Running Becca: Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon 10/7/12

The Lakefront Marathon was a repeat state for me but I signed up for it after going back and forth a little on it. But knowing that it was Kris Hendrich's last year as the RD combined with having received several recommendations from 50 Staters that it was a good one to do for Wisconsin. Getting to sleep in my own bed the night before and after the race was a bonus too.

Kris in the flourescant green at the start line

I was my weekend to work, but I was able to finaegle off until 3pm, in which I was then scheduled to work until 11p. Packet pick up was about 3 blocks from our apartment at MSOE's gym, but I was working during expo hours the first day and had HH pick it up for me.

Race start was at Grafton High School which is North of Milwaukee and the course is a point to point running to the lakefront near downtown Milwaukee at Veteran's Park.

Runners hanging out in the high school pre-race

USPS were transporting drop bags from the start to finish,
first time I have seen USPS involved in this type of thing usually it is UPS

This is how I look like from HH's height

View from my start spot, they also had a sign for under 2 hrs and 2 minutes,
the current world record for marathons, there was no-one in front of that sign

Marathon start under way

My goal would be to try to break 4 hours due to the flat course, being trained up, and cool weather but I was unable to get out of 2nd gear and choose instead to cruise through the course. It was very scenic, road closed to traffic on the right side of the road, peak fall colors. However, apparently due to people living in the neighborhoods complaining about people cheering during the race, there were very few access points for spectators. I just had HH stay home with plans to meet up at the finish. The course because of the lack of spectators was quite, boring. I never wear music anymore due to safety concerns, but this would have been a great race for music and/or a podcast.

The lowlight was overhearing the 4:20 pace group leader say "because it is cooler today, I am drinking less water and more gatorade today." This statement makes no sense at all as a person when it is warmer would try to drink more gatorade to make sure you were replenishing electrolytes at a fast enough pace, particularly if you were not using electrolyte capsules. I unfortunately spent many miles being simultaneous confused and very annoyed at pace group LEADER's statement that I vowed to cross the finish line before she did. I finished 4:17:05, pace of 9:49 minutes/mile, and beat her and her group by almost a minute.

The finisher medals were awesome, it was great they had chocolate milk in the finishers area and that the post race food was already pre-filled in a bag and it was easy to grab and go. I met HH and his brother at the finish line, we walked about 0.5 mile back to the car and was home and in a hot shower in minutes. I showed off my medal at work the next 2 days and gave a co-worker jokingly a hard time that my medal was bigger than the Chicago Marathon medal that took place the same day. I am still pretty new to my department and I feel that the medal help to tell the story of my adventures. Luckily, I got a few comments that they were inspired to start running again......along with people asking what place I finished in, and the distance of the marathon.....

Before too long I hope for all of them to know these things......