today I ran a 20K race in Madison Wisconsin. This is a beautiful
course that runs around Lake Monona, the second largest of the four
lakes in Madison, and conveniently 12.4 miles around. The race map is on line here.
The race starts in Monona at Winnequah park, then loops through some
neighborhoods before crossing the Yahara river at about mile 2. At
mile 5 you run along the lake along the John Nolan drive lakeshore
trail, by the Frank Lloyd Wright Monona terrace, this is a great flat
stretch right on waterside, then onto the isthmus before turning east,
then south and through rolling hills back to the park. The race
started at 9AM and it was already pretty warm, about 70 degrees and
sunny. there was a 20mph southwest wind. The first couple miles had
some rolling hills. I probably went out too fast again running the
first two miles in 6:08 and 6:09. I thought maybe I could sustain that
pace for the race but I was wrong. I ran the first 10K in 38:24 then
the second 10K in 40:32. The second half was tougher than the first
with more rollers and more wind in your face, but I think I should have
paced myself better, just a chronic problem I have. Thee or four guys
passed me in the last four miles, I hate that.The age group I was in
was 40-49, The winner came in in
1:08:08. I was 21st overall of about 900 runners.
A nice feaature of
this race is they age grade the finishers based on whatever the formula
is. In the age /sex grade I took 10th overall, and got a little
plexiglass trophy for tenth place. My age grade time was 1:10:56 based
on a 78.91% handicap. I am not sure how to interpret this race
performance. It was a loop course so neutral, but it was hot, windy,
and there were more hills that I was expecting. The winners pace was
5:29. For the SLC half, the winners pace was 5:17, but the course was
aided and at altitude, but my read is there are faster runners in Utah
than Madison in the elite category, and I think I probably ran a better
race at the SLC half than I did here. Paul would have easily won this
race. I thought I might get an edge coming from altitude, I had hoped
for a 1:17 but it was not to be. Still, it was a very fun race,
incredibly scenic and a very nice course. Treu to the Madison
culture, the post race beverages were either water or three brands of
beer on tap. No gatorade. And the post race food was- get this- greasy
chicken wings from a restaurant called- and I kid you not- "quaker steak
and lube. the line for the beer got to be several hundred yards long. I
just drank some water, got my llittle trophy, and went downtown for
gyros with my mother. Here is a picture of us at the starting line
before the race: 
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