Lakefront Marathon
my dad and i headed to downtown milwaukee at about 5:15 in the morning. we parked down near the finish line and hopped on a school bus loaded with other folks and headed to grafton high school. admittedly, the bus ride was rather spartan but it gave my dad a chance to share some advice with a first time marathoner who was sitting behind us. after we arrived at grafton high school, we found a table in the cafeteria and waited for the start of the race.
shortly before the start, i spotted my buddy dana walking through the cafeteria and caught up with him plus his wife and two friends from madison. after talking with dana, i opted to skip the long sleeve shirt i had planned on running in. with about 15 minutes before the start of the race, my dad, dana and i headed to drop off our gear bags so the event volunteers could drive them down to the finish. i wished my dad good luck and headed to the front of the starting corrals with dana.
after the national anthem and some announcements we were sent along on our way. we started maybe three rows behind the start line and began jockeying for position. while dana and i ran side by side, a narrow opening presented itself so i gave dana a shove towards it and followed along. the first mile is mostly downhill which when combined with the adrenaline of the start it can lead to a jackrabbit effort which would be costly by the time i reached milwaukee. i reined in my effort and passed the first mile marker in seven minutes flat. i was a bit fast but it wasn’t a full fledged jackrabbit start.
i rolled through the second mile and as i approached the third mile i could hear the sound of an accordion being played. mind you we’re running through country roads along side farm fields. we headed by a farm house and noticed the owner had a huge speaker system powered up while he squeezed out a polka. a guy running near me quipped "only in wisconsin."
my high school cross country team was volunteering at the water station at the four mile mark. i rolled through announcing myself as "class of ’90" and grabbed a cup of water. the fifth mile mark was also the first relay exchange point so there were lots of folks making alot of noise as we ran by. again, we’re out in farm country so it’s a bit of a shock to the system to run through a section like that then be back to the relative quiet of a country road on a sunday morning.
i eased my way through the sixth mile hanging behind a group of other runners to break the slight wind we were running into. i passed the seventh mile and shouted a hello to my friend paul and his wife suzi who were calling out splits. truth be told, suzi was calling splits and paul was playing his guitar. i got bored running behind the group and headed forward on my own. the eighth mile mark fell just before entering concordia university. at this point i was averaging 7:10 per mile, which was pretty much what i had planned.
i rolled through concordia university and downed a cup of a water. heading to the nine mile split it appeared to me that the times were being called by a woman who resembled VP candidate Sarah Palin. i asked another running if it was her and he replied he thought it was Tina Fey instead. it’s a good sign to still have a sense of humor while running a marathon.
shortly after the tenth mile split there was an aid station. i quickly wolfed down an energy gel and washed it down with a cup of water. i never saw a mile marker for the eleventh mile and learned after the fact that there wasn’t one placed. i did catch the twelve mile split and did some quick math to confirm i was still on pace. shortly before the thirteenth mile marker there was another aid station. i wolfed down another energy gel and downed more water.
approaching the half marathon marker, a friend of mine – Marc AKA "Woody" – shouted some encouragement my way. my 13.1 mile split was 1:34:00 which translates to 7:10 pace and was in 153rd place. i grinned a bit because the day before i had told my friend jeff that i wanted to take it out in 1:34. during a marathon, it’s a big confidence builder to nail your intended half split and not feel too extended.
after the half marathon mark we headed east towards lake michigan. running by spectators that had gathered along the route i heard "hey jerry" as i ran by. i whipped my head around and saw my college cross country teammate kevin and said hello to him. it had been years since i had seen him but i wasn’t in a situation where i could just stop and catch up.
we wound our way through a residential area then made our way onto Lake Drive. i took my third (and last) energy gel at 17 miles and chased it down with plenty of water. i noticed that my pace was slowing a bit and i made a conscious effort to keep it above 7:25’s as long as i could because that was the overall pace i needed for a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.
i reached the twenty mile mark in a few ticks past 2:25 which translates to 7:15 overall pace to that point. i also had made my way past 30 other competitors to be in 123rd place. doing some math, i figured out i had a little more than 50 minutes to run the final 6.2 miles, which translates to 8 minute per mile pace. i drank a bit of water from the aid station and continued on my way.
shortly after the twenty mile mark a runner named nic greeted me. he maintains a blog online that i had stumbled upon earlier in the year. he said hello and we shook hands. i noticed he was looking really strong and told him that i’d meet him at the finish line. honestly, i was fading a bit and did appreciate the unexpected greeting to perk me up a bit.
as i made my way down lake drive, my watch kept clicking off splits that were a few ticks less than 8:00. it seemed to take forever to make my way down to the lakefront. i kept myself focused on maintaining the effort and just before making the turn onto lincoln memorial drive i noticed a familiar runner just ahead.
i shouted "come on dana, i need a hand" as i ran up along side of him. we started running along side each other and through an aid station. coming down the big hill onto lincoln memorial drive, he positioned himself a stride ahead of me to help shield the wind that was blowing off the lake. we rolled down the hill and shortly before the bradford beach house he eased off the pace a bit.
i focused myself the best that i could as i knew that i didn’t have much time left to get to the finish line and get a qualifing time. at the 25 mile split, i recorded a 8:14 split which really was a red flag for my chances. the twenty sixth mile wound it’s way through veteran’s park, sometimes on grass. i could hear the finish line announcer calling off the names of runners as they approached. i passed the 26 mile mark without even looking at my watch as i was trying to focus on just moving forward.
with about 100 yards to go, i could finally see the finish line and the clock already read 3:14. as i got closer the clock turned 3:15 and i finally knew that i was going get myself over the finish line before 3:16. i let out a conquering cry and gave a few fist pumps as i finished. my effort ended up being only 40 seconds within the qualifying standards.
after receiving my finishers medal and a "space blanket" i made my way to the outside of the finishing area and was greeted by my wife, stepmom and kids. jade, alia and dana squeezed through the fence and came running to give me a hug. (alia gave my buddy dana a hug too.) after saying hello i headed to the changing tent to get on some warm/dry clothes.
Gerald Cameron
bib number: 398
age: 36
gender: M
location: Waukesha, WI
overall place: 117 out of 2013
M35-39 place: 20 out of 174
gender place: 109 out of 1161
chip time: 3:15:19
pace: 7:27
half: 1:34:02 (153rd place)
mile 20: 2:25:05 (123rd place)
gun time: 3:15:21 (117th place)
Splits
1M 7:01 [7:01]
2M 7:01 [14:02]
3M 7:18 [21:20]
4M 6:57 [28:18]
5M 7:30 [35:48]
6M 7:20 [43:09]
7M 7:02 [50:11]
8M 7:08 [57:20]
9M 7:05 [1:04:25]
10M 7:14 [1:11:39]
11M ~7:10 [~1:18:49]
12M ~7:10 [1:26:00]
13M 7:14 [1:33:15]
14M 7:15 [1:40:30]
15M 7:20 [1:47:51]
16M 7:15 [1:55:06]
17M 7:26 [2:02:33]
18M 7:28 [2:10:01]
19M 7:21 [2:17:23]
20M 7:42 [2:25:06]
21M 7:53 [2:33:00]
22M 7:53 [2:40:54]
23M 7:56 [2:48:50]
24M 7:54 [2:56:45]
25M 8:14 [3:04:59]
26M ~8:38 [~3:13:37]
26.2M ~1:44 [3:15:21]