Notes
Not as fast as I hoped - but as fast or faster than I would have predicted/expected.
On 9/10 I got an email from the Milwaukee Marathon stating that they did not have a course yet and were doing everything they could to still hold the race. I was in week 6 of a planned 12 week training cycle, but with the uncertainty decided to switch to Lakefront (3 weeks earlier) and did teh taper weeks 10-12 of the plan (skipping weeks 7-9). I'm glad I switched as Milwaukee cancelled a few weeks later. Weeks 7-9 include the two longest runs of the cycle (21 and 22 miles) and the toughest workout (7 at LT) as well as a couple VO2 max workouts. So I knew I wasn't as prepared as I would have hoped.
One reason I decided on Miwaukee instead of Lakefront was the weather. The first week of October is always too hot. This year it was mid 60s at the start. Fortunately it was cloudy/raining with little wind, so conditions were okay. But the heat/humidity did likely impact my faltering over the last 6 miles.
For the entire last week I had not been feeling well due to stomach/gastro pain as well as back pain. My guess was the stomach pain was caused by swallowing so much snot due to allergies, but by the end of the week I was wondering if I was fighting off an infection as well (my ear of all places was swollen).
By Saturday afternoon I was feeling pretty good. I ate plain spaghetti for lunch and then rice and gatorade for dinner. I was part of the elite field so got a comp'd entry and bottle service which worked well. I just mixed up a liter of Maurten + endurolytes powder and split that into 6 small bottles. On race morning I started holding a bottle and then grabbed my bottles at 3 of the 5 tables (didn't grab the last 2 as I still had some left in the bottle I was carrying). I didn't take any gatorade but did dump water over my head at two aid stations.
My plan was to split the race into 4 six mile segments (plus the final 2 miles). I wanted to run mile 1 at 6:05, then miles 2-6 at 6:00, miles 7-12 at 5:55, miles 13-18 at 5:53, and miles 19-24 at 5:50. It didn't quite work out that way. Miles 1-2 are downhill so I was a bit fast. Mile 3 is uphill so I was slow on that one. But through half I was right on pace (1:18:00). I lost a few seconds on 14-15 and did run 5:53 on mile 16. But right as I passed that mile marker I got a sidestich that hurt pretty bad. I had just pushed to the lead of a group of 4 but fell back and ran 6:05s for the next two miles. In mile 19 the stitch was getting better and I was able to get back to around 6:00 pace. When I hit 20 around 1:59:30 I was still thinking a PR was possible. 21 was a struggle though - it's an uphill mile and I just couldn't turn over fast enough. That was my slowest miles of the day in 6:28. Mile 22 wasn't much better (6:22) and then I thought I ran the downhill miles of 23 and 24 well, but continued to lose time (6:07 and 6:11). The last 2 miles were a struggle to try to keep decent form/turnover, and I persevered with 6:25 and 6:20. For the last half mile my calves were cramping and I heel-struck to prevent them from tightening.
One thing I did really well in this race was running the tangents - my watch was beeping for the mile marks a few seconds beyond each mile mark up until around 22 or 23. After that point I did a worse job as I was not as mentally sharp to be able to look for the shortest path. But I still ran just 26.24 miles.
I ran close to a group of 3 guys aiming for around 6:00 pace. Typically I was behind them but did go to the front during mile 16 before getting the stitch. I finished in 14th. No one really passed me through the whole race and I did pass a couple people along the way.
I was the 2nd master so won a trophy and I should be getting some prize money too ($100). This was also the USATF Wisconsin masters marathon championship race, and I was the top Wisconsin master, so I won the state championship!
I wore my Reebok Floatride Run Fast Pro shoes and they worked well.
I'm looking at this as great prep for CIM. I'll recover for 2 weeks and then do the final 7 weeks of Pfitz training plan and hope for a good weather day.
Official Splits:
5k - 18:38 (6:00 pace)
10k - 37:03 (5:56 pace for this segment)
Half - 1:17:57 (5:57 pace for this segment)
20 - 1:59:32 (6:02 pace for this segment)
Finish - 2:38:52 (6:21 pace for this segment)