Outrageous October

October 2021 in review!  

Total mileage for the month: 347.1

• Sep. 27-Oct. 3:  70.0
• Oct. 4-10:  50.5
• Oct. 11-17:  90.1
• Oct. 18-24:  95.4
• Oct. 25-31:  72.9

Tracking/cheering for our Chicago Marathon
friends post Sunday run

Races:

• Oct. 3: Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in 2:53:46 for a masters course record, 3rd overall female, 1st masters female, RRCA masters state champion, and happiness with everything except the weather.
• Oct. 16:  Garmin Kansas City Half Marathon in 1:24:06 for 2nd overall female/1st masters female on the hilliest half course I've ever run.

Lack of daylight is back in full force

Workouts:

• Oct. 12:  Fartlek of 4 x 3:00 on/1:30 off/2:00 on/1:00 off/1:00 on/0:30 off.  My on paces were 5:36, 5:50, 5:23, 6:03, 6:02, 5:44, 5:58, 5:49, 5:59, 5:50, 6:03, 5:23 in that order.  Though this was an effort-based workout, you didn't think I could go without looking at my splits, did you?  I don't always workout 8 days post-marathon, and when I do I don't usually feel as good as I did on this one, so I considered it a huge success.  Rebecca ran the first half of the workout with me, which of course helped (see also, why I ran the first 3:00 at 5:36 pace), and it was 46 degrees with no wind, which of course REALLY helped!  
• Oct. 20:  Mixed system workout of 4 x 1:00 on/1:00 off, 3:00 jog, 4 mile tempo on rolling hills, jog to hill, 4 x 0:30 hill sprints.  My 1:00s on at faster than 5k effort were 5:33, 5:43, 5:35, 5:38, my tempo miles were 6:12, 6:12, 6:20, 6:08, and my hill sprints were 5:34, 5:32, 5:27, 5:22.  I was feeling the Kansas City Half in my legs on the hills, even with pushing this workout back a day because I didn't feel recovered enough to do it Oct. 19 as originally planned, but it went well enough considering.
• Oct. 24:  18 miles via 3 easy, 2 tempo (6:21, 6:17), 8 easy, 2 tempo (6:35, 6:34), 3 easy.  This workout also got pushed back one day, due to thunderstorms from about 2 a.m. until 4 p.m. on October 23 (I did get a run in the morning of Oct. 23, mostly between storms, but there wasn't actually time for 9 miles let alone 18).  I thought it might be a good thing to have an extra easy day between workouts, but this did not go as I'd have liked.  I felt like I was running on empty from the start of the first tempo, and it did not get any better, hah.  I again blamed the Kansas City half - although a friend pointed out that summer returned for this run (it was around 68 degrees with 100% humidity), so that was likely also a factor.
• Oct.  27:  Fartlek of 2:00/1:30/1:00 (equal duration recoveries) for 6 miles - push paces were 5:35-6:09 and pace for ons and offs together was 6:37 (3.5 warm up, 3 cool down).  This wasn't the marathon-specific workout I had originally planned for this day, but after how I felt in my previous 2 workouts I thought this was what I needed.  It was extremely windy, which confirmed to me that and effort-based workout was a winner, and it went well enough.
• Oct.  30:  2 miles at marathon pace-ish on the tail end of a 12 miler turned 13.5 miler in 6:31, 6:25.  We ran the Bass Pro half marathon course, which is also half of the Bass Pro marathon course (miles 1-10ish then 24ish to the end)
• Strides: Oct. 2, 8, 11, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29.
• Doubles:  Oct. 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27.

Gloves + short sleeves = perfect
workout weather!

Long Runs:

• Oct. 3:  The Marathon.
• Oct. 9:  14.1 miles (7:55), easy aside from 10 x 0:30 pick ups (5:41-6:01) at about the beginning of each mile from 3-12.  This was the first day following Milwaukee Lakefront that I felt like I could run a normal amount, which worked out nicely because I hoped to get in 12 miles.  It will surprise no one that I got in 14, hah!  I then did 11 on Oct. 10.
• Oct. 16:  20.2 miles, including the Garmin Kansas City Marathon with about 3 miles warm up and 4 cool down.  I wanted to get in 20 this day, and figured if I felt great I'd do 22.  The hills in the race really took it out of me so 20 it was!
• Oct. 24:  18.1 miles (7:41) described in workouts above.  Casey had to pull me along on this one!
• Oct. 30:  13.5 miles (7:34) on the Bass Pro Half Marathon course, plus one wrong turn and back to our cars from the finish.  I ran with Casey and threw in 2 fast miles towards the end.

Oct. 23 monsoon run

Running Highlights:

• I recovered well from my marathon, which I'm thankful for.
• A couple of my coaching athletes ran marathons at Chicago and Prairie Fire, and though the weather conditions didn't allow them to completely show their fitness, Elise still PRed in Chicago and I expect Colin will be notching a huge PR in the Bass Pro half next weekend.

Hoppy Halloween!

Life Highlights:

• My birthday on October 26 began with predawn buttercream, because my running buddies are awesome!  Overall it was a normal (work, teaching class, 2 runs, relaxing at home), but good day, reminding me of how many amazing people I have in my life.

8th grade

Best way to start the day!

Books:

• First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
• One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Troublemaker by Linday Howard
• Vortex by Catherine Coulter
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Lethal by Sandra Brown

Theme for the month:

• Always learning!  I'm doing fine physically, but I am not in race-mode mentally, though I'm not exactly sure why.  At some points after Milwaukee I thought I'd try to run in the 2:40s or even try to PR at Bass Pro, but now I've settled on just having blast and aiming for sub-3, 2:59 being fine.  Then I will be making myself take a break from running for a week (which I don't want), and taking a break from racing for probably the rest of 2021 (which I do want).  I think this season was a little hard on me emotionally because I didn't really have any race times that matched my fitness; race after race I was happy with how I placed but weather conditions didn't line up for me to run the times my workouts showed I was capable of.  Perhaps it was great timing for that though, and onto 2022!

Garmin Kansas City Half Marathon: Hills & Thrills & What Could Go Wrong?

The short:

I continued my year of running races I've avoided because they aren't fast courses [or weather, or fields] at the Kansas City Half Marathon on October 16.  If I'd have known how hard the new course was, I probably wouldn't have run it, but I'm glad I was unaware because it was a fun experience!  I was 2nd overall female to my fast 26-year-old friend Jessi, and I missed the age 40 state record that I wanted by 21 seconds, but I really don't think I could have done anything differently to get those seconds on that course 13 days post-marathon.  My time was 1:24:06 on the hilliest half course I've ever run (over 800 ft of gain), which is probably equivalent to a high-1:21 on a flat course.  I was also reminded how very lucky I am to have running friend connections in the Kansas City area.

Race results are here.

My Strava activity is here.

Fast friends

The long:

Why not race a hilly half 13 days after a marathon?  I've run the Kansas City Half Marathon multiple times before - 8, I think - although not frequently in recent years (2015 and 2017 details).  After I narrowly missed the age 40 state half record of 1:23:45 in 80-90 degrees at Rock the Parkway in August, I started thinking about running this race to try for it - several times I have broken the single age record for my age at Rock the Parkway, but usually that race is in April.  I go to Kansas City monthly for work, so I scheduled my work trip for the 2 days prior to this race, and planned to race it if I recovered well from Milwaukee, or to pace the 1:35 group with my friend Andrew if I didn't.  I started getting excited about racing it about 5 days before, which was my cue that I was recovered enough to give it a go.

I met my friend Jessi, who lives in Kansas City, for a run a couple of days before the race and she mentioned that she was also running the half.  Jessi is a 1:15 half marathoner, so I knew I was racing for 2nd, even though she insisted she was not in top shape and was going to try to run with me.  I looked forward to her company for however many miles we could share.  I met my friend Andrew on Friday morning for a run on part of the course, including the monster hill that was mile 6.  Andrew, who lives in the area, told me that the course was the hilliest it's ever been, and "the perfect weather we are getting is wasted on this course", hah!

I was going to race in this but Jessi
talked me into a sports bra (which was
the correct choice, with gloves)

On race morning we did have perfect running weather: about 40 degrees and light wind.  I parked about a half mile from the start by Jessi, Andrew, and Josh.  We all warmed up together, and lamented about why we couldn't have had that weather for our recent marathons (Andrew and Josh ran Chicago the previous weekend).  We lined up in partial darkness for the 7:00 a.m. start, and I felt relaxed and ready to just see what happened.  I planned to run by effort and to go out conservatively, unsure what the course elevation would do to my splits, but knowing that it would not make them even.

Jessi and I went out together, and were out front for the women right away.  We had two cyclists near us, who told us they were there to help us through the course.  We talked a little bit, and the first 3 miles went by fairly quickly.  They were mostly light incline, with one steep hill that was about 150 m long.  My legs didn't love that but it was over quickly.  Overall I felt okay; not wonderful but not bad.  I didn't look at my splits, but Jessi was checking with each watch beep so I knew she knew where we were at, and I'd told her I hoped to average about 6:15 if the course was similar to in the past.  Miles 1-3 were 6:31, 6:25, 6:17 (grade-adjusted about 6:23, 6:13, 6:08). Mile 4 was pretty flat, and our split was 6:07 (grade-adjusted 6:05).  Mile 5 had a ton of drop, and before the race I'd told Jessi that we'd probably run it in 5:50 but that mile 6 would be 6:50 so it would even out.  We ended up running mile 5 in 5:45 (grade-adjusted 6:03, but it felt much easier), then we started up the 140+ ft climb that was mile 6.

I could tell Jessi felt better than me on that long hill, and I tried to stay with her but she gapped me a bit.  I ran mile 6 in 6:47 (grade-adjusted 6:09).  That was the first point in the race that I felt residual fatigue from my marathon.  I generally recover quickly from marathons, and this one was no different, but hills hit me in a different way!  I was able to pull back up with Jessi briefly after the long hill, but when the flat/decline stretch ended, she pulled ahead again on the next uphill as my legs protested the hill.  I aimed to keep an even effort, reminding myself that she had gone out very conservatively for her and would likely run a huge negative split.  Miles 7 and 8 were 6:15 and 6:04 for me.

At mile 8, we began a climb that would last until 10.5.  I felt fine on the flats and declines, but my legs were done with the uphills.  At this point, I could no longer be blissfully unaware, because we were running the old (~2007-2015) course backwards.  The final 2.5 miles of that course were always so fast because they were all downhill, though of course you'd earned it with the early climbs.  I never wanted to run up that business, but I found myself in that position this year and even worse I knew exactly what was happening!  The cyclist with me was super encouraging, which helped because I was in no man's land.  I could see men ahead of me, but until I crested the climb at 10.5, I didn't have the strength to think about pulling them in.  I lost a lot of time during this section, with splits of 6:25, 6:52, and 6:39.  Grade-adjusted they were pretty consistent at 6:15ish, but the 2.5 mile climb took a lot out of me.

Miles 12 and 13 flattened out, with some decline.  I felt much better and began chasing down the man in front of me.  At the mile 12 sign I took a look at the total time on my watch, and according to my (apparently incorrect) math, I thought I was going to break the record if I ran the last mile in 6:15 or under.  I'd hoped to have more wiggle room than that, but I knew I could run the final mile faster than that if it didn't have hills.  I was gaining on a man, and kept telling myself that if I caught him I'd get the record.  The encouraging cyclist was telling me it was time to start my kick, and I pushed with all I had left.  I caught the man just before the final turn on the course.  I had a split second of being proud of myself for catching him before he turned left with the marathoners and I turned right with the half...therefore I was kicking and he was nearing his halfway point, hah.  My legs were done, and of course there was yet another hill to get to the finish.  I passed the mile 26 sign for the marathon, willing my legs up the final 0.2.  My mile 12 and 13 splits were 6:07 and 6:12.  The final stretch seemed to take forever, my kick didn't seem very good, and the finishing clocks were on the 5k and 10k, so I couldn't see my time.  I tried to smile as I came through and the announcer said my name, but it might have been more of a grimace.  I stopped my watch a few seconds after I finished, and saw that I'd missed the record.

Finishing grimace/smile

Post-race, I found Jessi, the half female champ, and Chandler, who won the 10k.  We reunited with Josh before too long, and jogged back to our cars, me holding a bag full of water, bananas, chips, and my finishers medal.  After changing our shoes, putting on more clothes, and reconnecting with Andrew, we set off on a cool down.  The combination of the race's hills and standing around in the cold for a little longer than I should have before starting to run again made my legs very unhappy, but I got in 4+ more slow miles for the morning to round out 20 for the day...because this season isn't quite over yet!  Then it was onto brunch with Jessi.  We joked that we wanted one of everything on the menu, billed to the Kansas City Marathon for the top 2 female half finishers - wouldn't that be a great race award?

Preparing to cool down

This course slowed everyone down, but I think it hurt me more, relatively, since I was 13 days off a marathon.  I think I faired alright, but that I'd have done better, again relatively, on a flat course.  It's a lot easier to run fatigued on flatness than on elevation, a concept I'll remember the next time I schedule a race under similar circumstances.  I wouldn't have finished ahead of Jessi no matter what (she ran 1:21:37, including powering up that long hill and several sub-6:00 miles in her second half), so I placed as well as I could have.  I knew I wouldn't run super fast, but I know I could've gotten the state record on the old course that had about 520 ft of elevation gain - that extra 300 ft was a lot to add to an already hilly course!  It's disappointing when your best on the day isn't enough, but at the end of the day, it was big training day at about marathon pace on a route I'd never choose for a marathon pace workout.  The current age 40 record is going to stand, but I'm coming after the age 41 record after October 26!

Milwaukee Marathon: The Racecation

Christian and I rock at racecationing!  Here is what we did:

Friday, 10/1:

• The drive (we really only stopped to pee, but we had a great time together in the car!)
• The Historic Third Ward
• Milwaukee Riverwalk
• Milwaukee Public Market (dinner at Pitaworks for me)

Saturday 10/2:

• Collectivo Coffee
• Art Museum Area
• Sculpture Walk
• Milwaukee Boat Tour
• Cheese shopping
• Cafe Hollander for lunch
• Race expo and elite meeting
• The Piggly Wiggly (don't ask, hah!)

Sunday 10/3:

• The Marathon and awards ceremony
• Brady Street Pet Parade
• MKE Games for lunch and games
• Mitchell Park Domes
• Bradford Beach
• Black Cat Alley
• Crossroads Collective (Indian food dinner for me)
• Purple Door Ice Cream (salted caramel ice cream for me)

Monday 10/4:

• Stoney Creek Coffee
• Boswell Books
• Old North Point Water Tower
• Bobblehead Hall of Fame
• Historic Third Ward
• Milwaukee Public Market (Aladdin Taste of the East for me)
• Lakefront Brewery Tour
• The Basilica of Josaphat

Tuesday 10/5: 

• The drive home, including celebrating Christian's birthday with stops near Chicago for sweets
• The Cake House
• Leila Love Patisserie Macaroons Shop

All vacation photos can be viewed here.  The only thing better than traveling to a race is traveling to a race plus a vacation!

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: The Aftermath

The story continues from here.

After I crossed the finish line, the race director Scott, who I'd met at the elite meeting, told me he'd see me at 12:15 at the awards with a check!  One of the volunteers gave me the choice of a heat sheet or jacket, and I thought they were giving jackets to everyone until I saw that it said "top finisher" on it and that only 5 others had one.

I was photographed by the race officials and made my way though the chute to find my honorary coach Christian.  I know it's difficult to watch a marathon you were supposed to run, so my heart really went out to her, and she was such a great help with driving to the start, carrying my bag, taking pictures, etc. - not to mention exceptionally fun to vacation with!

Scott, the race director, was AWESOME

Top 5 (from left to right 2, 3, 4, 5, 1)

The awards ceremony began with the top 5 overall females, and when I was on the stage they told me not to leave because they'd be calling me back up for masters.  When they were announcing masters and got to me, they said something like, "Even though Sara was also in the top 5 overall, the judges also decided to give her 1st masters" (typically top finishers are taken out of masters, or alternatively given the best monetary award out of the two, which in this case was 3rd overall).  I'm not sure who these judges are, but I like them!  This race was also the Wisconsin RRCA State Marathon Championships, so I got another award for winning masters in that.  The Wisconsin resident awards were cuter, but the judges didn't give this Missouri girl that one, hah!  Also, fun fact - the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon and I are both 40!

Top 3 masters

I learn things from every marathon, and my big take-away from this one is that if the weather is poor, I should use my watch early on instead of running by feel.  I went out at an effort that felt sustainable for 26.2 miles, and in hindsight my early pace was about what I think I could do in great weather.  Clearly, it was not the correct pace for this race, and had I been watching my splits I would have known that and dialed it back.  Alternatively, I could have gone out at 50k effort and probably fared well.  It's been a very long time since I've run a warm marathon (since Heart of America 2010, I believe), but I will be more prepared to execute it well when it happens again.  On the other hand, I think I'd have overheated either way in this race, and I struggle with negative splitting anything in warm temps, so I'm not sure if I'd have run much faster with a more conservative start under the circumstances.  I'm proud that I put myself in there with the female field and wasn't scared to go out to try to win the thing, even though I was unable to.  I am pumped that I set the masters course record.  My time was 8-10 minutes slower than I think I could do in good conditions, which isn't terrible considering the weather, but the way I ran it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  

This is the year to not worry about times, though!  We don't know for sure when the 2024 OTQ window will open yet, but we do know it's not mimicking past cycles (if it was, it would have opened last month).  If it opens next fall and the time is potentially achievable for me (e.g., not something like 2:38), that will be the time to worry about times!  I would love to PR in the meantime, but I also know it's not going to happen in 70 degree weather so had no expectations for it in this race, though my training cycle was very similar to what I ran before Indy 2019 so under different circumstances I'd have had bigger time goals.  But, I can't wait to do 26.2 again...and as per usual, I think I have a faster one in me, God-willing!

Racecation details are here.

Stuff

Lake Michigan

This doesn't adequately depict my
level of soaked-ness

#rabbitelite

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: The Back Half

The First Half story is here.

From when I lost the third female cyclist before the half, I had a hope in my mind that I'd get a cyclist back.  This came to fruition around mile 15-16 when one of the ladies who'd been leading came back to me real quick (she was walking).  Moving from 4th to 3rd gave me a boost.

Just after this, the sky opened a torrential downpour on us, which did not give me a boost!  At least it wasn't windy, but running in heavy rain was not the best.  I commiserated with a man I was running by, and kept pushing onward.  He joked that now that I was in third I couldn't call it in, but no one cared if he walked (he didn't, and actually finished just in front of me).  The rain lasted 2-3 miles, and needless to say I was drenched.  My friend Amy wrote a blog post about her Milwaukee race, and so much of what she said resonated with me!  My race went downhill after the monsoon too.

The man on the right is the one I
commiserated the monsoon with

After the rain cleared, the sun came out.  Although the first 15 miles of the race were warm, it was cloudy, which was a saving grace, but the end was mostly sunny.  I was feeling average, but I was excited about being in 3rd and blissfully unaware of my gradual slow down.  Around mile 20, my cyclist escort told me that I had a 100-200 meter lead on 4th, which made me a bit nervous because I wasn't feeling fantastic.  I knew I'd fight for it if she came up on me, but I didn't feel super confident about holding anyone off at that point.  

However, the miles continued to pass pretty quickly and I continued to pick off men during the final 10k.  According to the race stats, I passed 7 men from 20 to the finish (and 1 passed me, which occurred in the final mile), which now I think is kind of crazy considering how much I was slowing down, but at the time I took as a sign I was finishing strong, haha!  Later when I looked at other runners' results that Strava linked to mine, I saw my positive split (1:23:55/1:29:51) was less than any of the guys around me, which made me feel a little better about it.  The fly and die method is generally a more painful way to run a marathon, and when I see significant positive splits I think "that must have been soooo miserable", but I didn't suffer any more than any other marathon.  Maybe my high mileage training conditioned me to tolerate it better, or maybe since it was weather-related it was differently painful.

I think these two shots were around 20

In the final miles, I was ready to be finished like the end of every marathon, but nothing unusual.  I counted down the miles and pushed with what I had.  At mile 25, the cyclist told me I had nothing to worry about, which I don't think was accurate since 4th finished only 23 seconds behind me!  But because of that and since I knew I wasn't going to move up, I relaxed in the last mile instead of pushing, and made sure to smile the whole way.  It was my slowest mile (7:05) and my only mile in the 7's, but I expected it to be because I did ease up and enjoy instead of push.

Finishing stretch

As I neared the finish, I crossed a timing mat and then heard the announcer say my name and that I was the third female finisher.  My smile likely got even larger, and I ended up with the best set of professional race pictures that I've ever had (even without wearing sunglasses, gasp!)!  I wasn't sure how to celebrate since I didn't win, so a thumbs up was what happened.

The story continues here...

See man I ran with during the monsoon with the
race medics in this photo

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: The First Half

Continued from Pre-Race.

From the gun, I took off with my eye on other women in the field.  Remember, my main objective for the race was to compete and place as high as I could.  For the first mile there were many (8-10?) women around, and I settled in.  I generally do well running by feel, so I never worried about heat/humidity adjusting my pace; I just planned to go out at an effort that felt sustainable for 26.2 miles and felt I confident that would be the correct pace. Calculators such as this one, which I looked at in retrospect, advise adding 15-20 seconds/mile at my pace based on the conditions.

Where's Sara?

If someone had asked me what pace we were running at the beginning I'd have estimated 6:40, but turns out my first mile per my Garmin was 6:13 -  the fastest I've ever started a marathon and also not a good idea for anyone not planning to average around 6:00 for the race!  I guess it was just the competition and running on rested legs for the first time in quite awhile, and I suppose I was also wrong to trust my pacing by feel.  At Tobacco Road I went out in 6:50 for the first mile and this really felt the same as that.  Oof.  Usually I believe not looking at my watch during races is a positive thing, but for this one it was probably a mistake.

But, ignorance is bliss so I didn't know what I was doing until after the fact!  I actually felt super confident for the first several miles because I was in the mix with the top women and thought we were starting relatively slow [face palm].  My course pace was 6:21 at the 5k and 6:21 at the 10k, so I was pacing evenly, but I was also pacing like the weather was perfect, which, in case I wasn't clear the first 5 times I mentioned it, was not the case.

We spread out a by miles 3-6, with two women pulling away.  I knew speeding up was going to get me out of marathon effort zone (one wise decision made at least!), so I settled in with a friendly woman and man who were chatting away.  When I first fell in stride with them there were a couple of other women with us, but they fell back before long, putting me and Samantha in third and fourth female positions, with several men in our vicinity.  The race had cyclists with the top 3 men and women, so there was a cyclist riding near Samantha and I.  I picked up my first elite bottle at around mile 4, which I'd filled with UCAN (my bottles near 9, 14, and 20 had nuun and a gel).

Samantha's foot is in this photo,
& her male friend

The miles passed quickly, and at one point I heard Samantha tell her male friend something was bothering her and she felt like she needed to either speed up or slow down, then he asked if she wanted to use the decline to speed up, and they picked it up (the race course was relatively flat and straight, but had some turns and inclines/declines).  I was glad that I'd overheard the conversation, because otherwise it would have been a hit to my confidence when they pulled away.  I think this was around mile 11.  I didn't like seeing the third spot and cyclist move away from me, but I knew I needed to keep my effort steady and not pick up at that point.  There were several men around, so I generally had someone to run with or near.  Samantha would go on to win the race.

I expected the race would have a clock at 13.1, but there was only a timing mat.  I considered looking at my watch at that point, but it was kind of freeing not to know.  In hindsight, I think I also felt better about my race not knowing, because I never thought I was not doing well!  I paced pretty evenly for the first half though, coming through at 1:23:55.  I didn't feel bad but I also didn't feel as fresh as I'd like at halfway.  I didn't feel like I was going to negative split, which was unsurprising given the temperature.  However, I kept gradually reeling in and passing men, so that gave me the illusion I was doing great.

The story continues here...

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: Pre-Race

My race summary, with several links, is here.

I selected the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon because of the race date, the relatively straight point-to-point mostly flat course (~600 ft gain), the historical race weather (average morning low of 44 degrees), and the likelihood that there would be a women's field that would challenge me but that I could place in.  My running buddy Christian chose to run this race for the same reasons, but unfortunately got injured about 2 weeks before and couldn't compete, but she is a phenomenal friend who still made the race trip with me!  We did so many vacation activities before and after the race, but that will be a separate post.

We loved the race jackets!

My training cycle for the race was comparable to what I did leading up to my PR marathon at Indy Monumental 2019, but for various reasons I had a hard time getting my head in the game during the final 3-4 weeks.  Every race I ran during my build up was in warm, humid weather, so I hadn't run any fantastic times, but for some reason that didn't bother me.  Maybe I'm finally learning to look at the big picture instead of analyzing every workout/race in isolation!

Every time I checked the race day forecast (which was too often), it seemed to get warmer.  At one point it also indicated that we were going to have a 15-20 mph headwind the entire race, so after they took that out I was more thankful for what we got:  70 degrees throughout the race (at least it didn't warm up!), 67 degree dew point (at least it wasn't 70!), cloudy for most of the race (much better than sun!), and possible rain for the first couple of hours (rain feels good at 70!).

I was in the elite field for the race, which got me bottles on the course, access to a VIP pre-race area, and a pre-race elite meeting.  I had to restrain myself from asking hundreds of questions during said meeting!  Christian attended with me to gain experience, and I met Amy who I'd talked to many times on Instagram over the past few years (read her race recap here - it's excellent!).  I dropped off my bottles decorated with hot pink duct tape, tired to scope out my competition, and race instinct began taking over.

The pink showed up really well!

On race morning, Christian drove me to the start.  We got lost due to road construction and a highway onramp that Apple maps didn't know was closed, so I switched my car's display screen to the compass and just had her drive north until we could again get on the highway again.  Once we arrived, we walked inside through the rain and hung out in the VIP area until it was time for me to begin warming up.  I did all of my usual race morning routines, and felt excited and ready to go.  I knew a PR wouldn't be happening in the conditions, but strangely enough I wasn't at all upset by that.  I switched my A goal to competing.  I thought winning the race would be amazing, although that all depends on who shows up.  I definitely wanted to win masters, which again depends on who shows up.  Really, in the words of Molly Seidel, I just wanted to stick my nose in it, and I went to the starting line prepared to do just that!  I really didn't overthink this one; in fact, I probably underthought it, which I imagine was good for typically-obsessive me.

Someday we will get to take expo
pics without masks again...

The story continues here...

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Cliffs Notes

The Good:  I placed 3rd overall female and 1st masters female, achieving my place goals for the race (overall podium + win masters).  I got in there and competed with a bunch of 23-25 year old ladies, who made up 5 of the top 6 women.  This race was the RRCA Wisconsin state championship marathon, so I'm a state [masters] champ - something I haven't been able to say since high school.  My sub-3 marathon streak lives on, with this being my 12th or 13th consecutive, depending on whether or not you count the marathon split of my 50k.  My time was the the fastest masters female time ever run at this race, and the 39th fastest female time ever run in the 40 years of this race.  I ended up with 14 professional race photos that I liked, which has never happened before - possibly because I smiled almost the entire race!  I also had a fabulous trip with my friend Christian, making vacation memories that will last a lifetime.

The Bad:  My time of 2:53:46 wasn't what I'd trained for, although with the race day weather we got I didn't expect much more.  It was 70 degrees and 90% humidity/67 degree dewpoint throughout the race, and from about miles 15-18 there was heavy rain.  After that cleared the sun began peaking out and baking us for the rest of the route.  I'm not saying that this is a bad marathon time, just that I believe I have a faster one in me on a 40 degree day at the moment.

The Ugly:  My splits!  My only sub-3:00 I've executed worse than this one was Houston 2020 when I had bronchitis, and does that really count?  Based on the weather and my primary objective of putting myself in contention in the women's field, my splits make some sense, but I'm not going to tell you they were the right way to do it! [10/10/21 addition: After tracking a lot of friends and acquaintances at Chicago, I felt better about my splits and time; warm weather marathons are just a trick!]

The results:  Click for mine and overall.  My Strava activity/really solid regression run is here.

The Details:

Pre-Race 

The First Half

The Back Half 

The Aftermath 

The Racecation

Always thankful

Pretty sure this means I need to go back
in 2022 & try to lower this...