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Notes

10 @ MP

1.5 w/u, c/d

Madison Mini! 7th year in a row

Uses the New Course (not through entire Arborteum) again

One adjustment to the course - we stay on Observatory to Charter, which means hillz after mile 12

Unofficial time - official is 1:29:10

Official Splits (Watch Splits):

2 Mi - 14:17 (12:54)

5 Mi - 34:33 (33:04)

10 Mi - 1:08:10 (1:06:40)

Last 5k - 21:00 (21:20)

Also, my age group is dumb - the first 7 in 25-29 were in the top 20. grumble. More thoughts to come.

Thoughts, in a bulleted list:

1) I really like this race. They have the logistics well hammered out, the course is fun, the volunteers are good, the post-race is nice enough, it's not super expensive for what it is, and it's really easy for us.

2) The new course (2018 and 2019) is not quick. There's a lot of turning and shifting gears throughout, which means that it's surprisingly slow for Madison - there are 32 turns that I count on the course and several twisty roads.

3) The stop at mile 1.5 was a tactical error. I was properly hydrated before the race and really should have gone before the bag drop while the line wasn't as bad. Lesson noted for the next half (well, relearned).

4) Having a gu at mile 7 was okay, but then I missed the water stop at mile 8, which wasn't ideal. Speaking on the water stops - they were kind of weirdly spaced out. The first is at mile 1.5, then the next wasn't until mile 3.5 (and was small), but then there were 6 between 8 and 12.15 (8, 9, 9.5, 10, 11, 12.15). The one at 9.5 was definitely excessive and the one at 8 was too small.

5) I started in corral B and was attacking through crowds basically the whole way. Corral A (as far as I could tell) was only like 15 people, so I guess that's really limited?

6) The final hill up Observatory was rugged. It's open enough that you can see folks 45 seconds ahead, but they don't look that far out. This year there also weren't many spectators on the hill since you couldn't see that and the finish.

7) Spectators were a little quiet this year, so I was being hammy to try to get some excitement going. It kind of worked, and definitely worked in the water stops.

8) I wasn't a huge fan of finishing on the sidewalk for the section on University. That section is a little dull anyway and could have used more excitement. And while I'm complaining, the hairpin at mile 10.8 is rough. I get why they have it, but oof it's just broad enough to be awkward and hard to keep the rhythm.

9) If I ever don't run this, I'm going to cheer from the zoo since it's pretty slick and was almost empty. One other deviation from the map - we ran down Vilas Park drive for a bit.

10) Lisa finished her first half!! She was a little slower than she was aiming for, but see first half.

Overall, this is a solid effort. Didn't get the pace dialed in, but also wanted to conserve a little bit for the marathon and, as one of the people that I passed mentioned, "good recovery from an early bathroom stop". I peeled off hard for that bathroom stop.