Race Report: Madison Half Marathon

We're busting out the grill later this afternoon, but I can't quite get in the mood to work on revisions today so I thought I'd go ahead and write up the race report for the Madison Half Marathon.


Pre-Race
On Saturday I drove the few hours to Madison to run the race with my friend Suzie, who is spending part of the summer there with her partner.  I got into the city around 4pm, found parking near their apartment, and then S. and I spent the afternoon strolling around a bit and chatting.  I didn't want to be on my feet for too long, but it felt good to stretch my legs out after being in the car for several hours.  We checked out the race expo (where we were tempted by some goodies but didn't buy), scoped out the capitol square and thus the start and finish lines of the race, and did some walking around the university area, Monona Lake, and state street and got caught up on each other's lives.

 

We had a relaxed evening.  Suzie had made a 6:45 dinner reservation for us at Francesca's al Lago, so we made our way there for dinner, dessert, and a glass of wine, and several glasses of water.  By the time we left the restaurant it was almost 9, so we headed back to her place, had a cup of herbal tea, and headed to bed.  I slept a bit fitfully, as I often do the night before a race.  (I often don't sleep that well in a strange bed or when I'm nervous about oversleeping.)

Race morning arrived.  The alarm on my phone went off at 5:50.  S. and I dressed, ate a quick breakfast, peed one more time, and headed the few blocks over to the race start.  The full marathon started at 7:00, and we arrived just as the horn was sounding for it.   It was packed at the start line for the half.  We had planned to start out with the 2:20 pace group, but they were so far up ahead of us at the start that we couldn't even really see them - much less make our way all the way up to them.  I had my Garmin, so I knew that we could pace ourselves if necessary, but we planned to try to catch up with them once the race started and the crowds began to thin a bit.  Soon we were off.

Miles 1-3
We wanted to catch up to the 2:20 pace group, but S. has a tendency to start off too fast and burn out, so I was trying to keep us at a pace that would get us up to the group after a mile or so but that wasn't too fast to start out at.  The energy was high and we were moving along until at just around 1/2 a mile into the race we suddenly stopped.  There was a bottle neck and we spent a minute or so not moving at all.  A number of runners moved the gates and took off again, We had several hundred others followed suit.  For the first three miles we were averaging about a 10:15 min/mile.  It was a super humid morning, so I was drinking at all the water stops and pouring part of my cup over my head and neck.

Miles 3-8
Around mile 3 we caught up to the 2:20 pacers.  They were both fun, energetic and nice women.  We spent the next few miles running with or just behind them.  Suzie and I were walking through the water stops, as I'm not coordinated to drink and run at the same time.  Our average pace was right where it should have been thanks to the pacers and technology.  They had us running a 10:30-10:40 minute/mile  I knew that we had a couple of minutes of cushion, too, since we had started out a bit faster.  We also ran by the governor's mansion.  I try to keep politics off this blog, but I will say that we joked about fertilizing the tulips right after Suzie paused for a photo op by them.  We did some run dancing to "Brick House" as it was playing around mile 7 or so.  I felt energized and happy to be running.

Miles 8-11
Somewhere around mile 8, we ran past the house of a friend of S's.  Unfortunately, this friend had just gone inside to get a cup of coffee or something, but since S. wanted to say hello, we waited for a couple of minutes until she came back out.  There was a quick exchange of greetings, introductions, and sweaty hugs and then we were back off.  Unfortunately, we had lost the pace group during all of this.  We started back off with the idea of catching up, but I could tell that mile 8 was not the time to exhaust ourselves.  When we hadn't caught the group by mile 9, I assured Suzie that I could pace us with the Garmin for a 2:20 finish, that we were on pace for meeting our goal, and that we should save our energy for a strong finish.

Miles 11-13.1

Throughout the course there had been some fantastic spectators.  Some people had been out cheering and giving out beer around mile 2 (we didn't take it).  People had been out with cowbells and little kids had been out giving runners high fives.  However, around mile 11 we ran by the lake and there were spectators lined up along one side, but they were silent.  So I started cheering for them.  I don't know about you, but I find it kind of awkward when there are a bunch of spectators who aren't saying or doing anything.  I realize that most are probably waiting for one specific person, but some clapping or encouragement isn't really that hard.  This was Suzie's first half-marathon, and I could tell that she was starting to slow down a bit and was struggling a little.  I had us take a couple of short 45 second walk breaks and then we were back at it.  At one point, S got discouraged because when we passed the mile 25 marker for the marathon, she saw the clock and it read 2:20 and some change.  I told her not to worry about it, that was the clock for the marathon, which started at least 10 minutes before we did, and that we were still on pace for a 2:20 finish.  The last half mile was uphill, back up to the capitol.  I had warned S. that people might start walking up that hill, but that we weren't going to, that we were going to finish strong.  At mile 13, I reached out and grabbed Suzie's hand.  We crossed the finish line with arms raised in victory formation.  Our official time: 2:19:22/23.

After the race
Suzie's partner M. was at the finish line and was kind enough to snap a few photos of us post-race.  You can tell just how sweaty I got as my shirt was completely unreadable.  We drank some water and gatorade and did some stretching.  Then we made our way back to the finish to cheer on some more runners for about 15 minutes or so.  After that we headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up and went for a delicious brunch at Sardine.  We split a blueberry pastry, and I had an omelette and frites.  I thought about having a celebratory mimosa, but I figured I should just stick with water, juice, and coffee since I had a long afternoon of driving ahead of me.  After brunch, we said our good-byes and I headed home with half-marathon number six under belt.

Racing reflections
Other than the bottle neck situation in the first mile and weirdly silent spectators at mile 11ish, I have no criticisms of this race.  I did see on the events Facebook page that there might have been some issues with the Hydropour stations, but that wasn't on my running radar.  The course had some challenging hills but was scenic and interesting, the volunteers were great, there were no traffic problems, and the energy of the event was fantastic.  I would definitely consider the Madison Marathon or Half again next year.

Running this race with my friend made it such a wonderful experience.  It was awesome to cross the finish line together and to get to share Suzie's first half-marathon.  I've never run a full race with a friend before, and I had so much fun running and chatting and whooping alongside S.

I was heartened by the fact that I still felt really strong at miles 10-13.  During the Earth Day Half I struggled through those last three miles.  Yesterday I felt like I was just getting started around mile 9 or 10.  While I'm nervous about the weather and other factors for my upcoming full marathon, my experience in Madison was definitely a confidence builder.

Was anyone else racing this weekend?  Any bbq plans for Memorial Day today?