2015: Green Bay Half Marathon

The 2014 edition of this event made me the recipient of yet another unexpected, undeserved and unrewarded act of kindness from a lady at about the 11.75 mile mark. Courtesy of a miserably failed experiment — of using my body’s stored fat reserves in lieu of energy gels during the run — I was seeing more than one star in day light. And courtesy of my super-massive ego taking a back seat to my common sense for once, I stopped in someone’s front yard asking for a fruit. In ran the lady and out she came with a plateful of freshly cut berries of various kinds and a bottle of water. It was and still is a very humbling experience to have even completed the race, and realize how much this random act of kindness played a role that day (and has since then) — especially when I look back and remember how many more runners fainted under the scorching sun (and couldn’t complete the race) over the last mile or so, and understand the stupidity of the said maiden experiment.

Not wanting to be ungrateful, I stopped by the aforementioned lady’s house the day after the race (Monday) on my way out of town. In spite of repeated requests, the much elderly woman wouldn’t give me the last name of her daughter who had helped the day before. About a month and a half later, while driving down to Indiana for Chelsea and Nils‘ I DO festivities, I stopped at her door again. This time, no one was home and I requested the neighbor to pass along a thank you note. Few hours later, as I was finishing up dinner with Christine and Jaime in Valparaiso, I got a call and the lady on the other end said: We got your note and that other thing. But our house was not on the course last year. It ran about two blocks away. I swore I remembered very vividly the street signs and that she must not be remembering what she had done for me but reviewing the GPS log from race day revealed that she was, in fact, right and I was, in fact, delirious. I requested the lady, albeit politely, to take the thank you note up the street on my behalf but never heard back from either one.

The days following the said event were no different: one dear friend took me up to the indoor track to analyze my running form (or lack thereof) and then to the fitness center to put me through a set of simple workouts that would help improve the core strength, and in turn, improve the speed over a period of time; many others — many a part of the Keweenaw Running Group and Team /var/run — let me run with them often at the expense of their time, pace and/or distance to help me get better. The combination certainly went a long way in marking the beginning of me becoming far more disciplined with regards to consistent eating, sleeping, running and working out habits.

The initial round of planning for 2015 races did not necessarily include this event. But an exchange of text messages with Bryant, followed by a dinner time conversation with Chelsea and Nils in Ambassador Restaurant a day later and the plethora of additional reasons entailed below ensured that this event did get on the list:

The mystique (yes, the mystique) of Green Bay and all that it has been and continues to be a stage for; an opportunity to thank the aforementioned lady in person and hang out with good ole friends, and explore the usual and some unusual culinary corners of (greater) Green Bay; a chance to measure my new self against the old one in light of almost meticulously and consistently following the eating, sleeping, running and working out habits, and earning a materialistic yet unique memorabilia: one third of a medal in a three-year medal series.

A bit of excessive running with not enough rest following the Great Bear Chase led to frequent and often very sharp pain in the lower left calf. Timely diagnosis — muscle tear, knots, pinched nerve, lack of potassium or combination of all of them — and suggestion for rest (by dear friends) along with consumption of bananas as if they were going extinct helped heal whatever it was in very short time, although it didn’t seem short at that time. But I am grateful, nevertheless, that it wasn’t something more serious that would have forced me to take a longer break from or worse, give up on this new found hobby.

Another new hobby, road biking (story saved for another occasion later this year) and renewing yet another long lost hobby, swimming, came with the advice that I needed to pull back on my running goals, albeit slightly. Running too, not to be left behind, came with few more suggestions to improve: cutting down one core workout session in favor a speed workout (Robert Larson), running faster to be running faster (Andi Vendlinski), lifting up the knees and running on front portion of the feet while going up hill (Rob Handler) and the potato chip/egg technique to not clench the fist while keeping the fists lower (Ryan Towles and Stephen Eles). Incorporating them all to the point that they became almost second Natured took some time but in hindsight time invested was more than worth it.

The drive down to America’s Dairy Land with Lynette was smooth and uneventful — barring one minor incident that almost could have turned my car into a bonsai. Settling down in the cozy confines of dear friend Sarah‘s home (she was gracious and kind to let me stay the whole weekend even though she had to be out of town) was soon followed by a quick trip to the holy Lambeau Field to pick up the race packets for myself as well as Chelsea and Nils at the Prevea Health & Fitness Expo. That, in turn, was followed by a dinner with Katie in HuHot Mongolian Grill before returning to the aforementioned cozy confines to call it a night.

A quick but easy paced 5k on Saturday morning (I probably should have just signed up for the 5k as part of the weekend race festivities) gave a preview of things to come the next day: hot, muggy, humid conditions … very conducive for profuse sweating within half a mile of starting to run. Breakfast at the newly recommended (thank you, Lynette!) Kavarna Café (Huevos Rancheros Egg Wrap with red onions, red pepper, salsa and pepper jack cheese) was quite delicious, and this unassumingly large, spacious, ambient and rustic-looking eatery hiding behind an assumingly small entrance is now on the list of must eat at place in Green Bay. I then drove around the suburbia for a while and had a chance to visit the house Lombardi lived while he coached the Packers, and then somehow ended up at the Prevea Health & Fitness Expo.

After having spent some time just sitting around in the majestic Lambeau Field — remembering all the fantastic memories of being at many a Packers games with dear friends, many more fantastic memories created by countless re-watching of legendary games, contemplating on how much I sucked last year while looping through the stadium and imagining what it would be to not suck at it the next day … couple of volunteers, sporting Wisconsin Public Service outfit guided me to the Green Bay Floral & Greenhouse.

Third time was indeed the charm, and I was able to meet the lady who gave me fruits last year in person for a few minutes. She was a bit overwhelmed by my showing up at her door step but the conversation was very pleasant. For someone who takes a lot of pride in remembering names of people, more humble pie was on the menu: not only I didn’t remember where she lived before I also didn’t remember her name correctly! And just before we parted with a hug, she did encourage me to eat well for the race and that she wouldn’t necessarily have any food to save me again. A 20 mile bike ride around De Pere to keep the legs moving and a dinner marked the end of proceedings for the day.

Goal vs Reality Goal: 13.11 mi in 1:58:40 (9:03 min/mi) Reality: 13.14 mi in 1:53:17.0 (8:37 min/mi)
#	Lap Distance mi	Lap Pace min/mile	Lap Elevation feet	Total Distance mi	Total Time h:mm:ss	Total Elevation feet	Total Pace min/mile	Projected Finish Time h:mm:ss	Differential Goal Time h:mm:ss
01	1.00	7:46	0↑ 20↓	1.00	0:07:46	0↑ 20↓	7:46	1:41:49	0:16:51
02	1.00	7:46	0↑ 0↓	2.00	0:15:32	0↑ 20↓	7:45	1:41:36	0:17:04
03	1.00	7:52	13↑ 0↓	3.00	0:23:24	13↑ 20↓	7:48	1:42:15	0:16:25
04	1.00	8:13	0↑ 10↓	4.00	0:31:37	13↑ 30↓	7:54	1:43:34	0:15:06
05	1.00	8:13	33↑ 0↓	5.00	0:39:51	46↑ 30↓	7:58	1:44:26	0:14:14
06	1.00	8:37	20↑ 10↓	6.00	0:48:29	66↑ 40↓	8:04	1:45:45	0:12:55
07	1.00	8:37	32↑ 0↓	7.00	0:57:07	98↑ 40↓	8:09	1:46:51	0:11:49
08	1.00	9:30	66↑ 33↓	8.00	1:06:37	164↑ 73↓	8:19	1:49:01	0:09:39
09	1.00	8:37	0↑ 55↓	9.00	1:15:14	164↑ 128↓	8:21	1:49:28	0:09:12
10	1.00	9:06	0↑ 30↓	10.00	1:24:20	164↑ 158↓	8:25	1:50:20	0:08:20
11	1.00	9:25	45↑ 12↓	11.00	1:33:46	209↑ 170↓	8:31	1:51:39	0:07:01
12	1.00	9:10	0↑ 19↓	12.00	1:42:56	209↑ 189↓	8:34	1:52:18	0:06:22
13	1.00	9:07	0↑ 7↓	13.00	1:52:03	209↑ 196↓	8:37	1:52:57	0:05:43
14	0.14	8:47	0↑ 0↓	13.14	1:53:17	209↑ 196↓	8:37	1:52:57	0:05:43
The final cumulative time, 1:53:17, may not match the official time (1:53:17.0) owing to rounding errors. Starting my watch a few seconds before the start and stopping it a few seconds after crossing the finish line can be an additional reason for this discrepancy. The overall distance, 13.14 mi, may not match the designated (or certified) event distance (13.11 mi) owing to idiosyncrasies associated with GPS data collection OR my inability to take the tangents OR the aforementioned early start/late stop reasons, and in some rare cases, incorrectly measured (or advertised) courses or DNFs. As a result, the cumulative pace and the projected finish time might not match the official values as well.

Race day morning came a bit sooner than expected (thanks to a misconfigured system that kept texting me from about 4 am or so) but nothing that would damage the preparation or performance. The morning also brought along by far the warmest and most humid conditions at the start of any of the half marathons so far. About an hour’s worth of chatting later, we — Chelsea, Nils and I — headed to our respective corrals (I barely made it before the gun went off but that’s a different story). Rendition of the national anthem was less than glorious, and so was the number of portable toilets outside the stadium compared to last year.

Race started out just fine and it took about one half a mile of weeding through the initial crowd to find an arm length worth of space around me. Support from the community, just like last year, was exemplary — many of them lined up for much of the course on either side, and several of them had their personal sprinklers turned on to help the runners beat the heat and humidity. The heat and humidity took some toll — the pace dropped marginally after mile three, and considerably after mile seven.

Setting out with what could have easily been sub 1:45:00 pace but then to be passed by 1:50:00 pace group with few miles still to go was quite the disappointment, and I had to often look back to ensure 1:55:00 pace team wasn’t on my heels. Just when the feeling of déjà vu — that I was somehow going to find a new way to mess up a chance for a PR and that may be, just may be, I had somehow offended the substance gods by worshipping the style gods (wearing multi-colored calf sleeves and reflective shades to look good in photos) — was starting to set in, the cloud cover brought along with it a very gentle breeze offering much deserved needed rejuvenation. I felt like I was pulling sub 8:00 min/mile pace while reality was a minute off on the wrong side but it didn’t end up costing me a PR and few important goals. Either carrying necessary fluids with me or drinking the fluids while running through the aid stations could have probably saved me 3-4 more minutes from the final time.

Post-race activities included a meal (cheese curds, sandwich and a beer sampler) at Titletown Brewing Company with Chelsea and Nils, another meal (more cheese curds and few craft beers) in Fox Harbor Pub & Grill with Team /var/run, a warm shower, and yet another meal (pizza) in Gallagher’s Pizza with Sarah before calling it a night at 8:30 pm. Drive back to the Yoop with Lynette was safe and uneventful — much of it listening to the newly recommended audibook (thank you, Andi!).

Thanks be to

the rejections and opportunities life has brought my way, event folks (organizers, sponsors, volunteers, timers, law enforcement officials, photographers, fellow participants and spectators) and my family of good friends, mentors and coaches in and outside of my community for all the unexpected, undeserved and unrewarded acts of kindness and constant encouragement as well as offerings of constructive criticism to improve myself as a human and an athlete. I am eternally grateful to all those who let me train with them, who shared their meals and experiences with me, who helped keep me in good health, who helped me stay the course, and who cheered me on from home or along the course.