Gopher to Badger Half Marathon 2:31:30

It's officially race season.  Today was the Gopher to Badger Half Marathon.  It was a new race for me and more challenging that I'd expected.  I was running with most of the Devil Made Me Brew It Crew minus Bob who did not make the trip.

A few of us met last night for a pasta dinner.  Then this morning at 6am, everyone came to my house.  I was elected to drive.  We went to Hudson, WI to park and get on the school bus to the start line.  We hung out in a park at the start line.  It looks like something bad happened to that slide although no one could figure out exactly what could've ignited it.

Group shot before the start of the race:

The race itself was more and less disappointing than I thought.  The race profile was less than accurate.  There were some fantastic down hills at the start of the race.  The end of the race was less down hill than it looked and the middle of the race was more brutal than it looked.  I started off with a pacer, came off ahead quickly in one of the downhills and stayed ahead of her for at least half the race.  Around the half way point Dee passed me.  I was really excited for her because she'd been predicting 13:00 miles, although apparently that was handicapping for Lawrence Kansas 100* and 90% humidity training.  Shortly after Dee passed me I realized I had goosebumps.  (Oh man.  That's not good.)  So I threw in some walks and dialed back the pace a bit.  I was mildly disappointed but not really when the pacer passed.  Running over the bridge was long but nice for one last down hill.  The last mile was the longest mile of my life.  I would've stopped to walk several more times I think but I'd met this girl Kristin in the first mile and we stayed together the whole race.  She really drug me along there at the end.

After the race, we headed over to a restaurant and had some good food and a beer.  Then we headed home.  I promptly fell asleep on the couch.  I am planning an excursion to a Thai restaurant for some food, but waiting a little while because True Thai gets wild on Saturday night.

Thoughts on the race:

• Win for Final Stretch which has very well organized races, in my limited experience.  This snowy race was my first experience with them.
• I'd run on courses that were open to traffic but only in races like Brew to Brew and Ragnar.  This was my first road race that was open to traffic.  I'm not sure how I feel about the experience.
• The run up to the I-94 bridge was horrible although it got much better when I realized the other side of the bridge was mile 12.
• Should've taken my own advice about starting slower than I thought I needed to.  I always feel so good at the start of races.
• I should not be running with the 11:27 pacer at the marathon.  No good will come of it.
• Breakfast was a winner becuase I really didn't get hungry during the race.  Yogurt, banana, oats and nuts, chocolate chips which are special for race day.