We left home after work on Friday and arrived in Milwaukee just before midnight. The weather was pretty lousy - cool and rainy. Our plans for Saturday were to pickup our packets and spend time visiting. Ideally, we would have been outside more, but the rain made it easy to limit our time on our feet.
We stayed at a hotel on the race course - which is awesome, especially if you have people who will be spectating (we didn't in this case). Our hotel had a wedding on Saturday - someone (I'm assuming from the wedding party) decided 2:30 AM would be a great time to develop an echo near our room. I've often wondered why hotels don't put all their runners in the same area ... we probably aren't going out drinking the night before a race AND we get up earlier than anyone ought to, Back to sleep -- until the road crew decided to close streets (including the one 7 floors below our window) a mere 4 hours earlier than runners would be on them. I'm sure it's possible to quietly block a traffic lane - the poor guy who was given this road to close seemed to be working alone and was forced to drag 10 foot wide "Road Closed" signs which sounded like fingernails of the Green Giant across a chalkboard. Back to sleep -- until my wife worried that we missed our wake up call because the clock read 5:30 ... because it was a return from daylight savings time and the clock didn't automatically update. That paragraph makes it sound like it wasn't a restful night - but it actually was for me - I returned to sleep easily in every case except the last. It does remind me of the advice to get plenty of sleep the night BEFORE the night before a race. Since we were up early, I decided to shower before the race -- that's nice, I felt refreshed. I don't know that I'll plan to get up early for it ... but if I have time, I like it.
I was nervous before my last (NH) marathon - which showed up as obsessive planning before travelling resulting in printed boarding passes, hotel / rental car reservations, and marathon registration; also, I loaded travel plans into at least 3 different apps for my phone so I could track us. This time, my nerves showed up on the way to the start line. They ran a school bus shuttle - while waiting I met a fellow Marathon Maniac and we had a quick chat. Normally, I'd have talked longer and enjoyed the conversation, but I was really focused on the run.
The half and full started the race together and then split near mile 9. The first three miles run along Lake Michigan. The scenery was beautiful as we ran along a two lane road which was closed to traffic. My gripe was with the pace teams. With both half and full running together, I would up stuck behind the 2:10 / 4:20 pace groups - each with two leaders ... essentially blocking the entire lane. A disciplined runner would have recognized the sign to relax and stay within his own training ... I was irritated and worked through them. The biggest hill in the course is just before mile 4 - it's a long steady climb which separated us out a bit. This was the first of many times when people let us know that we had gotten through the last of the hills - LIARS! The houses were gorgeous as we headed back into downtown. Many people were out on the porches and balconies. I recall one guy about fifty who was standing along the street screaming "You've f*-ing got this." over and over. An interesting fan approach at any time - this was a bit before 8 AM. As the course goes through Marquette University, the runners separate with the half turning left while the full goes straight. Still before 9 AM, there weren't many students out, but the campus is beautiful. The full course eventually goes through an urban park on a paved path with quite a few twists and elevation changes. I haven't seen something like this included in other races - not my favorite, but it certainly required fewer street closures. I felt great through the first half of the race and my pace was faster than I had trained.
Even though the weather was chilly at the start, it was a sunny day and I was glad to be in a singlet as it got warmer. The mile markers were clicking by with my Garmin showing about 0.1 mile early - then suddenly, near mile 15, I passed the mile marker, then a moment later Garmin said I had gone 15. In a section with no spectators, I was really dragging, I pulled out my second GU and once the sugar hit I felt a bit better. The race had water and Nuun about every 2-3 miles. Near mile 17, I was missing Richmond and the junk food stops - I specifically wanted some sugared / caffeinated Coke, but perhaps just some variety. The course goes around the ballpark where the Brewers play - a very nice area not close to downtown. The hills just keep rolling causing a bit of discussion among the runners ... we were all a bit surprised at the number and frequency of hills. I hit an aid station near mile 22 where I took the last GU and some water. I was surprised (and assumed it was a mistake) that the final water wasn't until mile 25. The half course had a longer stretch before hitting the same final water. I hope they add a stop around 24 for both ... on a cooler day, it might not have mattered, but on a hotter day it would have been worse than uncomfortable. In that area (without water), I saw a young woman with a sign that said "If Lamar O can survive a brothel, you can finish 26.2" -- that was a new one for me ... I smiled (but I would have preferred a Coke).
At the finish, they called my name from Henrico, Virginia -- mental note, register from Richmond ... few people pronounce Henrico correctly and nobody knows where it is. I grabbed a couple of chocolate milks (yummy) ... I did not find Coke, but they had some tasty (sugary) root beer.
Barbara and Susan each set a PR - I'm proud of both of them. We celebrated over pizza with my niece Kristen making this a great trip.
Link to Garmin
This is the medal - same for both half and full (that made things easier for volunteers, but I prefer a distinction between the two).
Here is my updated map of states - darker shading on Virginia shows that I've run more in my home state.
Next up a special mid-week marathon on Veteran's Day.
