Wisconsin, take 4

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.

2016 course map.

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!

Ready or not, here we go!

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. 

Coming into the finish line.

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!

To go back to the race report archives, click here.

Iowa

This race will probably always be one of my top three favorite races ever. As you know, my cousin Martilee has Rett Syndrome. This disorder has rendered her unable to walk, use her hands in a functional way and talk (along with many other complications that effect her daily life). If you've been following along on my blog or other social media platforms, you also know I've ran FOR Martilee before in a few other races, raced with Girl Power 2 Cure and raised money and awareness for Rett Syndrome. But I wanted to do something more for her, to really involve her in the race somehow. So a few months ago I decided to reach out to my Aunt Vanessa to see how she felt about me pushing Martilee in her first half marathon.

Martilee and I at Christmas in 2015.

Vanessa had her concerns, which I fully understand. Martilee is immunodeficient due to Rett Syndrome (and race weather is hard to predict, especially in the spring) and had been having more seizures lately. Something as simple as a small cold could (and usually does) turn into pneumonia requiring an extended hospital stay. Obviously, her health is the most important factor in all of this. 

Vanessa purchased plastic sheeting, cut it down, then used giant clips to keep it in place! Martilee will be dry and out of the wind!

I went ahead and signed myself up for the half marathon and waited to sign up Martilee (I did reach out to the race director and confirm that I could purchase Martilee a bib and push her in the jogging stroller before signing her up. The race website stated no jogging strollers, but it doesn't hurt to ask! Luckily, the RD gave me permission. Thank you!) until closer to race day. Vanessa gave me the okay, and with that Martilee was about to run her first half marathon!

Race week showed up with rain and cool temperatures in the forecast. Now I started to wonder if this was a bad idea.  I know there's nothing you can do about race weather, but I didn't want Martilee to get sick! Vanessa and I started trying to come up with ideas. Do we just try for a different race? Do we bundle her up? What are we going to do about the rain to keep dry? In the end, Vanessa came up with THIS:

Race day showed up just as wet, windy, and cool as predicted. Thank goodness Vanessa is crafty and was able to put this together to keep Martilee dry. Not only that, the shield would block some of the wind so she would stay nice and warm, but be able to see where we're running! 

Prior to the race I also purchased some shirts for not only Martilee and myself, but the rest of our family group that would be spectating. We also both wore shwings and skirts from Sparkle Athletic, and trucker hats that say "Running for those who can't" from R4TWC. 

On the front: Team Martilee #untilshecan. On the back: gp2c.org #curerettsyndrome.

Flat Martilee!

Flat Kristen!

This half marathon was in Des Moines, Iowa and always takes place the weekend before the Drake Relays. Typically the course finishes on the track, but this year they changed the course a bit. I was a little bummed to not finish ON the track itself since I ran track in college and still watch a lot of big track meets on TV, but the nice thing is that they took out one of the big hills right at the end of the race! Don't worry though, there was STILL plenty of climbing. Running hills are a little bit tougher with a jogging stroller and cousin in front of you!

Race map and elevation chart.

Back to the race... Martilee and I lined up at the start, to the outside of the race so that we wouldn't be in anyone's way as the race started. I had never pushed a jogging stroller while running so I really had no idea what to expect in terms of pace or how much extra effort I'd be using. 

Martilee and I waiting inside, keeping dry before the race started.

We took off and immediately had a short climb and right hand turn. Martilee's jogger has a fixed front wheel, which means every time we'd turn or have to slightly change our angle I'd have to kind of pop a wheelie to adjust us. Luckily Vanessa showed me how to do this AND use the hand brake before we started.

We made it through the first few miles totally fine. I was getting the hang of maneuvering the jogger around corners and locking my arms out to get us up the few small rolling hills. Martilee had actually fallen asleep just before the race started, so at least I knew she was comfortable, warm and dry enough. 

Around miles 3-4 there was a HUGE downhill! Martilee was PULLING me downhill! Fortunately there was the hand brake plus a band I had wrapped around my wrist. If she sped up, so did I! I was able to keep us in control just fine but we were hitting paces in the low 7's. It was nice to stretch the legs and get some longer strides after the rolling hills of the first few miles.

Martilee and I early in the race.

Race signs made by Martilee's class mates.

The joy of the downhill was short lived because little did I know Martilee and I had to climb for the next two miles! There was a little bit of walking, but around mile 5 I saw Phil, Vanessa, Parson and Thayne! (Thayne had been riding around the course on his bike and updating our family as to where I was. He also stayed close just in case Martilee had a seizure and I needed help quickly.) They helped us get up that hill and keep pushing forward! Hearing their love and seeing their joy really took the pain out of my legs on that climb. 

The next few miles were pretty flat which was just what I needed to keep us rolling. We were cruising just under 9 minute miles and I felt pretty good. Honestly, the cool temperatures were so helpful! 

There were a few times that we would come up on aid stations and other runners would ask me if they could help out and grab me a drink so I didn't have to try to steer over to one side of the road and try to avoid cups or other runners. A lot of the runners who passed us also cheered us on and had so many motivating words to share. The running community is so amazing! 

Martilee still snoozing away! She makes racing look easy.

Around mile 8 I saw that Martilee must have woken up. She started clapping her hands and I heard so many amazing giggles and squeals (especially on the down hills!) Hearing her really helped me know that Vanessa and I made the right decision. Before the race we had kind of voiced to each other our concerns about if Martilee really wanted to do something like this. With her being non-verbal we didn't know if we were forcing her into something she really wasn't interested in.

I knew around mile 10 there was another decent hill, but it was the last one! Our family was at the top cheering us on! By this time my legs were tired, but hearing them cheer for us kept me running strong. Once this hill was over around mile 11 we were mostly downhill to the finish!

Coming in to the finish line! We did it!

Coming into the home stretch I remember seeing Parson, Martilee's brother, first. He was cheering like crazy and then ran on the sidewalk to the finish line. I was in tears but smiling so big crossing the finish line and really started bawling once I saw Vanessa. She gave me a huge hug and told me Martilee had a big grin when we crossed the finish line. Martilee and I both received our medals and then we kept walking and found the rest of our family hanging out under a big awning keeping dry. 

Just after we found out Martilee took 1st in her Age Group! Way to go, M!

We got our official results from the results tent and found out Martilee took 1st in her Age Group! Way to go, M! Officially, we ran a 1:58:35 (9:04 pace). We took 141st and 142nd out of about 450 women. Not too bad at all!

Even with the hills, cold and rain we had an amazing time at the race. I'm glad our family was able to see us a few times on the cours and cheer us on. Martilee luckily stayed dry and warm the entire time and seemed to really have fun the last 5 miles of the race once she woke up.

After the race we went back to our hotels, warmed up and dried off, then headed to a restaurant to celebrate. I had a great race and really hope to be able to share another half marathon with Martilee again soon, just hopefully with better weather!

Celebrating our race finish with tacos, chips and salsa, and warmth!

To go back to the race report archives, click here.

Wisconsin, take 3

So if you don't already know, I currently live in Milwaukee and the winters here can be brutal! A lot of times our choices as runners are bundling into triple layers to head outside or straight to a treadmill. I'm fortunate enough to live in a city with a wonderful large indoor track! The Pettit National Ice Center is one of the USA's Olympic training centers for speed skating and has hosted multiple national events. The speed skating track is 400 meters long and there's a 3 lane running track just to the outside of that making each lap 443 meters long. 

Pettit National Ice Center

I have ran at the Pettit a few times before for long training runs where it's just too cold/ icy/ snowy to go outside and hanging out on a treadmill for 2+ hours seems unbearable. At least at the Pettit there's no wind, it's flat, it's a consistent 50ish degrees and there's some entertainment between speed and figure skating practice as well as hockey games. 

The super helpful running lap guide at the Pettit Center.

Each January there is a race weekend held at the Pettit. Friday evening is a 5k (11 laps) and packet pick up. Saturday morning there are two half marathons (47.5 laps); 7 am and 9:30 am. IF you want to try to place you have to run the 7 am race but you also have to prove with a past race that you will be done by 9:15. The second race, at 9:30, anyone can run. That afternoon is a marathon relay. Finally, Sunday morning the marathon (95 laps) is held. The race is capped at a very small number of participants for safety reasons. Just 75 runners are allowed in the 5k, and 130 in each half marathon and marathon race. 

I have always found this race intriguing because, well, there's no other like it that I know of. To be honest I didn't ever plan on running this race because of the cost. The race is $80 (costs $4 to run on this track any regular day) which is fairly typical of a half marathon these days but there are no road closures to tend with and runners are required to bring their own aid in bottles (more on this in a bit). However, I received a free entry for pacing the half marathon last November so I figured I might as well run it!

Speed skating statue out front.

I opted for the 9:30 race because I knew that I wasn't fully recovered from my PR race two weeks ago and planned to use this as a strong training run to kick off my marathon training for the Green Bay Marathon this coming May. (Plus, who doesn't like to sleep in a little bit on a Saturday?). So I headed to the Pettit center about 8:45 Saturday morning to give myself plenty of time to use the restrooms, pick up my packet, pin on my bib, etc. 

As I mentioned before, we had to bring our own aid in bottles and mark them some way to be able to tell they are ours AND put our bib number on the side. We end up putting our bottles on tables that had ranges of bib numbers (ex: 50-99, 100-149, etc). When we want a drink we tell a volunteer standing at our designated table and they get the bottle ready to hand to us the next lap. Then we carry the bottle a full lap before giving it back to our volunteers. 

Taken from the race website from the 2009 race.

The lap tracking was similar to that at a triathlon. We were given an ankle strap and each time we finished a lap we ran over a typical timing pad. There was a big screen on one of the straight-aways that had our names and how many laps we had left. This was super helpful as the race went on because it was so easy to lose count!

Anyway, back to the race! As I mentioned, I chose the 9:30 am race because I didn't plan on "racing" the half. My goal was to start moderate and try to build as the race went on. I knew I wanted to start about 8:15-8:30 pace (2:20-2:25ish second laps) and for the first mile or two to check out the legs were feeling and wait for the crowd of the start to clear out a little bit as we made our first few laps.

Start of the race! I'm in the green tank top and hair band.

There wasn't too much to look at during this race, obviously, especially since they didn't allow any skaters on the ice. The track was way more crowded than any other time I've ran on it though, so I did have to focus a little bit more on that. I will say though, all the runners were great about staying in lanes 2-3 and allowing faster runners to stay on the inside lane.

As the laps ticked by I really started to enjoy this race. It was nice to be handed your own bottle with your own nutrition (is this how the pros feel?!) and know that you literally have no elevation change or headwind to deal with! I also started to feel myself get faster little by little with not much effort. There were also very few people lapping me, and once I was about half way through the race I realized they were all men! Once I noticed that I started to try to check the screen that had the "laps left" tally and realized that.. yep.. I was the first female!

Checking the screen during the final laps!

The laps kept ticking by and I kept increasing my speed. It's interesting to see the entire course all at once but it also makes it challenging to know how much further you have to run until you're on your last lap.

A few of the men had finished when I had about a mile and a half left to go, then the announcer called out my name as the first female with only 5 laps left! Now I really started to push since the race was almost over. 

I've never won a race before... been close, but never won one... until now! There wasn't a finish line tape (since it was all laps) or a huge awning with the finish line but it was still neat to officially cross the line as the first female.

Using this race as more of a progressive workout ended up paying off! I couldn't be eligible for any of the prizes since I didn't run in the 7 am slot and I was okay with that. I would have had to actually "race" the race and didn't feel it was smart since I pr'd just two weeks ago.

My official finish time was 1:41:17 with a pace of 7:43 per mile. Not too shabby of an official marathon training kick off!

At the finish line with my medal.

To go back to the race report archives, click here.