Madison Marathon

Madison Marathon is in the books. Judy and I headed up Friday night, staying in Rochelle IL and then driving the rest of the way Saturday morning, heading to the expo when we got into town. Goody bag was rather blah, but the tech 'finishers' marathon shirt was very nice, the best I've seen for a freebie. We then headed downtown and ate at Tutto Pasta, which was quite good. After that, we walked around the capitol a bit then headed out to our hotel that was on the north east side of town. Lounged for a bit, then went for an early dinner at Uno's Chicago Grill. Back to the hotel room, went to bed fairly early.

Got up at 4:30 Sunday morning, headed down to the parking at the finish area at Alliant Energy Center, then took the shuttle to the start line right at the capitol. At 7:10 the race started, there were 1192 official finishers, so the start wasn't too crowded. The half marathoners started 15 minutes later, but ran a different course that followed the marathon course at times. The first marathon/half-marathon course split was around 2 miles in, which means that the very fast half-marathoners caught up with the back of the back of the marathoners. The course mixed it up, running on business streets, bike trails, residential areas, parks, along the many lakes, and thru the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. There were many hills, but nothing too major, about as hilly as the St Louis Marathon I would guess, perhaps a bit more. Finish was back at the Alliant Energy Center. Post race food was rather sparse, but my stomach was a bit queasy so I didn't really want much food at the time anyway. I then changed and waited for Judy to finish.

Race went pretty good. I started off a bit fast, passing the 4:30 pace setters and the 4:15 pace setters in the first mile or two. First 6 miles were 8:52, 9:16, 9:27, 9:39, 9:21 and 9:28, with a 10k split of 56:25. I had my first shot block break during mile 7 and had a split of 10:03, followed by 9:50, 9:51, 9:37, 9:56, 9:35 and 9:33. Somewhere around mile 11 the 9:15 group passed me, but I was able to stay right behind them for a few more miles, hitting the half marathon split at 2:06:26, for a 9:39 pace. I had a few minutes 'banked' for my 4:22 goal, but I was also getting rather tired, and my stomach was quite iffy. I knew if I stopped to go to the bathroom, my motivation would be shot and I would probably end up with another 4:45 or so marathon, so I figured I'd just stick it out. I had some gu during mile 14 and had a 10:28 mile, followed by a 1:16 lap to get back in sync with the mile markers (was about .13 miles off at this point, so about normal). Next miles were ran at 10;56, 10:59, 10:02 and 11:09, with the 11:09 being another shot block mile. The 18 mile split, which was around the corner from the 18 mile marker they had set up was at 2:59:59, so I was just under the 10 minute mile pace, but knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up. With 8 miles to go, if I ran an 11:00 pace I would hit 4:30, so I figured I could do that. Miles 19-21 were ran at 10:14, 10:30 and 10:42. I then had my last shot blocks and walked for a while, so mile 22 was a 12:15 mile. If I could keep at a 11:00 pace, I could still make 4:30. Final miles were 10:47, 10:54, 10:53 and 10:54. I found that I could still run at a 10:00 pace or a bit faster, but just needed more walk breaks, taking 3, 4, 5 ... 6 ... short breaks every mile, keeping an eye on my lap pace so that I could hit the 11:00 miles. I didn't see the 26 mile marker, knew the finish was near (could hear it) but couldn't see it until we rounded the last corner. I picked up the pace a bit and finished the last .25 miles in 2:24:16, a 9:29 pace. Total official time was 4:29:01, Garmin distance was 26:38, so not much off. Average heart rate was 165, and other than my last little run where it hit 174, my max was 171, so pretty good there. Weather was nice, with temps starting in the 50s, finish was about 70, mostly overcast and a bit breezy.

After waiting for Judy to finish with a 5:46:53 time, we thought about hitting the Brat Fest that was going on right near the finish, but it just didn't sound too good, and we would have had to walk AWAY from the car, heh. So we decided to just head back to the hotel and shower and rest for a bit before going to an early dinner. We headed to Smoky Jon's BBQ, which was quite good. We got too much food but managed to make our way thru it. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Perkins and got some dessert. Early to bed, then got up in the morning and headed back to St Louis. Legs were shot, but overall I wasn't too sore. Another one in the books!