Run: Race Previous Next

Notes

It's an aggressive goal, but if the weather is there, I think I have to take a swing at it. (It being 1:20 flat)

The weather wasn't actually there - pretty okay with 1:23:36 on a SIGNIFICANTLY harder course in worse conditions.

Random Notes:

A) Bag Drop was a bit of a mess, so I ended up not getting into the porta-potty before the race. Ultimately, I peeled off at the second aid station (just after mile 3ish) for about 30 seconds. I'd do that again because I also needed to re-assess where I was and needed to pull the throttle back going into the Arb.

B) The lead woman passed me on University along with one other guy - I had made my pass on the guy just before mile 10 and potentially burned one too many matches at that point. The guy just had the wheels to recover.

C) A recurring issue for me is going out way too hot. I definitely shouldn't have a starting mile in a half that's EQUAL to the second mile of a recent 5K, no matter how hilly that 5K is!

D) The course is a good change, even if I hate putting Observatory in the last mile. Going through all of the Arb is just super nice and running up Monroe was less of a slog than I kind of thought it would be.

E) The one part that is bad is the little out and back on the path by Picnic Point. I don't think there's a clean fix for that, but it's really inelegant and a brutal section because it gets a little sunny. Compounding the issue is the hairpin - it's really hard to break stride and loop the cone. I almost want them to go around the parking lot and then cut onto the bikepath so that there isn't the hairpin.

F) Pre-race fueling is pretty well locked in at this point - two cups of coffee and a pack of Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts. It's tasty, light on the stomach, and not too calorie light (cereal without milk is a little too thin).

G) Weather was unremarkable for Madison in August. Yeah, it was warm and humid, but in a normal, summery way. It wasn't windy thankfully, so that did help.

H) No one wanted to start at the front! I was in effectively the second rank and that's only because I stepped over to one side knowing that I was not as warmed up as I would have really liked (see bag drop).

I) Gear was the Patagonia shorts and blue Team Rocket singlet. I do admit the colorway of the singlet does lose the intended effect of Team Rocket from the pokemans - one spectator just started listing R names and that tickled me just before Camp Randall.

J) Apparently last year was close to getting called for medical reasons - that doesn't surprise me at all in hindsight because that was a savage day.

K) The average HR is from my watch and is potentially a little questionable. I'm not convinced it's super accurate and that it doesn't get a bit of cadence locking, but it feels about right. Maybe a tad low?

Official Split Notes/Positions:

2 Mile - 12:18 (14th)

5 Mile - 31:18 (21st)

10 Mile - 1:03:31 (17th)

Also, the guy who was in third for a long while ended up DQed! I also saw one guy pull off around mile 8 or thereabouts - at least one other person ahead of me at mile 5 DNFed as well. I think the DQ was that he missed the out and back on the path because he DEFINITELY didn't run a 14:53 up Observatory and that was a little unclear. I did see one guy in a Movin' Shoes singlet veer off somewhere on Monroe (I want to say right at mile 8), which seemed odd.

Comparing with other recent-ish halves - Parkinson's 2022 is still the 100% unassailable gold standard right now. That's the prettiest splits I've personally run in the last three years and I can probably argue prettiest ever. This is pretty similar to Brew City, but with a significantly weaker finish (understandable; Brew City had a 3/4 mile descent right at the end and was almost exclusively bike paths).

There's a lot of words here that ultimately sum up to: pretty solid race. Not the best half, but something that I'm pretty pleased with and that augurs well for Berlin. I think 2:55 is doable with some luck and a good taper.