Wisconsin Marathon

This morning I ran in the HALF Marathon component of the Wisconsin Marathon ("the world's cheesiest race"). Last year, my first attempt at this distance, I ran the course in 1 hour, 49 minutes. I had entered it to help me get ready for the Half-Ironman races that I had later in the year. So this year I had a better idea of what to expect. My goal was to run it into 1:47 and I was well ahead of that pace through the 8 mile mark, but again, like last year, I faded in the stretch. I had plenty of cardio reserves, just couldn't get the legs to move as fast as I wanted.  Could be an age thing, but more likely it's because I don't do much long distance running.

I finished with a time of 1 hour 48 minutes. A pace of 8:14 per mile.

It is a nice race, well organized and the volunteers and crowd were friendly and supportive. The weather forecast was for rain and 49 degrees, but the sky was clear and the temperature was in the 50s and there was no wind. Perfect conditions.

I finished 250^th out of 2057 competitors. They don't provide age group results, but as I scanned the totals, it appears that I finished 2^nd in the 60 to 99 year old category. But the guy who finished ahead of me was only 61 and he was 6 minutes faster, so I have some work to do, to catch him next year.

Here were my split times:

MILE	2010	2011
1	0:08:36	0:08:10
2	0:08:09	0:07:53
3	0:08:17	0:08:00
4	0:08:02	0:07:56
5	0:08:10	0:08:07
6	0:08:02	0:08:02
7	0:08:10	0:08:11
8	0:08:14	0:08:11
9	0:08:17	0:08:15
10	0:08:27	0:08:21
11	0:08:33	0:08:29
12	0:08:40	0:08:27
13.11	0:09:31	0:09:58
TOTAL	1:49:08	1:48:00
Pace	8:19	8:14

 I can't believe that my last mile was that slow. I was trying to go faster. Maybe they measured the course wrong?  No action pictures this year, either. I drove up by myself and was home before my official photographer was out of bed (almost.)