The Notorious Milwaukee Marathon (Pacer Report)

For the second time this month, I paced the 5:30 marathon finishers, this time for the Milwaukee Marathon.

Pacing, Generally

The job of the official pace team is to keep an appropriate pace throughout the race to lead runners to the finish time for their desired goals. Most races I've paced have pacers at varying intervals from 3:00 finishes through 5:30 finishes (I'm always on the 5:30 end - my marathon PR is around 4:55). Pacers are expected to be familiar with the race course, the location of aid stations, and generally be encouraging to everyone around them when the going gets tough. We do this while holding up a little sign that says our pace time on it so runners can locate us and join up if they get off pace, have to stop for a restroom break, etc. Here's me and my sign:

A 5:30 finish is a 12:35/mile pace, so the strategy is to run just under 12:35/mile but walk through all aid stations and power-hike the hills. If the course is 26.2 miles long (ooh...foreshadowing) that will get the runners to the finish in exactly 5 1/2 hours.

I use the "lap pace" setting on my Garmin Vivoactive to maintain an appropriate overall mile pace, but I wear a pace band that tells me what my watch should read at every mile marker, because at the end of the day, the mile markers are what count. It is impossible to run perfect tangents, especially as a pacer who often darts between runners in the area to encourage, chat, etc., so as soon as I see a mile marker I check our overall time and adjust so that we are within 10 seconds of the target by the time we pass the mile marker.

Milwaukee Marathon

The Milwaukee Marathon is in its third year, and under new management this year. The race festivities include a mile race on Saturday, plus a 5K, 10K, Half and Full Marathon. The race is run through the city of Milwaukee and highlights some great neighborhoods. It makes for a really nice tour of the city - you get to see the lakefront, the stadium, great breweries, raucous Brady Street, beautiful houses in some of the older neighborhoods, the Hank Aaron trail, and so much more. In theory, this should be a great race.

But it has its struggles. It is actually amazing the race got off the ground at all - the race organizer faced very public opposition from a city alderman before ultimately receiving approval for the event. The race's inaugural year let down a lot of runners by failing to secure alcohol permits for the promised post-race beer. In its second year, the marathon course ran 3/4 of a mile long. Obviously, it could be worse, but little complaints stack up over time.

Under new management this year, the race showed a lot of promise. The branding on the website and the finishers shirt and medal were all great (although everyone got a shirt that said Milwaukee Marathon, even if they ran the 1/2 or 10K. I heard comments from people running the lower distances that they didn't feel right wearing a "marathon" shirt when they hadn't run a marathon. I can understand that). But there were bigger struggles to be had.

The weather.

Your training can be on point all season, but you can never account for what kind of weather race day will bring. All week the forecast predicted rain, but the majority of the rain fell overnight creating a huge mud pit at the start/finish line party area. The rain turned into a fine mist by the race's start, but strong gusting winds remained a challenge for the whole race (especially when you are holding up a sign that feels like a sail in the wind). I'll be honest - if this was a training run day for me, I'd have stayed in bed.

The Course

As noted, the course itself is actually pretty great but the bad weather led to very little crowd support. With under 600 people running the marathon, after Mile 9 (where the half marathoners broke off from the full marathon route) there were spots that felt pretty damned desolate in neighborhoods that I wouldn't walk alone in at night. Fortunately, as a pacer, I had a lovely group with me so we made the run fun, even when the route left a little to be desired.

The Big Error

My pace team was clicking the miles by just as anticipated. For example, I hit Mile 20 at 4:11:53, with a target of 4:11:44 (so about 9 seconds over). By Mile 21 we were approaching the Hank Aaron Trail, which included an out-and-back up the trail. After the turnaround point I could see the next mile marker in the distance. It seemed a little far to me, but perception can get a little weird after 4+ hours of running, so I picked up the pace slightly and proceeded. But as we approached, the marker that should have said Mile 22 instead said Mile 23.

Where did Mile 22 go? There was no way we could have missed a turn - it was a straight-shot out and back, with a string of cones marking the turnaround. But if that was really Mile 23, we were now a good 11 miles ahead of pace.

A a pacer, that gave me a lot to consider. Was that really "officially" Mile 23? Were we really just 3.2 miles from the finish, or would those markers be stretched out to make up for the lost mile? My copacer and I checked with our runners: what did they want to do? We are there for them, after all. We could slow way down, hope that we really were 3.2 miles from the finish, and bring everyone in at 5:30, but frankly that seemed dumb. And if we were 4.2 miles from the finish, like we should have been, we would have totally screwed our runners by doing that. After all the weather we had experienced, our runners just wanted to be finished. We had a bunch of first timers with us, and I don't blame them. We maintained a 12:35-ish pace and brought our runners in about 12 minutes early.

Sadly, the weather ruined what would have been a really epic after-party. The food trucks and beer were there, but after being blown around for 5 1/2 hours, I just wanted hot coffee and a shower. That's a damn shame for the race organization, but such are the perils of planning an October marathon in Wisconsin.

So where did Mile 22 go?

I wanted to make sure that I didn't hallucinate my way into a huge pacing error, so I've been reading the comments on the Marathon's website. I wasn't hallucinating. Some great internet sleuths seem to have found the error - the turnaround on the Hank Aaron Trail was set way too short. Someone commented that there was actually a Mile 22 marker - apparently the Marathon had posted a photo of it - but the turnaround spot was marked before runners would get to it.

In the big scheme of things, that's not a big deal for most 5:30 finishers. They get their finish, which is the goal for 80% of them. But what about the seasoned runners looking for a PR? What about the Boston qualifiers? This was a USATF certified course, but I think it really was marked wrong. The turnaround point was set too early.

Unfortunately, the race management seems to be standing by its course rather than admitting there may have been a mistake. Apparently enough people were talking about the problem that it got the attention of the Milwaukee Jounal Sentinal, but the race organizers are going with the "our course is right and everyone's GPS is wrong" defense:

**

Some runners wondered if the course was shy of the 26.2 miles.

A half-dozen runners confirmed with the Journal Sentinel that their fitness trackers with GPS had them coming in at about 25.5 to 25.8 miles. (Another runner said their GPS had them coming in short on the 10K race as well.) Three marathon runners said Miles 21-23 seemed short, and two said they never saw a Mile 22 marker.

Last year, this marathon exceeded 26.2 miles by as much as a mile or two for the fastest, front-of-the-pack runners.

Joe Zimmerman, president of ROC Productions, which now produces the PNC Milwaukee Marathon, said extra care was taken to get the course right this year with the assistance of Chad Antcliff, the technical expert who has overseen the race the last three years.

“We took as many precautions as we could to make sure the distance was absolutely accurate,” said Zimmerman. “We triple-checked and verified.”

Zimmerman said that when he heard the race might be coming in a bit short, he talked to pacers and runners and had his course marshals go out and check mile markers to make sure they matched up with the way the USA Track & Field course certifier marked it.

“And it was right on point,” said Zimmerman. “We can’t find anything that leads us to believe that the course is inaccurate.”

The course was measured and is USATF certified, he said, and it was measured to the inside corner of the course.

“As we all know, GPS is not 100% accurate,” said Zimmerman.

There might be areas where GPS may not have given the best readings, like the Hank Aaron Trail, or the spiral staircases that came down on 6th St.

**

That's a really disappointing response, and I really hope it doesn't mar what has the potential to be a really fantastic marathon. There was so much they did right: great route, free race photos, great shirt, great medal, potentially great finish line party (but for the weather). But I'm afraid that response from the race is, unfortunately, going to put off a lot of serious runners.

Distance issues and weather aside, I have to say I enjoyed this marathon more than I thought I would. The 5 1/2 hours passed quickly, which is really a hard thing to say about a marathon. If the race can overcome yet another year of mismarked mileage, I will run this one again, either as a pacer (hopefully I'm invited to pace again despite our early arrival at the finish line) or a runner.

A Festival of Suffering (aka Badgerland Striders 24-12-6 hour race)

Hot and humid.

No shade.

No cloud cover, no sign of rain.

And you're running on a track.  For hours.

This was the Badgerland Striders 24-12-6 hour race.  I ran the six hour version, and before I give the wrong impression, let me assure you that it is a fantastic race.  Well run, great volunteers, great site.  An all-around class act event.

It was just really tough on such a hot day.

My goals:  

We've had an extremely mild summer, so I expected that a goal of 50K was totally reasonable. Race day weather had other ideas though: mid-eighties and humid, with a "real feel" temp of 90. With no shade and no breeze, that's rough conditions for a race. Ultimately, the heat kept me from hitting 50K over the course of six hours. My secondary goal was to eke out something just over marathon distance, and in the event of a really hot day I at least wanted to get a 20-mile training run out of the way. I ended up with 103 laps for 25.4 miles. I had nothing left to give at the end, so I have no regrets about how I ran the race. I feel like it was a good training run for my 50K in October, and I feel like I can manage my heavy race calendar over the next four weeks pretty well now that I have this high mileage run in tough conditions out of the way.

The race:

Back to the beginning: this race has a number of options - there's a 6-hour, a 12-hour, and a 24-hour race. For the people wanting to escape the heat, they offer a 6 and 12-hour option at night. There are also distance divisions where you pick a goal mileage, like a marathon distance, 50K, etc. - and keep going until you get there.  I opted for the 6-hour daytime version of the race.

Because this race is so customizable, it attracts a lot of people with interesting goals and great stories.  One of the volunteers mentioned that they have a repeat racer who aims to run his age in miles each year - he's 73 this year. One young woman was aiming for a goal of ten miles and she kept going past her goal to eleven miles.  Her dad was running with her and he was so proud of her accomplishment.  It was great to see.

The race is chip-timed, so each lap is counted. Pretty neat.

The race is held at the Germantown (Wisconsin) High School track. Runners are welcome to set up their own "aid stations" along the track, and quite a few families cheered on their runners from beneath shaded awnings and tents. The race also provided a great aid station with the usual ultra fare: water, Heed, Coke, PB&J sandwiches, oranges, watermelon, trail mix, chips, cookies and more. I brought my own cooler with ice and drinks, and although it was totally unnecessary since the aid station was so well-equipped, it was nice to have a place I could stash my shirt every few laps so I could put on an ice cold shirt every so often to cool down.

Pre-race, before the cloud cover burned off.

The day started out nicely, with plenty of cloud cover and a dense fog. The forecast suggested that the cloud cover would burn off just before race time but we were fortunate and it hung on until around 10:30.  The nice weather was tempered by the fact that they were inexplicably playing Michael Jackson's early catalog over the loudspeakers. I don't dislike MJ, not by any means, but I'm more of a Thriller-era fan. After about an hour of listening to that music I began to wonder if North Korea was taking notes as this seemed like an effective way to torture prisoners. I had enough and I went for my headphones. I listened to Amy Poehler's "Yes, Please." I love running with audiobooks, and I enjoyed that one for about an hour. I kept a steady pace for the first two hours and felt great, although I pretty much never need to hear Michael Jackson again in my whole entire life.

Around 10:45 the weather decided it had given us enough time to put in some miles, and it cranked up the heat. Heat plus humidity equals suffering, and suffer we did. The hot black track with no shade and no breeze made it feel much hotter than the actual temperature. There were times when the heat was absolutely choking. There were a few drops at this point, including one of the 24-hour runners who was totally burning up the track all morning. He was running so strong - I'm not sure what happened but I was surprised to see him go.  It was a sobering reminder that no matter how good your training is, shit can in fact happen on race day.

The race director provided mileage updates about ten minutes after each hour, and for the first two hours I was happily on target, around 10:30 - 11:00 miles - very sustainable - but I knew that the heat was going to be a game-changer. Plus, after I pass ten miles in any run, I become intimate friends with the restroom for awhile. I'll spare the details but hitting the restroom every 2 laps does not help one's 50K aspirations. By hour three I had given up my 31 mile goal, which I figured would happen with the heat, but I still wanted to get in something over marathon distance.

Boredom?

When I decided I was going to do this race, friends asked me how I was going to run around a 400 meter track for six hours without being bored. Part of the reason I signed up for this race because I thought it would be a test of mental toughness. And as it turns out, I was anything but bored. I listened to part of an audiobook, a podcast and some music. I socialized with other runners - I'm not usually much of a talker when I run but oh were these some of the nicest people - you couldn't help but chat for a lap or two before digging back into the task at hand. It never felt boring.

But the fiddling with my iPhone to access audiobook and podcasts did hurt me a bit. I crashed Strava twice in the process. The first time I only lost a few minutes of running, but the second time I lost a whole hour so I just shut the program down. That was a really discouraging - I love my Strava data, and I think if I had a better way of gauging my pace I would have been able to manage my mileage better later in the race.

After noon I started taking advantage of the cooler I had lugged to the sidelines and was stacking ice under my hat to deal with the heat. It worked well for awhile, and then it just gave me headaches. My hat was a great idea though - a ten dollar grab from Wal Mart and it kept the sun off of my face. Money well spent.  Around this time I also got some texts from my husband and son, and those gave me a boost.  I took a selfie to send them - my "I've been running for over three hours and it's hot and kind of miserable but I'm going to smile and pretend I'm A-OK and not actually dying" face.

Not dying!  Not dying!

After I abandoned my 31 mile goal I asked if I was on track to hit 27 miles. I was positive that I was but it turns out: I wasn't. I took it pretty hard and got discouraged. I really felt like I was still running relatively strongly, but apparently that wasn't so. I walked a lot after that. Physically I was beaten by the heat but mentally I was pushing on okay until then. The news that I wasn't going to hit just over marathon distance definitely took the wind out of my sails. It was tough after that. Very few people were running with any regularity at this point and eventually it really evolved into a timed carcass-drag to the six hour mark. My heart rate shot up and got fluttery a few times and that was enough to keep me to a brisk walk at the end. I crossed the timing mats at 6 hours, accepted a delicious frozen custard and enjoyed the shade of someone else's canopy for awhile.

This definitely would have been a different race in different weather, and now I understand why there are night running options. Overall, it was an educational race for me in that I learned what works for me (Sprite, please!) and what doesn't (food, mostly. And heat). If next year's forecast is like this one, I'll probably pass on this race but if we had something that was even a hair less humid I'll come back. It was fun, I met some great and really inspiring people, and it is a good opportunity to really define a goal and push myself.

And one final note:  somehow I managed to get a sunburn on my ass.  I promise, my ass was fully covered for the duration of the run.  I'm not sure how it happened, but, well...ow.