Haunted Hustle 2012

The Haunted Hustle half marathon was tougher than I had expected.  I signed up for this one back in May because my friend Joe had told me it was a flat beautiful course through the woods.  In August, they changed the course.  Did you know there are hills in Middleton?

About two weeks before, I went to a good form running clinic at a local shoe store.  I was tired of injuries from the half I've been doing and I didn't see how I'd be able to train and complete a marathon if injuries keep cropping up and keep me from running for a week or more.  Hell, I'm starting to think about possibly completing an Iron Man someday.  So my friend suggested I attend this clinic and figure out what some of the issues are.  It was a 2 hour course that had a lot of information that I already knew, but the 15 minutes of information I didn't know were pretty valuable.  I tried this out at my next run and I was a convert.

They warned us, however, that there will need to be some retraining of muscles since we haven't been using them.  I had gotten up to 8 miles running this way, but nothing in the double digits. The 8 miles felt good, almost easy, so I figured 13 would be okay.  Even for the Mini-Marathon in August, I'd similarly only gotten up to 8 miles the week before.  What was perhaps a mistake was me going on a couple of long bike rides the week before.  The weather was nice and I knew I didn't have many more opportunities for my bike, so I went out for a 16 mile ride.  I should've worked up to 16 miles.  My hip flexors were sore up until the day before the race.

Madison Mini-Marathon

I just want one perfect weather, injury free half marathon.  Well, October it is.

Beautiful 50 degree weather at the start this morning for the Mini-Marathon.  Too bad, I had a bothersome ankle that now post-race is developing into an ugly bruise.  I thought about dropping out of the race at about mile 6.  I didn't want to exacerbate an injury that might prevent me from someday running a full marathon.  At mile 7, either the pain has numbed feeling in the ankle or it's subsided, but I no longer felt pain with every step.  I get in a couple of good miles and then the pain comes back in and out for the remaining race.  

Somehow, I finished, and even managed to have exactly the results I expected though not hoped for.   

Split times:
5 mile- 44:32
10 mile- 1:35:17
Last 5k- 29:29
Finish- 2:04:45
Overall pace- 9:32

Training Log or lack thereof.

When I first started training in February for the half marathon, I was very diligent about writing down my runs. I logged the date, the distance, an estimate on the time, where the route was, whether on an indoor track or treadmill, etc. It was a good way to track my achievement. I was increasing my distance and it was exciting to be able to see the amount of miles I was running as well as entering those long runs of 8 or 10 miles. I was proud and a bit surprised of what I was capable of achieving.

At some point around Crazy Legs, I became a lot less diligent in logging my runs. I stopped logging where the route was, the time estimate, even the date became an estimate. There are entries after the 20k race, but really those entries were entered weeks later and I only half remembered what had happened on those runs.

Now, I don't bother logging them at all. I see this as a good thing. We don't record routines. We don't bother writing down the amount of water we consumed, how much and where, or about brushing our teeth in the morning. I actually had made the decision to start training in January, but first began recording runs when I made my first 10k run around the Arboretum. That was an achievement for me at the time. Now that 10k run is routine.

Madison Half Marathon

I worked hard for this medal.

The full marathon was canceled due to a forecast high of 93 on Sunday.  Temperatures were supposed to reach 80 before 10 am.  The Green Bay marathon a week before had also high but not as bad temperatures and the race directors had to shut down the course about 2.5 hours after the race started.  Trying to head off a similar situation, the Madison full marathon was canceled.  Registered runners got some sort of credit for next year's marathon and were all automatically transferred to running the half marathon.  We were originally required to finish the half marathon in 3 hours before they pulled us off the course, but due to the heat, they left the course open for an additional hour and a half.  I was disappointed that my very first half marathon would be completed in less than ideal conditions.

After Lake Monona 20k, running the half marathon in under 2 hours looked to be very possible.  I was expected to come in just seconds before the 2 hour mark, so I knew there would be little leeway.  I had to be running my best.  Unfortunately, the heat picked up in Madison not long after that 20k race and with a bothersome knee, my training took a dive.  I was struggling to get 5 miles in, and was only finally able to work up to a 10k in 80 degree weather about 5 days before the half.  This would be tough.  I began preparing myself to let go of my original goal.  I have had little to no training in these kinds of conditions and risking heat exhaustion or something worse might take me out of future races.