Fort Atkinson Half Marathon

The half marathon distance is probably my favorite distance.  I find that I never quite enjoy a run until I reach about mile 6.  I'm always amazed at what might have felt like a difficult first 6 miles suddenly becomes an enjoyable and easy run when I see that mile 7 marker.  It probably helps that come mile 7, I'm slowly and steadily passing people rather than struggling to keep up with those around me.  The miles start to feel like they're just flying by and I feel much more relaxed.  Barry said that running a half marathon always convinces him that he does not want to ever run a marathon.  For me, running the half marathon is what convinces me that I may want to run a marathon.

I ran the Fort Atkinson Half Marathon Saturday.  This is a small local race technically in its 4th year with a field of only about 350 runners.  I say technically because according to Barry, this used to be a 10k event for many years until they recently upgraded it to a half marathon distance.  There's also a 5k event that's new this year with only about 150 runners.  The half marathon started at 7am, and the 5k started 10 minutes later.  The fairly flat course took us through and around Fort Atkinson.  There were small bunny hills throughout, but I hardly noticed them.  It kept the course interesting without adding any real difficulty though I heard others disagreeing.

There were many things that appealed to me about this race.  The Summerfest Rock and Sole run was also on Saturday and having signed up for the Madison Mini-Marathon, Barry and I debated back and forth about doing Rock and Sole versus Fort Atkinson.  I had originally decided against the Rock and Sole run in favor of Fort Atkinson because of the price difference ($80 vs $60), the packet pick up (expo day before vs day of), and the reviews.  While Rock and Sole was the larger better advertised event, its inaugural year was a complete disaster.  June of 2011 was experiencing some intense heat, and the event couldn't keep up with the participants' demand of water.  For a race, that's really one of the basic necessities that one expects the entry fee to have paid for.  Inaugural years are always difficult, I'm sure, but this coupled with the other factors made me decide against Rock and Sole.  Barry, however, was less convinced.  He thought Rock and Sole would be a more enjoyable event, and they had something going with the Mini-Marathon that if you run both in the same summer, you get an extra medal.  I told Barry that I'd be willing to do Rock and Sole instead of Fort Atkinson if he would handle the logistics.  When he found out though that Fort Atkinson also had a pancake breakfast afterward, he was sold.

Saturday morning was cool, humid and raining.  We left Madison at about 5:40am, and got there at 6:20.  Both of us had had very little sleep; I had only gotten about 4 hours the night before.  Luckily, the rain had slowed to a light mist by the time we got there.  Parking was a breeze, and packet pick up super simple.  We were all squared away by 6:30 and we started thinking about bathrooms and a light warm up.  I decided against a rain shell for the run, but I knew a hat would be extremely helpful if the rain picked up during the race.

There were about 9 water stops on the course, which wouldn't have been enough if it had been a really hot day, but for the weather that we had, it was plenty.  I skipped the last two, and would've skipped more in the beginning had I not been looking forward to the chance to walk though the water stations in the first 5 miles. The energy gel station at mile 8 was really really well done.  They had a multitude of flavors, with a sign before the station listing the order of the flavors, and then had them laid out on the table in that order.  A volunteer made sure that all flavors were sufficiently stocked as runners came through.  I also really appreciated that the gel station was AHEAD of the water station.  So often races hand out gels behind the water station, which is annoying for those of us who don't carry our own water.  There was also an ice station shortly after mile 11.  I picked an orange ice pop here, and it was exactly the refresher I needed at that point.  I dropped it after 4-5 bites because I didn't want to carry it for the rest of the run, but I was sad to see it go.

Physically, the first few miles of the race was rough for me.  My lower back was killing me for the first half of the race.  After the run yesterday, I just about died from how my back was feeling.  My left foot started bothering me around mile 4, but I mostly ignored it.  I don't really know what's going on with my foot.  For the last few weeks, I'd run on it and it wouldn't bother me during the run, but afterward, I'd feel pain which would disappear after a day.  But to be sure, I'd stop running for about a week, and then try again only for the process to repeat.  Yesterday was the first time it bothered me during a run.    

Race swag

Shortly after mile 8, when we were in the downtown, I passed a clock that said 8:25.  I did some calculations and knew that if I kept at my pace, I should come in around 2:05.  When I got to the finish line, I watched the clock count to 2:06 as I crossed the finish line.  With the couple of seconds to the start, I figured that I should be under 2:06, but they reported my time as 2:06:03.  I'm not really sure what happened there.  I'm not sure if their clock at the finish line was off, or if there was something funky with the timing chip.  Since many other people were ahead of me in crossing the start, I'm pretty sure I didn't jump the gun.  Barry also agrees that his watch reported his time as 19 seconds faster than what the official results said, and we had crossed the starting mat together.  He said that he was going to record his watch time as official.  I'm going with the official results time since I have no watch. So 2:06:03.  Not my fastest, but given my lack of preparation, lack of sleep, lower back pain and the left foot, I'm pretty happy with how I did. 

This is a great race: neat swag - including a reusable sting pulled bag and water bottle, the ease of logistics, and the fairly flat course.  The pancake breakfast was average, but I enjoyed it.  They still had plenty of food at 11am, though one had to wait a bit for the pancakes to be made.  I would definitely run this race again.