3:00:19
18th place overall (out of 1495)
3rd in age (out of 147)

State #25 Baby!!

     Yes, that’s true! I am halfway to my goal of running a marathon in all 50 states before I turn 40. I have now run 30 marathons in 25 states in 36 months. I decided that the halfway mark of my 50 state quest should be one of significance, so I picked my home town to be it. Running along roads that I knew as a child, going by landmarks and parks that I know all to well, it was a cool feeling, one I rarely have during marathons.
     It being Memorial Day Weekend, I had my usual Geek Weekend trek, and again, it just happened to be near the marathon of the month. Last year, on little sleep and bad food, I won the race. This marathon is about 5 times as large and so I had no dreams of winning it. Finishing in the top 1.5% made me feel pretty good though, I must say.
      This will be a memorable marathon for several reasons, mostly good, but a few bad. The race directors need to get a freaking clue. I will give only two example of their buffoonery:
1. Race Start. There were three races this date, a full, a half, and a quarter marathon. The half marathon race took off at 7am from starting line A (labeled simply ‘Start Line’) The full and quarter marathons started later from starting line B (also labeled simply ‘Start Line’) a full half mile away from starting line A. I decided to watch the start of the half marathon (a high school friend of mine was running it) and then head over to my starting line in the 30 minutes in between starting guns. As I was walking to the starting line B, I saw a bunch of people with half marathon bibs running to starting line A, because, of course, they went to the wrong starting line. 2 minutes before my race start (28 minutes after the half started) I saw a marathoner explaining to a half marathoner that his starting line was ‘over there’. Poor guy. I wonder what happened to him. Just poor planning on the directors part. Never have different start lines, especially with crowds this big. I won’t even bother ranting on how the got people into the corrals, even that was dumb.
2. Age awards. I have run more than 60 races to date. Even the really small ones almost always go three deep in age awards, meaning the top 3 women, ages 20-25 (and every other age/sex grouping) get an award. Sometime it is a medal, sometimes a coffee mug, sometimes just a ribbon, but top three (at least, sometimes it is top 5) get something. Again, even small town 5K races with 150 runners do this. Here, at the Madison Marathon with 1500 runners, guess how deep age awards went? 1. Yup, you saw that right. 1 deep. In each age group.
    What a joke. These yahoo’s need to see a real race. I have never seen either of these ‘problems’ before, at any race I have EVER run. How could they be so clueless? Oh, and don’t get me started about the darn t-shirts… Ok, enough ranting on the bad parts, lets talk about the good parts…
     Ok, so the race itself was actually pretty awesome. Weather conditions at the start were perfect, overcast and 55 degrees. About 7 miles in, the sun started to break through and by mile 13 it was full on sun and 70, which slowed me down a little, but so be it. I started out feeling like I was walking, but hit mile 1 at 6:20, way too fast. I slowed myself down, letting the crowd pass me. I swear I was much father back than 18th place, I figured I was more in the 30’s. I wonder if people in front of me just dropped out… Who knows… Anyways, but mile 5 I was in my groove, 6:41/mile. I looked at my GPS watch almost every mile from there on and every time I did look, up until mile 18, my pace was locked on 6:41. I was in my groove perfectly. That is a 2:55 pace, and yes, I started to drift after mile 18. I blame the heat and a lack of sleep the week before. Don’t get me wrong, I very happy with my finish time, especially since this is the last marathon I am going to ‘race’ for a while. This summer I am planning on upping my mileage, training for two doubles in September (NM and CO) and November (GA and MS) so this was a last hurrah for speed for a while, or so I say
     Awesome places I ran through/by: UW-Arboretum, Wisconsin State Capitol, Memorial Union, Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Tenny Park.
     The half way mark was right in front of the Memorial Union. A place that just over 12 hour earlier I was catching up with several High School friends whom I have not seen in 19 years. That was way cool. I wish more people could have showed up, but it was way fun. I love Facebook
      My mother, who just recently turned 70 years old was able to come cheer me on in a marathon for the first time. She really is proud of me, and we looked at the map beforehand and found 5 places (including the finish) spread throughout the race that she could see me. Knowing my Mom and how much she loves to talk to people, every time I ran by her, about 15’ away I would scream ‘Hi Mommy!!’ then give her a high-five. She enjoyed it as much as I knew she would, getting to talk to people who naturally asked her about me…
     The finish was actually really cool. Beer and pretzels I have had before, but never chocolate milk. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted post race. Gotta love Wisconsin. Also, the county fairgrounds that hosted the start and finish of the marathon also hosted this weekend the worlds largest Brat fest. I did my part, eating 1 of the 208,000+ (a world record or so they say) brats eaten in a 4 day stretch. Oddly, my taste buds loved the brat, but my stomach, not so much. Oh well.
     One of the perks of being in the top 1.5% of finishers is that you do not have to wait in line for the post race massage. That was pretty darn sweet. Hours after a 3 flat marathon, my muscles felt great. I honestly believe I could have done another marathon the next day, but maybe in 3:20 or so
     All in all a fun an enjoyable weekend. Halfway home. Bring it on…