Within the past few years, a local running shoe store began hosting a series of 10k races throughout the Fox Cities. The Badger State 10k is the first in the series. I had no issue signing up for this race as it is hosted at a local brewery, Badger State Brewing. They are a great local brewery located in Green Bay. So whenever there is a race hosted at a brewery, it's a combination of my two loves, craft beer and running, so it was damn near impossible for me to say no to this race!
Training for This Race
Honestly, I never actually "trained" for this race. The past few months, I have devoted about 85% of my time to finishing our basement. The other 15% of the time, I was at work. I took a two week break from all running and training to solely work on the basement. Prior to my training hiatus, I was in the thick of a training plan for the Oshkosh Half Marathon on April 30th. So, once the basement was completed, I wanted to do a race to see were I actually was sitting in terms of my half marathon training. Most of my running were mid distance and short tempo runs.
Prerace
I was originally scheduled to work 8:00pm-6:30am, Friday into Saturday morning before the race. I took time off from 8:00pm-3:30am, but still had to work from 3:30am-6:30am due to schedule conflicts. So after work working 3 hours, I changed and drove up to Badger State Brewing. The race didn't start until 9:00am, so I got there with plenty of time. After chilling in the car for a while, I got registered and then sat back in the car to just chill. Around 8:00, I took my standard
Hammer Nutrition Anti-Fatigue Caps and then got out for a nice warm up. I really took my time in my warm up and took advantage of the scenery in Green Bay. The Brewery is located just down the street from historic Lambeau Field. So, my warm up consisted of running to the Frozen Tundra. After my warm up, I had a spare 15-20 minutes to spare before race time. I took a serving of
Hammer Nutrition Fully Charged, which is their new release, prework drink mix.
Nutrition Plan
With the race lasting only 6.2 miles for a goal duration of about 40 minutes, I had no specific nutrition plan during the race.
Equipment
Miles 0-6.2
As normal, I checked the previous years results to see where I could potentially finished based on my goal time. Based on past years results, I was planning on finishing in the top 3 of my age group and hopefully top 10 overall. But once we were all lined up at the start line, the competition didn't look terrible deep. This surprised me since the weather was actually really nice. But once the race started, I started fairly conservative, as I normally do. By the first mile I found myself in 5th place. I was actually thinking there was a slim chance I could actually win the race outright, if I just stuck to my race plan of pushing hard, but leaving enough in the tank for the final 800 meters or so. After the next couple miles I was in 4th place with about 200-400 meters between me and the race leader. Also ahead of me was a kid I thought to be about 12-15 years old. I thought for sure, he would eventually fade and I would at least be in the top three. The race continued and I pushed to stay as close as I could to the lead pack, which was beginning to spread apart. The gap between me and the runners behind me got to a distance, where they really couldn't threaten passing me unless I really blew up. Once I hit mile 5, I realized that the runners ahead of me were just better. They were all out of reach...even the kid! I pushed hard and hoped for a PR. As I approached the finish line, the clock read 38:00. But my official time was 37:59! I finally broke under 38 minutes for a 10k....and set a new 10k PR!!!
Post Race
After the race, I took full advantage of the free beer...duh! They had a great spread of food after the race, complete with cookies, chips, and a shredded pork or turkey sandwich. But, like I said, the best part of the post race spread with the free Badger State Brewing beer! I ended up placing 4th overall and 2nd in my age group. I received a gift card to Run Away Shoes (the local running shoe shop which hosted the race). I didn't stick around too long after the race since I was there alone and I wanted to make it to my daughters last soccer game of the year. So, I ducked out pretty much after finishing my beer and sandwich.
What's on Tap
As I mentioned earlier, the main reason for running this race...other than the beer....was to see where I sit for my upcoming half marathon. So that's exactly where my priorities lay. According to Jack Daniel's V-DOT calculator, my projected pace for a half marathon is 1:24:18. My current PR for the half marathon is 1:24:31. So, you're saying there's a chance! I'm going to go out with every expectation of setting a new PR in the half marathon distance and we'll just have to see what happens. Granted the current weather forecast is definitely NOT on my side. Current start time temperatures are in the 30's with 20+ mph winds and rain...yup, you read that right...30's (20 degree wind chills), crazy gusty winds, and rain on top of it all. We'll just have to take each mile as it comes and focus on what I can control and do my best on not thinking about the miserable weather.
