Wednesday, October 6, 2021

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...

2 comments:

  1. I would definitely count the marathon split of your 50k!

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    Replies
    1. I want to count it, but I also admit that I wouldn't count it against my streak if it had been over 3:00, hah!

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