Sunday morning in Madison, Wisc. was sweltering. Temperatures hit almost 90 degrees with a dew point over 65 and a blazing sun. It. Was. Hot.
So what did we do? Well, seven friends ran the half marathon, two ran the full and one biked about one and a half marathons delivering water to the runners. I can't believe that they actually made it. At one point officials flagged the race as dangerous- they stopped official timing about 4 hours in and, while the water and medical stations remained open, they encouraged runners to stop. {At this point I was sitting under a tree with my friend's 4-month-old, sipping an iced latte and trying to stay cool. Poor little girl.}
My friends who ran the half marathon all finished around the hour two mark; one finished as early as about 1.5 hours. Out of the two marathoners, one rocked it and finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, but heat got to the other one a bit more. By mile nine, she said she couldn't breather and had stomach pains. {Many runners faced the same heat exhaustion.} I am very proud to say that, despite the terrible running conditions, she did finish the race in about 5 hours and 40 minutes. This is about 2 hours longer than her previous year in which starting temperatures were about 20 degrees cooler.
I love how much the community got behind the runners. Even if they didn't know any. Their support was incredible and some signs they made were hilarious. My favorites: "That's not sweat, that's your fat cells crying" and "You're no longer a runner, you 're a marathoner." There were also people with a stand at mile 4 handing out beer or bloody marys to runners. {Only in Madison, Wisconsin could you find this. Actually, only in Wisc. would you see people accept their offer.}
My running friends had a few great moments during the race. At mile 10, Lindsey to Sam: "Samantha, I'm not a runner." I guess this earned her a few odd looks from those around. {I bet she wouldn't have said that if it wasn't quite as hot.} Also Lindsey, "Oh my god, I see a hill and I am NOT happy about it." There was no hill. Apparently this was during her delusional phase. Funny.
Surprisingly, even after their intense runs, we all went to Brat Fest and enjoyed a few brats and Capital brews.
Congrats to Alyssa, Betty, Samantha, Lindsey, Gretchen, Lori, Heather, Savannah and Betsy!
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