Thank you to the Eau Claire Marathon and Visit Eau Claire for collaborating on this event and sponsoring this blog post.
I ran my first race of the year–the Eau Claire Half Marathon, and it was a good rust-buster for the start of the racing season!
This was the first time running a race as part of the Eau Claire Marathon weekend, and it was truly the ‘biggest small town race in the US.’ It was the perfect size, a lot of people out cheering on the course, a scenic course, and free race photos!
Kristy, my sister, also ran the half, so we had a lot of fun hanging out, sharing some miles together, and making fun Instagram videos. We went to the local running store Blue Ox Running (where they even knew about Skinny Raven, where I used to work in Anchorage!), checked out a few local restaurants, and tried to stay warm because it was a chilly weekend!
I arrived in Eau Claire late Friday night (10 p.m.), which was not planned, but Craig came home sick that afternoon, so he slept, and I wasn’t sure if I would be heading to Wisconsin that night or not. He woke up from his nap feeling much better, so I left for Eau Claire around 7p.m. because I thought that would be better than driving a good chunk of the morning the next day. Luckily it was a really easy drive and really not very far from the Twin Cities.
Saturday morning, Kristy and I went for a shake-out run along the river. We did a nice and easy four miles and stopped to take a few pictures and videos for Instagram. My legs felt good, so I did some striders at the end to keep that pop in them.
We ended our run at The Nucleus for brunch and met my brother-in-law, Nick, there. We received several different recommendations for this place, and it did not disappoint. It was cute with some hippy vibes but with really good food. I had the Yeti Skillet, which was a hashbrown-based dish. It was really good, but I kind of wish I would have had Kristy’s stuffed French toast, which looked even better!
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and I did some work, hung out, and “watched” TV (about the only time I watch TV is when I stay in a hotel). When bib pick-up started, we went to the expo to get our bibs, take some photos, and we also met the race directors, which was so fun. (They were incredibly nice, by the way!)
We grabbed a late lunch at Eau Claire Cheese and Deli, which was also delicious. It was a small little hole-in-the-wall place with no indoor seating, but the sandwich I got was really good.
That evening my brother-in-law ran the 10K, so Kristy and I cheered for him and the other runners.
I spent the rest of the evening resting, relaxing, and getting my things laid out for the half marathon the next morning. I went to bed around 10 p.m. and set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. The race started at 8:30 a.m., so I didn’t have to be up super early, which was nice. Of course, I naturally woke up around 5:45 a.m., laid in bed for a bit before deciding to get up and start getting ready.
I first went down to the breakfast area to get a bagel and peanut butter to eat. Back in my hotel room, I took a shower and started getting all my layers on. Race morning was calling for temps in the low 30s, wind, and snow. Lovely! Ha! So I put on basically everything I brought, which ended up being 5 layers: racing singlet + arm warmers, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, lighter jacket, and down jacket.
Nick dropped Kristy and me off at the start and we did about a mile jog, trying to warm up before the race started. We quickly dropped off our things at the bag drop, which was a little bone-chilling to take off all those layers, but I did my best to keep jogging, doing some drills, and getting ready to race.
As soon as the race started, I settled into what felt like a pace I could maintain for the next 13 miles. Overall, I felt pretty good and was optimistic I would have a solid race.
The first part of the course weaved through some residential areas, and I actually ditched my long sleeve after a mile. I definitely wasn’t super warm, but my core was okay, my legs were kind of numb from the cold, and oddly my feet felt the coldest and took a few miles to warm up.
My splits:
Mile 1 – 6:34
Mile 2 – 6:39
Mile 3 – 6:51
Mile 4 – 7:22
Mile three into four had 96 feet of incline and we were running straight into the wind, so my pace definitely reflects that. But other than that, I felt like I kept my pace pretty consistent, given the slight inclines and declines throughout the race.
Mile 5 – 6:47
Mile 6 – 6:42
Mile 7 – 6:50
Mile 8 – 6:39
Miles 5 – 8 were on the edge of town and where we crossed over the river, and then made our way back into town. Despite being out on the edge of town, there were still quite a few people out cheering and aid stations along the way.
Eventually we merged with the marathoners and marathon relay, so there were even more people around which also gave me people to pick off.
Running through the college campus in Eau Claire was my favorite–there were so many people out cheering and music playing, which definitely boosted my mood during the last couple of miles. I hit a couple more strong gusts of wind those last couple of miles, but I knew I was almost done.
Mile 9 – 6:39
Mile 10 – 6:48
Mile 11 – 6:34
Mile 12 – 6:40
Mile 13 – 6:44
Official time – 1:28:48
Overall, this time is about where I thought my fitness was since I haven’t been doing much speed/tempo work these past few months. I have mostly just been doing easy miles, a little longer run on the weekends, but my mileage has been lower than normal for me. I just wanted to be under 1:30, so I’m glad I was able to do that.
After I finished, I waited for a friend to finish, as well as Kristy. She ran the race in 1:35:59, as she has taken some down time after we ran CIM together and she has also been battling a lot of sickness this past winter. We took a few pictures but made our way back to the hotel quickly because we were shivering so bad from the cold.
I am so glad I had the opportunity to run this race. Now that I’m back in Minnesota, I am learning about all of the races here in the area, and I can’t wait to run more of them. Eau Claire definitely puts on a great event and you can tell the people who live there love sharing their community with all the people who travel in for these events.
