Syttende Mai Run - Run20 Mile

Run startred at the Capital. Started out by running around the capital square. This was cool. The square was packed with people (mostly from Farmer's Market I think) and they cheered loudly for us as we went around. Then we headed down along John Nolan drive, past Lake Monona. This felt familiar to me because between my volunteer shifts at Ironman, I have started a tradition of taking a run in this area. This is the only real flat part of the course. I wanted to bank a little time before I hit the hills, but not at the expense of blowing up later. This area went very good. I kept my pace at between 8:30s-8-45. So far so good. The hills start at about mile 3.5. At 4 is the first big hill, then a series of small rollers (small compared with what is coming) until about mile 7.5. At this point I was still feeling good and pretty confident. I knew the biggest hill on course was coming. The steepest part of the hill is from about mile seven and a half to mile nine. However the hill doesnt really stop going up until mile 11. That is a long time to go uphill. Well at mile 10 I was still right on schedule. At 1/2 way I was at 1:27. So I had about 3 minutes to give. Not quite as much as I wanted, knowing I would be slowing down some, but still ahead of the game. From mile 11 to 17 there were fewer hills, bu they were bigger. The whole time you felt like you were either going up or coming down. This made pacing difficult, because I felt like I need to 'make up' time on the down hills. At mile fifteen my cushion was 2 minutes and I wasn't feeling as good or as confident. I told myself if I got to mile 17, the hills would stop coming and I could just jog it in. However when I got to 17, the flatness I was expecting wasn't there. It was flat compared to the last 13 miles, but still had a slight upward slope. At this point I was just not feeling great. There were lots of walkers on the course. This was both good and bad. Good, because they would encourage as you went by. It was bad though because at this point I was have some Gastro-intestinal issues and when ever I needed to 'let off a little steam' so to speak, I had to look around to make sure it was all clear. Then of course, whenever a did, being a 13 yr old boy at heart, I would smile and laugh, like I had gotten away with something. At about mile 18, the laughing stopped and so did I. I started taking some walk breaks and got some really bad cramps in my glutes and calves. In 6 years of racing, I have never had cramps before, but they came bad today. It was at this point that I thought maybe I deydrated. I have not mentioned Hydration and Nutrition. Nutrition was good, eating gels or shot bloks every 1/2 hour. Hydration not so much. When I finished I had only drank 3/4 of two fuel belt bottles (probably about 12 oz total) with probably another 8oz. from the aid stations. As I write this now it seems obvious, but didn't at the time.

Then we finally get to the finish. The last mile is through town. Here again there was lots of people lining the streets cheering you on. This was great, except at this point I wanted to go crawl in a hole and probably looked horrible. But I crossed the line and hit a big milestone. Twenty of them to be exact.

ummm, drink. More hill training would have come in handy.

Staggered around a bit, ate some fruit, felt faint a few times, but importantly did not pass out. Had a very nice conversation with gofishlps and her husband who had done the race (and kicked azz and took hardware)


proper hydration and not enough hill training, inexperience at the distance.


Excellent run race, after 38 years, they know how to do it. Highly recommend it.

As I went back to my car I looked in the mirror at my face caked with white salt residue that looked white face make up and words escaped me, but the smell could not, the name of the race all made sense: Scent of the Mime!