I know, I know, you're probably thinking "Another race report? Didn't I just read one of these?"
And you'd be right. For those of you keeping track, I've run a race every weekend for the past four weekends. However, I haven't raced a race every weekend.
This past Saturday was one of those races that I didn't race. The plan was for Kim and I to run it as an easy, fun run. Good thing, too, because my legs felt shredded.
Some of that was because the Wisconsin half marathon course chews me up and spits me out. You may remember last year's attempt where I bonked hard. I don't know if it's the hills, the out and backs, the weirdly spaced water stations or what. At least this year I didn't bonk but it was a struggle to stay at the 9:30 pace Kim and I had agreed upon.
Kim had a rough day, too. I tried my best to stay with her but found myself pulling ahead quite a few times. I'd slow down to walk the water stops and she'd pull ahead and then I'd catch up with her and slowly pull ahead again. We played that game of leap frog for most of the middle of the race.
I ended up finishing in 2:05:22 which is faster than last year but felt harder than it should have for a nice, easy run. Around mile 8 I decided that my favorite race distance is 10 miles. Something about those other 3.1 miles in a half marathon just wears me out. Or maybe I was still recovering from the Illinois Half Marathon.
However, the two other OPRC members who were running this race with goals had good days. One was trying to break 2 hours for the half marathon and ended up finishing in 1:49 (holy crap!) and the other who was trying to qualify for Boston finished the marathon 16 minutes faster than she needed for her Boston Qualifying time.
The weather which had forecasted rain for this race ended up being a little warm at the start and rather chilly by the finish. You can see by the "after" photo that I had on my jacket, my space blanket, and I had to borrow a pair of gloves! Thankfully cheering for our BQ-ing marathon runner distracted me from how badly my teeth were chattering.
As for any "during" photos, I'll have to see if the professional photographers got any decent ones of me. My personal race photographer had to sit this race out. Oh well.
And now I take a break from racing until the end of the month. Good thing, too. My medal holder is looking a little overrun...
Wisconsin Half Marathon by snmnstrz21 at Garmin Connect - Details
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