Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon—October 8, 2000

Buck Hales

We had a marvelous time in Milwaukee this weekend, what a nice little city it is. The marathon was essentially a non-event in the greater scheme of things happening in Milwaukee, unlike how big of an impact the Chicago marathon has here in Chi-town. In fact, when we arrived at the Hilton, the host hotel, it was difficult to tell that there was a marathon even associated with the place. There were, however, four big weddings going on and the ambient buzz was dominated by the swishing sound of crinoline and organza clad maidens and matrons. We did manage to find the "expo" on the fifth floor, sandwiched between the Kruger-Wolska and Klineschmidt-Bludovsky wedding receptions. A very low key affair, the high point of which was finding that the sole athletic apparel vendor was selling Succeed capsules-- definitely a bonus discovery. Using my own chip posed no problem, but the fact that I had my own seemed to be quite a novelty. Though I've had my own custom deluxe Chicago Marathon Champion chip for two years, this is the first marathon where I've been able to use it. And it worked!

We connected with fellow Oak Park runner and consummate marathoner, Dan "the man" Danielson then ventured off to dinner. Our local contact, David "Cheesedale" Brostrom had selected our dinning venue and we walked 8 or so blocks to the Stout Brothers Public House to join him. We were joined by two more Chicago runners, Lisa and Kelly and enjoyed a lovely repast, including their excellent stout carbohydrate enriched beverages. Though it was quite blustery on our walk to dinner, we were quite unprepared for the evil turn the weather took-- cold rain and snow, oh oh oh. In fact it got ugly! The sleet was blowing sideways when we headed back to the hotel. Fortunately, Cheesedale gave us ride back to the Hilton. When we arrived the four simultaneous wedding extravaganza was going full tilt and you could hear Kenny Rogers out of one ear and Barry White out of the other.

We retired to our room and found it fairly quiet, despite the roaming groups of unsupervised adolescents whose parents, no doubt were down in the ballrooms dancing the night away. After we retired we could hear the teens banging about, opening and closing doors, but weren't too bothered-- until about 1 AM when some young girl began screaming and yelling. She was inconsolable and continued to cry out for what seemed to be an eternity. We were in and out of sleep listening to her wail, her cries punctuated by the sounds of doors opening and closing in the hall. Then, just when I fell hard asleep I was jarred awake by a loud knocking next door "Milwaukee Police-- open the door". I checked the time-- 1:40 AM. It grew quiet and I drifted back to sleep, then, again, loud knocking on another near by door-- "Milwaukee Police...." Now I was wide awake, waiting for them to come knocking on our door. Fortune was with us and they went on their merry way.

I was actually quite worried about the weather and wondering how best to dress for sleet and driving wind. I did bring a large collection of clothes with me, but was not sure what to expect. When I got up at 5:15, though it was pitch black outside I could tell it was clear and there was little detectable wind. I packed accordingly and met Saint Stephen in the lobby at 6:15. Despite the fact that this hotel was race head quarters, there was no shuttle from the hotel to the finish line where buses to the start boarded, so we had to catch a taxi out front. We shared the ride with another runner and made it to the buses by 6:30. It is always amazing to me when riding a bus to the start of a point-to-point marathon how long of a distance one travels to get there. And we had to actually run all that way back.

Grafton high school was full of anxious runners and we met up with some of our friends from Chicago and made our last minute clothing choices. It was about 40 degrees, absolutely clear as a bell and the 15-20 mph wind was blowing from the Northwest. I opted for jacket and gloves, half-tights and polypro shirt. I was cold but not uncomfortable at the start-- a good sign. The gun went off and within 2 minutes I was hot. I knew many people had overdressed in their full Gortex suits and hats. Thank goodness for zippers.

This was Saint Stephen's and mine 4th marathon this year and we planned on using this run in preparation for the 50 mile ultra we're doing in about 4 weeks, and thus, had agreed to approach this marathon using the run 1 mile, walk 1 minute strategy. We had our first walk after mile two when the crowd thinned out. With only 1500 or so runners though, we never were very crowded and were able to run freely within 100 yards of the start. Our tug and pull game had begun. Mile 1= 8:34, mile 2= 9:13, mile 3 = 7:14 (??), mile 4= 11:40 (oh!).

I felt great, absolutely wonderful and commented to Steve that this was a PR type day, but that I was happy we were doing it together. We enjoyed the early miles, cruising with great comfort, taking in the view of the corn fields and countryside. Mile 5 through 10 =10:48 (brief stop to visit nature), 9:54, 10:19; 10:01, 9:37, 10:02. We were averaging a nice easy 10-minute pace walking a full minute each mile. Then I felt the urge, saw the port-a-john and sent Steve on his way. Though there was only one person in line I spent 3 full minutes at the pit stop. As soon as I was back on the road I stepped up my pace and went after Steve. It took me 2.5 miles to catch him: Mile 11= 13:09, Mile 12 and 13 =9:15, 9:34. I caught Steve and we picked up where we left off 10:08, 9:58, 9:56, and 9:52.

We had identical half-marathon splits of 2:10:56 and I was feeling excellent! At each walk interval I would stride on out, and noticed that Steve was struggling a bit, though he certainly never complained. I was pushing the pace, and feeling quite strong and comfortable. The run-walk approach had us keeping pace with the same group of runners. One very bodacious guy kept talking to every woman he saw and was trying to get them to pat his friend on the butt. His friend was none other than the 70 year old Wild Bill Hollihan of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, who was running his 100th marathon. Bill had a very odd collection of mis-matched and ragged running clothes on that looked like he might have run at least half of his 100 marathons wearing. After I caught back up to Steve he told me about Bill's friend and his ploy, so when we ran by I accommodated him and gave him a smack on the butt. I am sure he appreciated it too.

At mile 16, when we started to walk, I strided out and Steve lagged behind. As I slowed to walk with him he urged me to run on alone. He said that he was struggling to keep up and didn't want to hold me up. I protested but he insisted, so I took off. I ran the rest of the way, only walking briefly through water stops to take in liquids.

Those last ten miles were the best last ten of any of the 16 marathons I've run. The early walk breaks and measured pace gave me tremendous reserve and my legs felt remarkably fresh during the last miles. I focused on form keeping my back straight, my head up and drove with my arms while I toed-off with each step. I felt very comfortable and strong as I picked up the pace. I had the impression I was running really fast as I was passing everyone. The only one runner who passed me in the last ten miles was on a relay team. I was a bit concerned that I was now going too fast, but checking my splits assured me that I wasn't going fast at all, just advancing on the runner's who were continuing to run 10 minute pace. Mile 17 = 9:52 (the last 1 minute walk), then mile 18 to 25 = 9:18, 9:25, 9:12, 9:32, 9:23, 9:19, 9:19, 9:51,

I felt great. It was a beautiful course. As I ran past the giant mansions on the north shore, the wind was at my back and the sun was on my face. When we neared the lakefront there was a nice long downhill with a strong tail wind-- it was great! The last five miles were on the path adjacent the lake and it was strikingly beautiful. The sun shone bright on the water, the big waves were crashing on the break wall and the long green parkway stretched out ahead.

As I neared the finish I picked up the pace, mile 26 = 9:03. I had no idea where the finish was though, and it seemed like we wound around and around the park. Finally, we doubled back, into the wind to finish at the waters edge. A final kick to the end 26.2= 1:46, and I finished!

Chip time 4:15:39, overall pace 9:45. But what makes me so happy about this effort was my split for the second half was 2:04:43! A negative split by almost 7 minutes! My pace for the first half was 10:00, and for the second half was 9:30.

Steve finished at 4:32 and was not doing too well at the end. He was nauseas and his knees were giving him a lot of grief, but he was very pleased to have completed his 16th marathon. Steve told me that HE was going to take charge of our pace for the 50 mile race on November 4th. We are getting psyched up for this already. Our whole running year has been aimed at running 50 miles (50 miles in Steve's 50th year) and our time is drawing near. We have already mailed our applications for the Owen-Putnam State Forest 50 mile trail run, near Spencer, Indiana. I can hardly wait!