Wisconsin 1/2 Marathon

Considering the fact that I have run 13.1 miles some 12 ish times over the last year, I have never run in a 1/2 marathon race...until Saturday.

Mary, one of my very dear friends from college, and I signed up to run the inaguaral "Wisconsin Marathon and Half Marathon" to be held in Kensoha - where Mary's parents live and where my boss is the State Senator.

I went down to "K-Town" on Friday night and Mary, her family and I ate at Luigi's - this hole in the wall Italian place that was amazing. I had homemade pasta with a big ol' meat ball on top. Homemade pasta in Kenosha is always amazing. Always.

Feeling carbed up and ready to roll on Saturday morning, I got a good night sleep and was up bright and early at 5:00 am (which is sleeping in for me!).

Earlier on in marathon training, my long run routine was to eat a peanut butter power bar and drink some coffee. For my 18, 19, and 20 milers however, I have switched to these awesome bagels that are whole grain and have 10 grams of protien in them...but I digress...anyway, I ate my bagel with peanut butter and honey and headed out.

Krista, (a friend from high school, who met us at Mary's house) Mary and I grabbed a ride from one of Mary's Chicago friends and we headed down to Harbor Park, got our gear checked, and stood around for awhile. We decided to head to the bathroom - this is where I digress again. Seriously folks, how hard is it to use a bathroom in a timely manner? There were a few men who hopped out of line because people were being so slow (mainly women - yes, I'll totally blame my gender for being slow, thankfully, I am not). I appreciated these men who found an alternative place to dispose of their morning coffee. I would have joined them had it not been completely socially inappropriate. I'm not THAT girl.

Anyway, we got to the start line and I managed to bump into my boss who had come to wish me luck and send me off.

The weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was shining, there was a bit of a breeze and it was probably in the low 60's.

The route was beautiful. We ran through downtown Kenosha and then out through some really great houses and north along Lake Michigan. The scenery was lovely.

I was feeling pretty good. My first mile was done in 9:50 and I was ok with that since there were so many people to weave in and out of. After the first 4 or 5 miles I started to feel like I could push it up a little faster so I put some Fergie on the MP3 player and took off.

Kendra and her boyfriend Jared were there to watch one of Jared's friends (and ME too!!) - Kendra is an excellent photographer and caught lots of pictures along the route, I'll post some as soon as I see them! Mary's parents, sister and cousin were all out cheering too, and some people I met while campaigning in November even came out - it was nice to have supporters along the route!

My only goal for this run was to do it in at least 2 hours and 15 minutes. This was my split for the 1/2 at the Quad Cities Marathon. At mile 12 I realized that I was in a prime position to run this in 2 hours. I had stayed strong the whole race and felt good - stradling the line between pushing it too hard and pushing just enough as to not kill myself - I kicked around mile 12.5 as I knew I had it in me.

I have been doing my Monday training runs as "speed" days and while I'm not very fast, towards the end of the run I spend a good chunk of time increasing the speed. So I know, that even on tired legs, I can always give it a little more.

I finished in 2 hours and 36 seconds. An average 9:13/mile. I was VERY proud of that. Being a steady 10 minute miler may be changing soon!

After the race we ate brats and drank beer by the lake - a perfect way to end the race!

I really enjoyed the 1/2 and while I still love the marathon (we'll see if that changes after May 17th, but I doubt it!!), I can't wait to do another 1/2 - - and, I registered today to do the Chicago Rock and Roll 1/2 on August 2nd - which will be followed by the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 3rd. (yes, I know, I'm a bit insane!).