17/50 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

This is what redemption feels like. In my quest for 50 state marathons before I turn 50, I had planned to use my Green Bay Marathon from 2012 for Wisconsin. That is, until they closed the course on me (literally shut a gate two blocks from the finish) at mile 26! If you haven't already, go back and read that blog entry; you'll see what a fiasco the race was. So that brings me to the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon.

I didn't do much since the Quad Cities Marathon two weeks ago. In fact, I did so little that I brought my summer weekly average miles down from 25 miles per week to 23 miles per week! I had planned to reclaim a marathon PR when I registered for this race back in March. Obviously, you don't do it with that kind of training regimen! I was now just hoping to achieve another sub 3-hour marathon in another state.

This marathon is a well-known PR course. The weather is usually perfect, it's dotted with gently rolling hills providing for a net downhill race. The field of runners is also impressive. I've found that with most of the marathons I run, I place in the top 1% of the field. Looking at the 2012 results from this race, a sub 3-hour marathon would have me within the top 3%. To put that into perspective, not even the Boston Marathon yields that high of a percentage!

Given the above, I started this race with a group of about 20 or so runners with a time goal of 2:55:00. The group stayed together through the half marathon mark, close to pace at 1:27:50. Unfortunately, as the experienced marathoner knows, most runners go out too fast, myself included. By the 20-mile mark, our group had whittled down to about 5 of us. This is where my poor training came into the picture. Knowing that I just needed a 2:59, I slowed my pace considerably. Until this point, the weather was an overcast 55 degrees. The last 6.2 miles were full of sun, resulting in a good 10-15 degree increase in temperature.

All things considered, this race was a success. I finished 44th out of 2,158 finishers (that's better than I had anticipated - the top 2%) with a time of 2:58:39 (6:49 per mile average pace). I now have a sub 3-hour marathon in 13 of my 17 states.

Living within an hour of Milwaukee had its advantages this weekend. We met friends that were also running the race and spent the weekend hanging out. It's a great city with a lot to discover. Their riverwalk has a lot of great places to eat and drink. This is Wisconsin; they know beer and represent accordingly. Every time we're in town we visit the coolest hotel I've ever checked into, The Iron Horse Hotel (http://www.theironhorsehotel.com). Call it "biker chic" though you'll find that it's not just for bikers (of course, The Wife and I love the biker amenities). We went to Smyth, their fine dining restaurant, for brunch. Incredible.

And let's not forget about the "Great T-Shirt Debacle" of 2013; the colors, the off-centered logo...people will complain about EVERYTHING!