Madison Mini-Marathon 2013

Bottle opener medal

Remember how I had all these plans to train for this half marathon?  Remember how I said I was going to do some speed training, some hill workouts?  Despite our lovely cool summer, I didn't train.  Instead, life decisions happened and I forgot about the running.  Well, I didn't forget so much as running and training just wasn't on my mind and as such, I forgot about the countdown toward the Mini-Marathon.  Instead, I stressed about moving and making life decisions.

So, I didn't have much expectations going in.  My legs were feeling much more fatigued than usual and I knew that was going to be an issue going in.  I had done some speed training on the treadmill this summer and hit some nice PRs in the shorter distance races, but I didn't put the time in to do any long distances.  I knew that I was likely to peter out by mile 8.

T-shirt and race bag.

Oh well.  No PR, but the Madison Mini-Marathon is still just such a lovely lovely course.  I love that it touches on all the highlights of downtown Madison.  Starting from the Memorial Union, running down frat row on Langdon, up to the square and saying hi to the Farmer's Market shoppers, running down State street, cutting over to the Southwest bike path, the Kohl center, then Camp Randall, over to and through the Arboretum path, up over to Picnic Point and then the Lakeshore path for the last 2 miles and finishing at Memorial Union.  Mostly flat with some hills up to the Capitol, in the Arboretum, and up Commonwealth, but these hills are nothing for someone who's trained.

I ran the first 5 miles of this race pretty well.  I started behind the 2:00 pace group, caught up to them within the first mile and then just aimed to stay with them until mile 6, which I did.  But by mile 6, the fatigue in my legs set in.  It was a crippling kind of fatigue built from days of moving and hauling heavy boxes.  I let the 2:00 pace group go then and didn't worry about it.  I wasn't out here to run a PR as I knew I didn't have it in me today.  After that my pace dropped and I was running closer to 9.5 min/mi pace.

By mile 10, when I saw on the clock that there was no way I'd make my goal of sub 2:00, I didn't bother pushing anymore.  Instead, I let my pace drop even more and aimed to just enjoy the last three miles.  As it is, my legs were fatigued enough that I didn't have much speed when I crossed the finish.  This is not how I usually finish a half marathon.  Usually, I'm gasping for breath as my legs drag my body to the finish.  This time, I feel like I'm dragging my legs to the finish.  I got my breath back after pretty easily and instead just really wanted to sit and rest my muscles.

2:06:17.  45:19 for the first 5 miles, then 1:34:17 for the first 10, then 32:00 for the last 5k, for an overall pace of 9:39.  

There's a mile 14 party for the finishers at the half marathon with free beer for the participants.  Beer always sounds like a really good idea, but I NEVER want beer after running a half marathon.  Instead, after I got my medal, I sat there on the curb, enjoying the cool breeze and watching the runners coming through the finish chute.  I chomped on an oatmeal raisin cookie between sips of chocolate milk and wondered how something so simple could be so pleasurable.