This morning was the 31st Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon.
I had put in the miles, running through winter storms, spring rains and summer heat, with the hopes of completing the marathon in under four hours. The other day, I suggested that although that was my goal, that if I were to be in Vegas and the oddsmakers were taking bets on this, I said to bet against me.
That bet would have paid handsomely.
The first half of the race (literally through 13.1 miles) had me running at sub-2:00 and all was going to plan. It was literally as I started the second half of the race (just after entering Milwaukee County after zipping around Ozaukee County) that I felt weird. My fingers started tingling and I got a bit dizzy. The weird part about this is when it happened in the race. At or after 20 miles? Sure, I can see that. However, I've done the 13.1 mile distance a dozen times and with the exception of the experience at the Summerfest Rock & Sole Half Marathon in July, I've done it without issue. The problem that day was the intense heat and humidity. Today? The conditions were damn near perfect. And yet, as my friend NJ says, you put in the miles, you have the endurance and you still sometimes bonk on race day. That's what happened to me.
I was running with the 3:55 pace group in hopes that I would still have a little wiggle room for when I started to fade. I just didn't suspect I would fade as hard or as fast as I did. By mile 17, I was having to walk stretches and then jogged on as long as I could.
The pace groups kept passing me: First 4:00, then 4:05, 4:10, 4:15, 4:20 and 4:30. By this time, I was pretty depressed as I wouldn't have minded missing the goal by a few minutes, but as it ended up, this run slaughtered me. I crossed the line at 4:39 and some change. I went from at 8:50 minutes per mile pace at mile 13 to finishing at a 10:40 minutes per mile.
Coming into the finishing chute, however, I saw my family there. Sasha leaned over the railing and gave me a "high five" as I passed. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have Sasha, Aiden, Angie and my dad there to see me finish. The time was disappointing, but I finished the marathon. I avoided the dreaded "DNF" (Did not finish) tag. I got my finisher's medal. My son told me he was proud of me. I saw my friends who had finished the marathon (as much as an hour earlier) standing there waiting for me.
All in all, I guess it was a pretty damn good day after all.
Labels: lakefront marathon, running
