Race Reports

Here is a quick recap of the two races I did this past week.

Madison Half-Marathon
5/27/2007

This one went pretty well. We had perfect weather—sunny skies and breezy, with temperatures in the mid-70’s. The race started at 7:30 a.m. on the capitol square and finished near the Aliant Energy Center. My goal was to use it as a tune-up race for Grandma’s Marathon and run pretty hard—not painfully so, but a solid effort and perhaps a PR. I ended up running a 1:41:01, which was a PR by more than eleven minutes. I felt stronger and stronger as the race continued, and am pretty sure it was a negative-split effort. As far as placement, overall I was 259th of 2153 runners, 50th of 1209 women, and 13th of 276 in my race division. As most of you know, although always my favorite sport and portion of the triathlon, running has never come easy for me. Throughout the years I’ve been plagued with multiple injuries, and only the last 1-2 years have things come together for me. I’m finally seeing injury-free seasons and results that I’m proud of.

I did enjoy the Madison half this year. It was a well-run race and I really liked the slightly modified route. I still think the entry fee of $55 for a half-marathon is absurd—especially when I’m running it in neighborhoods that I run through for free every day. But I did cave into peer pressure on that one. I’m not sure I will ever run the full Madison Marathon. I just think there are so many other marathons out there I would rather run. Not to knock on the hometown marathon, but I think it's a little lame. But who knows, maybe someday.

Aquathon
5/31/2007

Extremely painful is the only way I can describe this one. Ouch. Still in pain. Over the last five years, competing in primarily long-distance endurance events, I have become accustomed to a “comfortably fast” pace that I can basically maintain all day. I seriously don’t have any fast twitch muscle fibers left, which makes short races like these very challenging. I actually have to sprint. The swim wasn’t so bad. I felt really out-of-shape, but got through it okay. The run was the part that kicked my butt. Twenty-three minutes of hell. And I’d like to think I’m in pretty good running shape right now. Transitioning from the swim to the run killed me and the run course evilly begins with a gigantic hill. I tried to ease into the run, and then kick it in hard at the half-way point. That gave me a little time to get my form together and somewhat catch my breath. Those twenty-three minutes felt so much more painful than a marathon or even Ironman—or maybe the pain is just much fresher in my mind. I ended up finishing in 36:44, with a 12:56 swim and a 22:49 run. That left me in 20th overall, 4th female, and 2nd in my race division. Surprisingly, the lake water felt very warm. Of course I enjoyed several Potbelly cookies after the race as well. They were delicious as always.