I had 2 weeks scheduled in the Midwest. A colleague travelling in from the UK happens
to be into running, too, and he found a 10 miler for us to do in our home
city. I flew into Milwaukee on Sunday
and took in a brewery tour at Sprecher, but I didn’t run that night, since I
was tired and in no mood. Sprecher is
more known for its soda than for its beer, and the beer wasn’t that tasty, but
it was still interesting to visit, especially a place that doubled as a soda
factory, which smelled strongly of root beer.
I did like the tap handle for water.
Monday, June 15:
Got in a morning run.
Kept it at 4 miles in 34:33, 8:39 ave (3 degrees of incline = 7:57
effort), rather than getting in a bit more distance, since there were 2 others
in the tiny fitness room who came in later and who probably wanted to use the
treadmill. One ended up being a
colleague from Florida who I had never met in person before – turns out she’s a
marathoner, too! It was hot in that
room, anyway, so I was happy for an excuse to stop.
Wednesday, June
17:
Another morning run… last one before the race. 5.0 in 41:44, 8:21 average, 3 degrees of incline
= 7:43 effort. The AC was on for the
first half, at least, so it wasn’t as hot as Monday’s run.
SATURDAY, JUNE 20 –
LIGHTHOUSE RUN 10 MILER:
I was glad to have an opportunity to find the rare 10 miler,
since I have signed up for the Disney Marathon, and they accept 10 milers as
corral seeding standards. My 10 mile
time predicts a faster finish time than my marathon time. I was also excited to get to know my “home
away from home” a bit better. I didn’t
realize that they had a lighthouse!
During the week, I also discovered a great restaurant right on the
marina, called the Reefpoint Brew House.
The views are awesome, the local beer selection is extensive, and you
can’t beat BBQ.
Anyway… we did the packet pickup, then had an early night of
sleep, before going out the next morning.
We arrived 90 minutes early, when the place was still empty, and just
chilled, visited the restroom, and warmed up for the race. My buddy is super fast, with 10Ks in the 30’s,
so I felt special hanging out with him.
I haven’t been training too much after doing the marathon in
April and the epic Battlefrog Obstacle Course Race of 20 miles in May, so I
didn’t think I was in peak shape. The
race time predictor estimated a 1:12 based on my half marathon PR of 1:36, so I
figured a 1:14 was reasonable for the shape I was in. That would put me at about top 15.
We headed out. We
went through downtown, then the zoo (where I sadly didn’t see any animals), and
along the lakefront to the 5 mile mark at the lighthouse. I was doing ok with hitting my paces, but my
legs were getting tired, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up. The last 3 miles were particularly
uncertain. The second half went through
residential areas, which was nice, since it gave us some shade. In the last mile, we merged back with
walkers, which helped to keep up motivation and energy as we pushed through the
toughest part.
I ended up making it with 1:13:05, which was a nice surprise.
75th overall, 7th
for the women, and 1st in my division. My buddy ended up getting 1st in
his division, too!
The post-race atmosphere was fun, with live music and even a
mascot race. We enjoyed lunch and beer
in a sports bar afterwards. It was a
nice morning.
Post-race:
I went down to Chicago to visit a roommate from college,
which was a nice reunion, plus fun times with her adorable toddler. The next day, I hit up Chicago for a River
Cruise given by the architectural foundation.
It’s true when they say that architecture is like gigantic artwork, and
Chicago has the most remarkable and varied architecture of any city I’ve
visited.
I also went geocaching.
My first time with GC last weekend was fun, and the fun continued. There are special places to hide things, and
different kinds of places to hide things, when you’re in a city. My favorite was this statue, both because of
the hiding place, and because in it, I found my first geocaching-related
tradeable.
Sunday, June 21:
After getting back from Chicago, I did 4.0 in the treadmill
in 32:37, 8:09 average, with 3 degrees of incline = 7:31 effort. It was on tired legs after all of the
walking, but it was a solid run. I had
done some more geocaching on the way back, giving me probably around 20 finds
for the day. The best was one of the
last, which was a box by a fast food joint, in which I found a TravelBug, a
trackable item left by someone else, with a mission statement attached to it,
which finders are meant to help achieve.
This item was a Fire Truck from the Czech Republic, and it wanted to
travel and get pictures taken with fire stations around the world, and then
find its way back home. I brought it to
a fire station, and I plan to take it back home with me for a time, before
leaving it for another finder to carry on.
Wednesday, June
24:
I was going to do a morning treadmill run, but the treadmill
was taken. I decided to run outside,
since I needed to run, and since I had planned on geocaching on the frontage
road by the highway, anyway, I decided to geocache while running. Someone had placed a bunch of caches along
the frontage road, so I scooped up 7 total, during a 5.8 mile run. 5.8 in 45:37, 7:52 average. At first, I didn’t feel like I was getting much
of a workout, since there was a good bit of stop & go. I decided to start running a bit faster,
making it a bit of an interval session.
I didn’t go that hard, since I wasn’t particularly in the mood for that
kind of workout, but it felt more like a run after a while. Since it was close to the highway, there were
some fumes sometimes, but overall, it was ok.
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