Heatbreaker Half-Two Alarm challenge

Results:
1st half: 1:57
2nd half: 2:25

This race takes place inside the Pettit Ice Arena.  Pettit is the place where the winter Olympic qualifiers take place for speed skating and other events.  There is a track running the perimeter of the ice and 1 lap is about .28 mile.



We signed up to run two of the four available half marathons.  Each half is 47.5 laps and they started every three hours with a 2.5 hour time limit.  The time limit was not strictly adhered to, there were some women in our first heat that were allowed to run for over three hours.  This made our second heat start later than scheduled.

We carpooled to Milwaukee in Terry's minivan, he was nice enough to drive us both ways.  My training leading up to this race has been inconsistent and inadequate for a race of this distance.  I should have treated this as training for a marathon, but due to my class and work schedule, I was barely fit enough for a single half marathon.

To compound my fitness problem, I had to take almost 2 weeks off running leading up to the race due to a broken sesamoid bone in my left foot.  I resolved to run the first half at a slow pace in the hope that I would at least be able to start the 2nd half.

The races:

Running 47.5 laps is not boring as you might think, I concentrated on hitting my 2:30 goal lap times to keep my pace under control.  This first half went along very well, Adam and Terry lapped me several times.  They were running under 8:00 min/mile pace, so they finished about 15 minutes ahead of my 1:57.  After the race we had access to a shower, but I just changed clothes, iced my foot and ate some food to prepare for the next half.

Adam looking strong after the first race

We had about an hour to prepare for the second half.

Terry getting changed for race #2

Race #2 stared late due to the issue with the women.  Once under way, it was apparent to me that this would be a long, painful race.  My legs were stiff and tired.  At lap 20 my quads started to cramp up, I had to stop and massage them for a few minutes.  This was the point where I thought about dropping.  A nice guy noticed my struggles and offered me some salt tabs.  I accepted and ate 2 salt tabs and guzzled a bunch of water.  This was my first ever experience with salt supplements of any kind and it seemed to really help.

An hour after I took 2 more salt tabs and I continued to pound down as much water as possible.  Once I hit lap 30, I knew I would finish this thing.  I began a routine of running 3/4 lap and speed walking 1/4 lap to stave off the cramping.  This technique netted me a time of 2:25 for the last leg of this journey.  I was very glad to finish and I consider this a great accomplishment considering my injury and poor training leading up to this.

Adam and Terry both finished strong at about 1:45, I was glad to have them cheering on the sideline while I slogged though the last 40 minutes.

There were several people running two of the races and there was one woman running all 4.  Overall I give this event an A+, the race director was a really nice guy and the bathrooms were nice and clean.  The post race food included bagels, muffins, chocolate milk, pretzels and some great cookies made by the woman running all 4 races.

Our prize for completing 2 races is a nice embroidered duffel bag.  All finishers got a medal too.