What a day! I’m so glad I signed up for the Shorewood Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon!

I had an amazing race – I felt great and performed much better than I thought I would, and I made two new friends. Woo hoo!

But let’s start at the beginning. Feel free to skip ahead to the actual run portion.

Pre Race

There were many warnings about getting to the race early and carpooling (oops – not an option for me) because parking would be scarce. You don’t need to tell me twice!

I was also doing race morning packet pickup and they said that was “not recommended” so I wanted to give myself plenty of time for that.

So I got up right before my 5:00 alarm at 4:55, left the house by 6:00 and was parked by 6:45. For an 8:30 race. Ha. (But I am glad I did – that parking lot filled up quick and got chaotic, and it was so nice to have my car nearby and not take the race shuttle in from remote parking.)

I was there before the volunteers were even at packet pickup! I got to listen to the speech where they explained to them what to do.

I got my quarter zip and bib, used the porta potties (with no lines!) then went back to the car and finished the podcast I was listening to, goofed off on Instagram, and got out to use the potty again, hide my rock, and walk around a bit to warm up my legs.

I went back to the car and took off my sweatshirt and got my handheld and went over to line up. I figured I’d line up by the 11:00 pace flag, but the flags only went up to 10:00, so I got behind that.

My goal for the race was to run a comfortable pace, ideally average 11:00 minute miles, which looking up now, would be a 2:24:12 race (my average pace for my long runs all summer was around 12:00/11:30, and has only recently dipped toward 11:00). I planned to track my run with my Garmin, but have time of day on my screen, not my pace. I wanted to run by feel.

While I was waiting, I started talking to the runners on either side of me when they started saying how cold they were (I did not relate, ha). We commented on how we all went there by ourselves (they said that made them feel weird, but I didn’t – I don’t mind being alone at all), and shared our plans. Danielle had run a few halves and really wanted to get under 2:20. She did it in training, but it always eluded her on race day. She was going to start out slow then dial in the pace. It was Kelly’s first half, and she just wanted to finish. She had trained up to about 10.25 in training. I told them I was hoping to average 11:00s but never look at my watch, ha (and they asked me how many halves I’ve done. I guessed about 30 and looked it up when I got home – this was my 34th).

So you can guess what happened. We ran most of the race together!

Race

The 5K and half marathon both started at 8:30. I was a bit worried about congestion, because we were mostly going to be running on the Oak Leaf Trail, but most of the start of the race was on the road, and it wasn’t too bad. I think I only felt like I was going to run into someone a few times.

Me (purple), Danielle (pink), & Kelly (black)

Danielle was paying close attention to pace since she had a pace goal, and called our first mile in around 10:30 and I was like (mentally) “Well, f*ck. I don’t want to positive split the hell of this thing. Should I slow down?” Then I was like “nah! Yolo! F*ck it!” That could have gone really badly, but thankfully, I didn’t.

Just after mile 1 we got onto the path and the 5K folks went one way and we went the other, and it was instantly less congested. Yay. The three of us could run side by side for a lot of the race and not be in anyone’s way.

When we started, it was cloudy, with full coverage, and we got sprinkled on a few times. It felt great. Nearly perfect race weather to start – 47°F and no wind. We clocked off miles 2 and 3 in 10:14 and 10:07, and just kept chatting and getting to know each other (I would look down at my watch when it buzzed my split but other than that it just had the time of day on the screen).

Most of our miles were around 10:00 after that, except one, which you can probably guess why!

We ran pretty far south on the trail near Milwaukee (oh, I should note this race started in Shorewood, a city north of Milwaukee) and did a 180° turn at 4.5 miles. I felt really good, but my stomach was a bit upset. I got my period the day before the race (yay, great timing!) and my stomach always feels a bit off then. I decided to ignore it.

At some point after we turned, the sun came out, and we were all “huh?!”. Ha. The forecast had shown overcast and rain, and we all commented on how we were overdressed. But not too badly.

There was a person in this photo but I removed them, ha

The trail was absolutely beautiful with all the fall colors. And mostly flat, which was a bonus!

Right after we passed mile 8, which was the middle of the second out and back, I saw there were porta potties, and said I was going to stop if it was “green” (unlocked). Kelly said she needed to too and would stop if two were green. Only one was green but we stopped any way (and Danielle went ahead) and I am so glad we did. I knew there would not be any more until the second 180°  turn close to mile 11 and that was too far away to hold it.

We both went to the bathroom and that mile was 11:02 <– the pace I thought I was going to run the whole thing in! Ha!

Kelly and I sped up a bit too much for mile 10 (9:46) then reined it in. I had told Kelly and Danielle early on that I felt like I had a lot of pep and could take off and do a fast finish, and Kelly told me to go a few times, but I was like “nah, I want to cheer you on and be with you for your first half finish!”

So she got cheerleader Kim. And she did so well – we kept a steady pace for those last few miles and finished in 2:14:49, an average 10:17 pace (it was 56°F when we finished). I was ECSTATIC. I could not believe I ran 13.1 and it felt so easy and it was with a minute per mile pace that starts with a 10! Slow long runs really do pay off.

Of course, this made me excited to run another half. I thought I’d be all alone for this one, but I was with people the whole time and it just flew by. And I run faster when I talk, and I talked for most of it, naturally (Kelly said “you’re so easy to talk to!” which made me feel really good).

Oh! And Danielle was at the finish with her family and she ran a 2:11:00! Nine minutes under her goal!!!!

I felt very lucky that I got to be part of Kelly’s first half, and part of Danielle’s sub 2:20 day. I’m so proud of them both!

Post Race

Post race was a bit confusing on where to get our water and medals, but thankfully Danielle had just done it and told us where to go. We picked up our caramel apples, met Danielle’s husband and kids, then parted ways! Of course, we have a group text now so we can cheer each other on and stay in touch.

I went to my car and changed my shirt and got out my protein shake to drink, then went to Blooming Lotus treats, a gluten free & vegan bakery nearby, to get some goodies to try.

Then I drove home! (and made a salad to eat, took a bath, then wrote this, then tried the donuts which tasted more like cake than donuts, but were delicious!)

Swag

You could pick from a long sleeved tee or 3/4 zip. I was originally thinking tee but then thought about how much I used the 3/4 zip I got from another race, so I picked that. Then got this one and realized it’s not tech gear, and has all the sponsors on the back (blah) but I will wear it a bit!

We also got a medal, a mug, and a caramel apple. I was surprised that was the only post race food, but maybe there was something else that I missed! (I completely missed the hot apple cider and forgot about it until I saw a photo of someone holding it in the race photos.)

Random

I wore my headphones the whole time and had music going quietly while we talked. I am still figuring out how to use those headphones and accidentally called the salon when trying to skip a song (there must be some combination of presses that dials the last number you called).

I was stoked there would be free race photos and kept watching for them on the course and they were at mile 12.9 , and at the finish (and apparently the start). Womp womp. I included the start and finish photo in this post. I am hoping the mile 12.9 one comes in nice. I wish they would have been out on the course, but logistics.

I fueled every 30 minutes/3 miles ish, and had half a packet of Fruit Punch Honey Stinger Chews, an orange Gu, the other half of the chews, then one of my coveted Clif Citrus gels that I have been saving for special occasions like this. I took it around mile 11 and it was delicious. Sigh, I wish they hadn’t stopped making those.

I fueled a lot for this race. The day before I had oatmeal for breakfast, a salad with pasta (goulash) for lunch, and pesto pasta, broccoli, and vegan fried fish for dinner. I had a piece of bread with peanut butter and a banana around 5:30 am, then ate a peanut butter sandwich at 8:10, right before the race started (I normally eat then immediately start my run). It felt like a lot of food but I was full of energy the whole time!