Heading into this race I was tired. I'll be honest about it. I probably shouldn't have signed up or ran it. My body was wanting a rest, but I had signed up quite a while ago and I really hate wasting money. I wasn't injured, just tired.

I ran this race last year, during it's inaugural year as a pacer. I decided to run it again because I just really enjoyed the course and wanted to run it as a runner, not a pacer. The course was very similar, with the main difference being where the start/ finish line was located.

Race day sunrise, taken from the race website.

Race morning showed up with absolutely perfect running weather! Just cool enough that we wouldn't over heat, but warm enough that once we started I'd be good to go in a tank top and shorts. I walked to the start line area from our apartment, which was about a mile away.

I gave myself just enough time to drop off my jacket and sweat pants, use the port-o-potty and get to the start line! Let's do this!

I've had a really awesome past few months of training and racing, but like I mentioned above... my body is tired! After a 20+ minute Half Ironman PR in July, my first full Ironman in September, then running a 36 minute PR and 4 minute BQ at the Chicago Marathon last month my body was ready for a break.

Knowing all of that and how many miles of training I've put my body through I went into this race with a plan to have fun, run strong and steady but NOT try to PR.

The first 5ish miles of this race run along my usual running route, so I know what to expect in terms of wind coming off the lake, the inclines and lack of shade. But you really can't beat the beauty of running along the lake!

We headed up the one really big hill in the downtown Milwaukee area before running along a beautiful tree-lined park. The homes in this area are so beautiful! I was feeling pretty good but again, with my goal, just tried to run strong. My legs weren't doing too bad but just wanted to run consistently.

The rest of the race is through the city, which is really neat! It's not often you don't have to worry about vehicles and stop lights, etc while running in a city so I always enjoy races that try to show the downtown area.

The wind had picked up a little bit once we got into the downtown area and headed west towards Marquette. There's also a steady incline that you just don't feel while driving, Luckily we weren't heading west too long before taking over a bridge and heading south into what we call the Third Ward.

I was still feeling pretty good and running strong through here and knew some friends were going to be volunteering at a water stop around 10 miles in. I always know I can finish once I make it to 10 miles!

We started to head back towards the lake and back to where I often run again. The weather really turned into a perfect day for running.... crisp, fall-like and great feeling after a hot and humid summer of long training rides and runs.

I'm really happy with my finish time of 1:43:27 (7:53 average). I had started the race with the goal of keeping it easy and in the low 8's so to finish in the mid 7:50's was great! I ended up as 11th in my age group out of 165. Not too shabby for a "take it easy" race. Now... to give myself a break!

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