Date: 11/3/2012
Time: 11:30 AM
Weather: 40 degrees, little to no wind, beautiful day
Time:1:32:47
Overall: 50/877
Division: 14/45
THE COURSE
Though the above picture says 2009, the race this past Saturday was on the same course.
The race starts and ends at Tyranena Brewing Company in the small town of Lake Mills, which is about 15 minutes east of Madison on I-94. The first couple of miles go through town before wrapping around the lake along a county road and through a couple of residential areas. A couple of miles along back roads through farm field led to about three and a half miles along the crushed gravel Glacial Drumlin State Trail. The final few miles of the race led mostly through an industrial park, which was a let down after the previous ten, but what can you do? You need to get everyone back to the start.
How often can you say that a half marathon in a tiny town with a capacity of almost 1000 people sells out two months in advance? That in itself should say something about this race. For the most part, this is a no frills race. I didn't get a fancy duffel bag (thanks Flying Pig!). There weren't people three deep lining the first two miles of the course (though that's totally cool Chicago). There wasn't a lap inside an NFL stadium (one of the coolest things ever Green Bay). No famous runners as speakers at a huge expo. We started and finished in a small parking lot, ran along the side of roads that were still open, and used bibs that were likely received for free (they said Road ID on them). No expo. Cotton t-shirt. Sure we got two free beers (from Tyranena) and a lasagna lunch/dinner, but I wouldn't consider that extravagant.
WHAT WASN'T SO GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE
If I had to come up with something to complain about, it'd be the lack of water stations and port-a-potties along the course. There were stations at miles (approximately) 2, 5, 8 and 10, which isn't unreasonable, but for a slower runner, those gaps map be a little much. In my opinion every 1.5 - 2 miles is a good split. The only place that I saw a port-a-potty on the course was at mile 8. I'm happy that my stomach cooperated, or it could have been an awkward last 5+ miles.
OVERALL RACE THOUGHTS
I will never complain about a race that I run a PR in, especially one where I was never aiming for a PR.
I realized about half way through that this race was exactly like runs I used to take through the Arb when I was in college. My last year of college I had a route through the Arb mapped out to exactly seven miles (I'm sure it wasn't exactly seven miles, but go with it). I knew that a good run on that route would be 7:00 mile pace, so I could always judge how I was feeling based on whether I came at above or below 49 minutes. I knew to break 49 minutes I would need to keep pushing that entire run, every time I felt like I was fading, push, and so on. As I passed the half way mark there was a group of runners about 40 seconds ahead of me, I knew that some of them would drop, and that if everything went my way, I could catch that group. I knew that trying to catch them in the next couple of miles would turn out poorly in the end, so I went about with my old Arb run mantra, push.
Over the last 6 miles I slowly picked off runners from that group, one by one. Each time I caught one, I shifted my focus to the next, reeled them in, and moved on to the next.
When I hit mile 12, I knew that I was going to PR, it's been a long time since I've had that feeling... Turning the corner at the 13 mile mark I saw Vanessa, and thanks to the lack of three person deep crowds, I was able to talk to her as I ran by, letting her know I was going to PR, which was probably a relief to her knowing that I wasn't going to be in a terrible mood the rest of that day!
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