Lakefront Marathon

I had a great day at the Lakefront Marathon up in Milwaukee, WI. The weather was absolutely perfect for running and I definitely rested into it loaded with carbs. Alex and I headed up Saturday afternoon, listening to 90’s radio which brought back all sorts of odd memories. We went to the expo, checked out the logistics, had dinner and went to bed. That morning I was excited to see that the temps were just above 40 degrees, making it comfortable. We went and parked and loaded onto the shuttle bus—the funny thing about this race is that they bus you out 26.2 miles and then let you run the way back. We started at a high school and were able to hang out indoors which I thought was really nice. It reminded me of Cary March Madness. About 3000 runners lined up for a 7:30 start. I had done just enough training for this. Not enough to have wild expectations, but enough to be solid. The only marathons I have run have been in 80 degree temps, so I was curious if this cooler weather would give me the boost I needed to break 4 hours, even though my training wasn’t really there for it. As soon as we started I loved it—the trees were gorgeous, the scenery was interesting and it wasn’t overwhelmingly crowded with people. I didn’t feel like I had to zigzag around. There was enough crowd support to keep you motivated. At about 10 miles, I tried to lock in my pace and settle in. The one thing that stunk was that when I hit my garmin at the start line, it didn’t start. I didn’t realize this until about a 1/2 mile in. So I never had my exact time or pace during the race. Anyhow, I chugged along feeling okay. The course wasn’t perfectly flat, but the rolling hills were not anything to be concerned about. I mentally just hack the mileage down and do a gu every 5 miles or so. I did take a couple of salt tablets just for good measure. About 22 miles I felt my pace fall off a bit, but then I had a good mile in there at 23. For whatever reason I just could not keep quite where I needed to be. I think it would have been helpful to get another 20 mile training run, but with the shin injury from the summer I was just happy to be out there with the training I had. There was a fun descent going back into Milwaukee and we ran right on the Lakefront. I finished hard and I feel like I gave what I had for the day. I actually felt horrible right after the race, but pulled it together and went to the massage tent. I still didn't know my final time. After Alex finished and we both were treated by the massage tent people we gimped to the shuttle bus to take us home. Hilariously the 40 degree temp difference only made a 49 second difference in my last marathon time. Still a PR though!