2010 Recap - Madison Mini Marathon

This is the race that started me running a year and a half ago. In 2009 a co-worker asked me if I wanted to run the half-marathon at the end of August, I agreed, it was August 3rd and I had never run more than 3 miles in a row in my life.

One of the best things you can do when you start training is get others involved. Training sucks, but races are fun. Although your training plan is personal to your goals and abilities they include different types of runs and various speeds. I like to include friends on my long recovery runs. One friend, who signed up for the Madison Mini Marathon but got stuck working and couldn't make it, joined me on quite a few morning runs. We live near each other and the loop I would run went by his house. So I'd wake up and run a loop or two, pick him up, he'd join for what he wanted, then I'd continue. Those mornings were the ones that usually seemed to go the quickest.

The picture above is of 'Lou' and I. He, like me, is newly in to running and triathlons and we signed up to run the Madison Mini Marathon together as well as the Phillips Triathlon. We had a goal time of under 2 hours. We missed by ten minutes but were both very pleased with the result, official time here.

Training tends to be more independent, but it was great to run with someone in the race. It was interesting going from runner to 'motivator' during the race, but it was very satisfying helping my friend get to the finish line. For me it was a great break from the monotony of training and I always enjoy the race atmosphere, especially with a friend.

Lesson learned; getting yourself to the finish line is great, help getting someone else there is amazing.