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| Jaime, Me, Joe, Mom |
The Eisenbahn (this is the German word for railroad) Half is held on a Rails to Trails crushed limestone path in West Bend, WI with proceeds benefiting the Adrenaline Council on AODA. The trail is uninspiring, paralleling Hwy 45 most of the time. It's a small, but growing race, currently in it's 5th year. There were 66 Marathoners, 165 Half Marathoners and 129 Quarter Marathoners. My mom, who has come to enjoy racing in recent years (cause she's old enough to win her age group!), had signed up for the quarter marathon (6.55 miles), which she would primarily walk at a rapid clip. We would meet up with my friend Jaime, who is nearly 4 months pregnant, and be surprised by my friend Jenny at the finish line, who came just to congratulate us ☺
As we walked to and from packet pick-up, violent shivers took hold. Fortunately, we could wait inside a heated YMCA until our 8:00a.m. start. The course is essentially a flat, out-n-back route, though there are stretches that imperceptibly go uphill, messing with your mind because you expect the course to be pancake flat.
As the first race of the season, coming off a harsh winter and having just been totaled by the flu 3 weeks earlier, I did not have expectations for a PR, though I'd thought it possible. My main goal was to give my all - namely to NOT walk, as I tend to do during training runs (because my mind is weak). The first 6.5 miles heading out saw me consistently logging a 9:53 pace, which would have given me a PR. However, once we turned around to head back, the wind was ferocious. At times I could hardly propel my body through space, on a couple occasions a strong side gust threatened my balance, and the remaining miles, felt like I was running uphill. I'd check my watch and see 10:20 or 10:30 paces staring back at me, which was frustrating. I still felt strong, yet the wind was compromising my efforts. The sentence, "you're doing your very best" drifted into my mind, and I lassoed it, keeping negative thoughts at bay (thoughts such as, "dammit, there goes a PR chance"). I was doing my best and most importantly, most proudly, I never stopped! I logged my second best race time at 2:14:16 (PR = 2:09:35) for an overall 10:15 pace. More promising is that I placed 8th out of 18 within my age group.
Joe was a superstar as usual. He's only been back to running for 4 months, battled the same pace reductions against the wind, but pulled out a 1:44:28 (PR = 1:39:49) for an average 7:58 pace. Out of 165 finishers, Joe was 25th - top 15% . And let me tell you, these were hardcore runners. Small races tend to swing one of two ways. Either they are small with average to slow runners, or they are small with talent. This race was the latter. As we stood in line for our race bibs, we spoke with a guy who was running the full marathon. He shared that he'd just run a full in Chicago yesterday in under 4 hours, and hoped to do the same today. Yikes! Hardcore. Another older gentleman we spoke with is an ultrarunner - competes in 100-milers - and was also doing back-to-back marathons (a mere 26.2 miles). The winner of the half finished with a 6:09 pace, the winner of the full came in under 3 hours ... serious runners!
And while my mom mainly walks, she walks fast. She snagged a 1st place medal in the 60+ age group, of which there were two people. Mom finished in 1:33 with a 14:20 pace (I know people who run slower than that) and blew her competition out of the water - a young lass of 65 (mom is 72) who crossed the finish line 23 minutes later.
Home and resting, we basically feel fine, though the moment of truth always comes the next morning, or the one after that! We're tired from a poor night's sleep (and the bitch slapping from the wind), but today's race essentially felt like a normal long run. The usual post-race rituals are unfolding as I type ... pizza baking, movies loading (Dallas Buyer's Club & The Wolf of Wall Street) and the promise of a day off work to laze around and recover.
