2014 Wisconsin Half Marathon Recap

Saturday was the big day, the Wisconsin Half Marathon!  I trained my ass off so I could finally get some redemption after last summer's hot and humid Chicago Women's Half and see what I could really do in better conditions.  My goals going into this race were to 1) have fun 2) give it everything I had; and 3) to PR.  I didn't quite finish as fast as I'd hoped, but I'm proud to say that I did accomplish all of these goals and crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face and a 23:45 PR, so it's hard to be too upset about not gaining a few more minutes (but gosh, as runners, are we ever 100% happy with our race performances, or is there always this nagging need to continually look forward and improve? Because of course I'm already plotting my fall half PR efforts).

One of many cool things about this race is that, although it takes place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, some 60+ miles from Chicago, enough Chicagoans do it that they offered packet pick-up for one day at Fleet Feet. This happened to be the same day as the Ravenswood Run, so Eric and I took the train down to Fleet Feet after brunch that day.  The other option was packet pick-up the night before the race, and although Bob and I were planning to be in Kenosha on Friday night, we didn't want to have to rush up there (by 8pm, I know, so difficult).

After my requisite pre-race dinner of a burger, fries and a beer, I got a solid 8 hours of sleep the night before the race.  Bob and I were up bright and early at 4:50 on Saturday, with plenty of time for breakfast and coffee (I know, my pre-race nutritional habits are pretty awesome) before hitting the road at 6.  Our hotel was only about 15 minutes away from the race start line, but finding parking took us some time.  The race website did provide a list of places to find free parking, but traffic was kind of a mess by the time we got within a mile of the race site, so some signage and/or people directing traffic would have been helpful (edited to add: but to be fair, this was probably more a result of us being unfamiliar with the area and not allowing a little extra time to find parking than anything else). And thankfully someone happened to pull out of a street spot about half a mile from the start line, providing us with a decent warm-up walk.

We headed straight to the Runner Info tent, where Erin was working and holding a race shirt for me, since mine was way too big (which never happens).  We bumped into Kim (who I practically jumped on top of out of excitement) and Bobbi on our way to Gear Check, and I happened to run into Kim's husband, Steven, who took this pre-race picture (and all of the action shots in this post), while making my way to the start line.  I knew a bunch of people doing this race but had no idea how easy it would be to find so many of them!

I ended up starting the race about 4 and a half minutes late since I was still in the bathroom line when it started at 7:00, but no big deal since it's chip-timed.  Although it was a little weird to start a race mostly by myself.  I say mostly because there were a few other stragglers with me, and we started just ahead of my TEAM TRIUMPH, an absolutely awesome group that allows people with disabilities to participate in road races. Each team has a "captain" and 4 "angels" pushing their captain along, relay-style.  I kept seeing these teams on the course, and it was amazing and inspiring (especially since they kept passing me, ha!).

Within the first mile I saw Lynton and his dog (who truly are the Wurst spectators ever - who drives up to Kenosha at 6am on a Saturday just to spectate a race???), and the photography crew of Steven and Tyler (Valerie's husband - I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out that's who was hanging out with Steven all morning!).  I had hoped to start out slower than a 12:00 pace, but, you know, race adrenaline.  My first mile was sub-11:00, but I got my pacing figured out after that.  I was averaging a steady 12:00 pace for the first 7 miles, which I'm pretty proud of since I'm not great at consistent pacing.

The first half of the race flew by.  The first 4 miles go through a residential area of Kenosha, which was full of cute houses and enthusiastic spectators.  Then a quick trek through downtown leads you to a park, the lakefront, and eventually, Carthage College.  This stretch was the best and worst part of the race for me.  The best part is that, from about miles 5 through 10, the course is an out-and-back.  So for the stretch before I turned around at Carthage, I got to see everyone I knew running the race.  I got to side-five Bob and Eric (because I was pretty much the only runner on my side at those points), and got to say a quick hi to Valerie, Kim, Rachel and Bobbi.  How fun!  Everyone kept asking me how I was feeling, to which I could only respond "Awesome!"  And I really was.  Honestly.

But the down-side of all of this was that, once I turned around (just before mile 8, I believe), there was really nothing to look forward to again until at least mile 11.  Spectators at this part of the course were few and far between.  Adding to the feeling of this stretch being never-ending, the wind had blown down the mile marker signs, and apparently seeing those mile markers is more of a motivator than I realized.  I didn't see signs for miles 6, 7 or 9.  I also kind of screwed up my fueling, which I think is what lead to me bonking at around mile 10.  My plan was to have some of my Clif bar at every water station, as I had done all through my training.  But once the sun started really beating down about 8 miles in, I didn't want to eat, so I just took Gatorade (and water, of course) at the aid stations instead, which was upsetting my stomach.  I didn't go into full meltdown mode, like last summer, but I did have to push myself pretty hard to keep moving.  It was at this time that I kept reminding myself of how hard I had been training for this, how mad I would be at myself if I didn't keep giving it my all, what/who I was running for, and that I could indeed do this.  I knew once I got back through downtown I'd start seeing my friends, and I just visualized how awesome it would feel to finish.  So thank goodness I did do all of those longer runs by myself, because I had the mental fortitude to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard it was getting.

One thing that did give me a little bit of a boost was the photographer just before mile 10 telling me that I had the most colorful outfit he had seen all day.  I was pretty pleased with that ensemble, because I did get a ton of compliments on it along the course.  Seriously, anything to keep me going.  The stretch between the lakefront and downtown had some light hills that I decided to walk, just to conserve a little energy.  I must have looked a little rough at this point, as the medics on bikes were circling me like vultures (which just cracked me up - I was fine, just slow!).  I was so happy to finally be back downtown, and even more happy to see Lynton and Eric a few blocks past the 11 mile marker.  I gave myself another push, thinking I've already gone this far, I can run 2 more miles.  2 miles is nothing.

Not long after hitting the turnaround point at mile 12, I spotted Rachel coming down the sidewalk.  Oh thank goodness!  I wasn't moving very fast and could barely talk (but did at least get out a "hey, check out the marathoners passing me!"), in part because I was tired and running out of steam, but also because I was just so overcome with emotion that I thought I'd probably start balling if I said how happy I was to see her and to be almost done.  We saw Lynton and Eric again, saw Rachel's crew while taking a small walk break so I could catch my breath, and once we saw the 26 mile marker for the marathon, Rachel reminded me that I was in the home stretch.

Backside pic from Rachel

She sent me off on my way once we got to the finish chute.  This was it, I was finishing this race and, though it didn't go perfectly, still getting a pretty sizable PR.  The first part of the chute was pretty quiet and felt kind of surreal, almost like I was going in slow-motion.  Then I heard Valerie yell my name and Kim, Bobbi and I think some of their friends cheering me on, which was pretty awesome.  For the first time ever I actually heard the race announcers say my name and I kicked things back into gear and sprinted to the finish.  My official time was 2:53:54, so I got my PR and at least beat my 3 hour goal.  I saw Erin just across the finish line, got my medal, got a hug from her and wandered toward water in a daze.

Finishing this thing

Not long after finishing Eric found me and told me that Lynton had seen Bob walking at around mile 11. Bob had been having some ankle soreness all week, and apparently his ankle gave out not long after I saw him at the out & back (which sucks, because he was looking awesome and was on pace to beat his PR from last week by about 3 minutes).  In the end, he finished about 20 minutes ahead of me (damn, if I had been having a better second half I may have been able to catch him), which is kind of funny since I was thinking at about mile 10 that Bob had probably already been done for about 20 minutes.  He didn't get to see me finish, but did at least hear my name called.  And for those wondering, he is feeling a lot better than on Saturday, though he's under orders (from me) to take a long break from running so he can fully recover.

Finish or die trying

We found Bob, Rachel got him some ice from the medics, and we eventually made our way over to the post-race party to enjoy beer, brats and the sounds of Chicago's own Polkaholics.  Which was, after all, the whole reason to do this race.  Well, that and the sweet bottle-opener medal.

I'd like to point out that the ribbon says "Cheese the Day" - yay dairy puns!

After the race we went to nearby Rustic Road Brewery and drank our way through their draft selection to numb Bob's pain, and to continue raising funds for charity.  Rachel and I agreed to donate to each other's fundraising efforts (Rachel is raising money for Alzheimer's care and research, you can make a donation to her here and enter her raffle if you donate before Friday!) based upon our post-race beer drinking, so it was important to raise as much money as possible.  For those who pledged to donate to Uniting Against Lung Cancer based on my mileage, PR minutes, beer-drinking, or any combination, here's how I fared:  Total mileage (training + race) was 190.44; I PR'd by 23.75 minutes (feel free to round up to 24, I did); and my drinking team of me and Bob had 10 beers after the race.  Because we're professionals.  Note that any donations made between now and 11:59 (CST) tomorrow will also get you entries to my raffle.

This is for charity, swear

Where I kicked the keg and earned a beer PR

All-in-all, Saturday was a wonderful day and I had a great experience running the Wisconsin Half.  There's been other races where I've wondered if I could have pushed myself harder and run better/faster, but I finished this race feeling like I gave it my all, which is really all you can ask for.  I don't have any plans for another half until October, so I'll continue building my mileage base, keep getting more and more comfortable with distance running, and hopefully I can keep chipping away at this PR.