Despite being sorely undertrained I ventured up to Madison
this past weekend to run the Madison Mini Marathon (really a half – why do they
have to say it’s ‘mini’?). Here’s my thoughts on the race:
Registration: I wish I could remember – it was so long
ago. I do remember thinking it was cheap
(compared to Chicago-area halfs). It was on-line so I’m sure it was pretty easy
and standard.
Packet Pick-up: I hear the parking was a complete
clusterf*ck. Luckily for me one of my fellow racers offered her husband as
pick-up lackey. He works in Madison so
it wasn’t horrible for him, but he did mention that it took him awhile to find
a spot to park. Sadly this meant I
missed the expo (because I am an total sucker for expo deals & steals) but
if I had to pick up my packet I couldn’t have done this race because I’d have
had to take Friday off work and I’m running out of the precious vacation days.
They did have a will-call option for race day but I believe that it was extra
$$.
Goody-bag: Not much here: a shirt that is OK but huge, and a
drawstring bag. I suppose there weas stuff I could have bought at the expo, but
again: didn’t go.
Getting to the race area: One of my college buddies offered
to host me for Friday night – she lives in Janesville. I drove up using her
secret route that kept me off of 90 and away from most of the construction and
was actually fairly pleasant.
Dinner: We went to a place in Janesville called the
Speakeasy and had an ill-advised pre-race dinner of fried cheese curds (what?
You just can’t get them like that at home in Chicago!), a salad, pasta with a
cheese sauce and a New Glarus Spotted Cow.
Not my finest moment as far as pre-race food goes, but the choices were
kind of limited.
Getting to the race: We got up at 5am and each had a piece
of peanut-butter toast and some coffee.
The coffee ‘worked’ for my friend but not me. Wah, wah. Our ride showed up at 5:40 and we
drove to Madison. The same husband who picked up our packets was our driver so
he dropped the three of us off near the start and went to find parking. We got
there about 6:30. This is where my first
bad thing happened. When I got out of
the car I shook off my jacket because we weren’t going to gear check. I walked a half block away from the car and
realized my iPod shuffle was in my jacket pocket. I hate running distance
without music. DOOMED!
Bathroom situation: Not good. Porta-potty lines were LONG, and
it seems that Wisconsin racers don’t get the concept of the multiple lines for
each bank of porta-potties with each line ‘in-charge’ of two or three
porta-potties. So it was one long line for the whole bank. At least people were
well behaved and no-one cut in line because my coffee had finally kicked in if
you know what I mean – and I think you do.
Start area: I think we were in corrals G, H & I so we
all stared in I so we could start together. The corrals weren’t heavily policed
(or crowded) so we could have probably started anywhere except right up at the
front.
The course: Absolutely beautiful. We ran past the UWM
campus, their football stadium, the farmers market, the capital building, through
the arboretum and next to the lake. Rolling hills but nothing that was too
Alpine. I’d say 75% shaded. Luckily I ran with one my friend’s friend (now
after two hours of running, my friend too) and she kept me company, but she
also was running a tad bit slower than I could have mustered for the day (2nd
bad thing to happen) and then I had to use the porta-potty again on course (3rd
bad thing if you’re keeping track). This all equaled a time that was not my
best but I’m fine with that – I have several more halves this season and I’m
hoping for betting showings in those.
Post-race: Short
organized beer line for a large, draft, craft beer in a commemorative cup plus
cookies, granola bars, bananas and Bucky Badger popcorn (2 flavors!). The post-race
gathering spot was on the UWM terrace (apparently a hot spot in Madison) overlooking
Lake Mendota.
I would absolutely do this race again – next weekend if I
could. It was that good.
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