Another successful race in the rain!

It seems like forever ago that Kelly and I decided we needed to make a trip to Milwaukee to get Holey Moley donuts and that June 13 would be the day. A run along the lake followed by donuts? Sounds perfect!

Then I did what I always do when I’m traveling (yes, even barely over the state line) and looked up races. I found the Rock n’ Sole series which has a half marathon, quarter marathon, and new this year, a 5K. And even better – the race started at the Summerfest grounds, which is really close to The Third Ward, where the donut place is. Sounds perfect (again)!

I asked Kelly if she wanted to go for a 5K personal record (PR) a few days after I failed to be a good running partner at the Wisconsin Half. I wanted redemption – at a distance I knew I could handle! Luckily, Kelly was on board, and we fit in the speed training we could.

We drove to Milwaukee nice and early this morning. We were greeted with good racing conditions – mid 50s and light rain! I definitely owe the racing gods for giving me nice race temps two Saturdays in a row!

The half, quarter marathon and 5K all started at the same time, but the 5K had a different start location. Good for race congestion… but definitely confusing – we saw quite a few people walking to the 5K start when we were on mile .3 of the course. Hopefully they have better signage next year (it was there, just difficult to decipher)! We only knew where to go after asking someone and double-checking the map online.

The course was almost all right turns, which made it easier to run the tangents. We started near the Summerfest gates, went north toward the Milwaukee Art Museum then turned south to run along the lake and back to where we started. There was one minor incline on a bridge and that was it! It was almost completely flat! And there were a few spectators and DJs/bands/drummers.  I wore headphones* to listen to my own music though, which seems to help me for a 5K.

Map from here

Kelly and I started at the front of the pack and still had to deal with a few people in our way out the gate. After that though, there was no race congestion, even as we caught up with the teams pushing kids in wheelchairs (who started a few minutes before).

I should have asked Kelly what she wanted to do for race strategy. Her PR coming in to the race was 23:56 and I wanted us to run 23:30. I figured I’d set the pace (too fast first mile like always) and she’d be next to me. But she was behind me most of the time by a few steps, then more toward the end. I slowed down in mile 2 for her to catch up with me, then when she stopped behind me in mile 3 because she felt like throwing up, I stopped too and told her to keep running. Pretty sure I told her to barf later or barf while running. Ha, such a nice friend. My splits were 7:05, 7:40, 7:55, 00:32.

I didn’t notice mile 1, 2 or 3 markers but they had 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 “to go” signs along with the sign for mile 13. When we had a half mile to go and were just over 19 minutes in I knew she had a PR. What I didn’t know was by how much!

We stuck together for the last half and she took off for a sprint for the last .05, finishing in 23:08! That’s a 48 second PR for Kelly! I finished in 23:14. I think** UPDATED we were both 3rd in our age groups!

I am so proud of her! That’s a huge PR!!!

And I was so happy I was finally part of a race where I didn’t crap out on her. FINALLY.

After the race, we went to the car to change (we parked really close for $5) then checked out the post race party. Both of us didn’t realize that Summerfest is an actual permanent structure, ha! It was neat to see it!

Then you know what we did after… donuts! Oh my gosh. That vegan pear fritter?! Why did I only get one?! Ha.

I’m so happy we got to spend this time together. I’ve run with Kelly more than anyone else over the last year and a half. I consider her to be my training partner. And… she’s moving out of state very soon. I haven’t let myself think about it. I know we’ll keep in touch because I work hard on my friendships and have lasting and close long-distance ones, but the truth is there will be a big void for me when she is gone. No one can replace that. But I will continue to not face it until she leaves and just spend as much time together before then!

A few other randoms:

• This race had a nice expo! I wasn’t expecting it to be so big, because I had forgotten the other two distances were associated with the race as well. This 5K didn’t cost much to do and included a Summerfest general admission ticket (and a cotton 5K shirt).
• It did feel weird to be running the shortest distance out of all offered! We were done so early!
• We ran in to our friend Amy on our way toward the donut place! She was coming to see her husband finish the quarter marathon! So fun to run in to a person we really like by surprise!

*I always play my power song before a 5K. At this race they had music at the start that made it hard to hear, so I listened for a bit then paused it when I heard an AC/DC  song play over the loud speakers. Then they played “Thunderstruck” (my power song) right before the race started anyway.
**The official age group results are all messed up, but we 12th and 14th women overall, and I counted how many were ahead of us in our age groups. We finished 56th and 61st out of 1,449 runners.