In which I share our Mid Winter Classic 10 miler mishaps.

Once upon a time Eric and I had to do a long, long run. Our wise coaches decided to let us run together (yay!) and to have us one run lap of the Mid Winter Classic 10 mile course before it actually opened for the business of the race. A solid theory, as then we would have 10 miles with aid stations to finish up with! Brilliance at its finest.

The one thing they did not count on. (or several things)

Eric and I are rarely on time and can not do math. (actually it's me- I am never on time, EVER EVER. nor can I do math so I defer to my exclusive dating partner.)  OK, here's the key issue. If the race had started at 10:00 like it should have (in my head) instead of 9:45 it would have been fine. If 10 miles can be run in 1:30 at a 10:00 pace then we would have been fine. (Eric's math done in his head. solid work.) So we both messed up. And laughed about it... Oh well!

We ended up starting lap one at 8:10 planning to do 9:30's and NOT taking into account the fact that I would need to pee like a Russian Race Horse at mile 4. it only took a minute...) Needless to say, we would be cutting it a little close.

As always, despite our issues we showed up all ready for a team photo!!!

Thundering Herd Team Picture.
Clearly not altered.

The first 10 miles went fine, a little windy for the last 3 miles and both of us got very cold. I think that we were both pleased with how the first 10 went and didn't let the lack of time issue bother us at all.  Luckily, Andy was nice enough to collect our bibs for us and stash them lovingly in the back of the car. As we ran the last point two miles we realized that there was just NO WAY that we were going to make it to the start on time. No way, not happening!

Yes, this happened.
First time EVER missing the start completely!!

Eric RAN to the porta pottie and I shuffled to the car, got our bibs and Danielle managed to snag this gem of a photo. OH GAHD, this says it ALL! but what could we do? Nothing... (also, this might be the BEST race photo EVER TAKEN!)

The whole race ran off at top speed as I meandered over to the start. Hours later (or just over 2 minutes) with the race starter guy looking at us with an unprecedented level of confusion we ran across the start (before he went and picked up the mats!) "We are trying to make an entrance" I told the starter, and he looked at me with such a level of perplexed irritation that I gave up with the chit chat. After crossing the start to appease the guy we had to stop AGAIN to pin our numbers on with frozen hands. I actually could not do mine and Eric had to like I was some kinda little kid. 

This was, by FAR, the funniest situation that we have ever been in during a race. "OMG." Said Eric. "WE ARE DFL!!!" Left and right people were looking at us like we were a bit slow and sad. "We missed the start" we would explain "WE CAN TELL" they would unsympathetically reply. We ran fast, as fast as we possibly could! Nobody was going to leave US behind!!! And... After almost a mile we saw the sweep vehicle and I was very excited. Finishing after the DNF collection truck was not really part of our solid long run plan. As we crested a little hill we saw it stretching out in front of us: the whole damn race, ALL the peoples and (once again) those 3 pesky hills. Time to le the fun begin!

We kept to a pretty reasonable pace, ambled thru the aid stations to snag cups of Gatorade, we saw quite a few people that we knew and all was well. At mile 18, plagued with some nasty side stitches Eric told me to run on away and I did even though I felt bad. My finishing time was right around 1:35 and on a normal day I would be horrified by that (what is my course PR? A 1:14 something??) But this was not a race, it was a damn long run. (it was also a pretty kickass damn long run!!) Pretty quickly I saw Coach Kelsey who looked scared that I might pull a Derry repeat and throw up on her (I did not.) I asked if I could do one more mile to make the week a nice, even 50 and she gave the green light as Eric came running around the corner!  He finished strong, I ran weird circles around the parking lot (prompting some comments from strangers) and made it to 21 for the day. Effing badass. 

Then we drank ALL the Gatorade, took off layers of sweaty frosty clothing, saw some friends and I met  The famous, and fast, Mainerunner "Ummmm do I read your blog??" I creepily asked. Yeah, I'm a strange rando blogstalker, bwa-hahah! Sadly, between my lovely parking lot running circles and my desperate need to get out of my sweaty clothing I missed seeing quite a few people post race. I'm sad about this and hope to see you all soon!

All in all a very solid day despite the botched and totally amusing race start fail. I have nightmares that it happens at a normal race, usually after I try to find my shoes and discover that I only have swim flippers to run in (so clearly, it could have been worse.) I'm pumped to have had a solid long run since we're officially counting down to Hyannis at this point. three weeks to go- I have a feeling that tapering is getting close on the training plan!