anymore) and then she blew her bullhorn marking the start of the race.

i took off like someone was chasing me and my life depended on beating every single person out there (spoiler alert: i didnt win the race. i was in fact being chased) i had set my watch to lap at each quarter mile to see those four splits. its funny... i ran this race just like i used to run my 5k's- go out way too fast, blow up and almost die, finish semi fast knowing it was almost done. take note, this is NOT how you should probably run a mile race (and now of course i feel like i should run one again to see if i can run it better. i am not saying run faster. just better. and not so stupid).

lap 1- 0.25 1:23.35 (5:33 pace). oops. like i said, i took off from that starting line. i knew i had speed and all but when i looked down at my watch and saw 5:24 average pace, i wanted to puke. i knew i couldnt (and wouldnt) keep that up for the remainder of the race. so i slowed down. and considered just stopping altogether. there was one girl in front of me at this point, and there was absolutely no chance i was going to catch her unless she fell over and didnt get back up.

lap 2- 0.25 1:36.87 (6:28 pace) well obviously i slowed down a bit too much. this race was painful. i was weaving around the road like i had been drinking but i was just following the people in front of me who were following the biker. maybe he had been drinking! right after the half mile mark another woman passed me looking like she was just out for an easy evening stroll. how do you freaks do this?!

lap 3- 0.25 1:38.68 (6:35 pace). slow death. seriously, why am i here?! but i hear people behind me and i refuse to be passed by anyone with a quarter mile left to go. i can do anything for a quarter mile! suck it up princess, youre almost done! donuts are at the finish line!

lap 4- 0.25 1:32.89 (6:12 pace). weeee yay faster! i heard people almost literally breathing down my neck and i was not going to give up. there was a left hand turn into the park and a slight uphill (barf) and i ran as hard as i could through the finish. as i turned around after finishing i saw sara right behind me! sorry chica, im glad this wasnt another mid winter classic finish for us! hehe.

ok ill admit that this was almost fun. almost. im not entirely sure i would want to do it again, but this was a new experience (automatic PR!) and was fun to have a few friends there. and of course the donuts at the finish from "the holy donut" were great. i didnt have nearly enough of them (my lungs and throat felt like they were going to explode out of my body, and i wasnt sure if i was ready to handle eating quite yet).

great job to all runners and to the directors and volunteers for a fast, flat, well organized inaugural maine mile race! apparently there are talks of another mile race to come in the future... hmmmmmm.

wade and ward coming into the finish super speedy (4:58 & 5:03)

you can almost see the look of death on my face

can we dub them fastest couple in maine?! 

sara and eric cruisin in without breaking a sweat

carrie coming into the finish looking strong and speedy!

(thanks for all the pics, jen!!)

hen was pretty squirmy which made for a blurry pic

top 3 female finishers

the maine mile

6:11 (official time)

3rd female overall

19th out of 45