• Madison,
    Wisconsin,
    United States
  • November
  • 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Casey Nelson

Plymouth, Minnesota, United States
55 12
2016
"A Great Late Season Fall Race"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Casey Nelson's thoughts:

The Madison Half Marathon was held on November 13th this year in Madison Wisconsin. The race starts and ends at the Capitol on a loop that takes you close to Lake Mendota, past Tenney Park, past Burrows Park, past Warner Park and then back again to Capitol Square. In addition to the half marathon there is also a full marathon option. Registration for this race is on a tiered system (the closer you get to race day, the more you will pay to race).  The cost to run started at $65 and ended at $110 if you wanted to sign up  to run while at the expo.
 
Expo:
The expo was held at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, which is only a few blocks from the Capitol, which would be convenient for race participants staying in a hotel close to the start/finish line. I drove to the expo and found on street parking less than a block away that cost me $2 for 2 hours at the meter. This expo wasn't as big as others I have been to, but still had a variety of vendors there that could cover most all your running needs. Although I didn't end up buying anything here, I did still manage to look around for probably an hour or so.
 
Packet Pickup:
Packet Pickup was in the back of the expo. There were no lines when I was there, so getting my bib involved me walking to the table and showing the volunteer my bib number and an ID. I was provided with a plastic bag, my bib, a few fliers in the bag, and a gender specific long sleeve technical shirt! The bib was personalized by having my first names displayed across it!! To check that my race chip worked I had to go to the opposite corner of the expo. This was fine as it was next to one of the ways out of the expo, but I would have preferred the chip check to be next to the packet pickup table.
 
Pre-Race:
Parking: I got dropped off at the starting line by my sister-in-law , so I did not have to deal with parking, but from what I could see, there was plenty of open on street parking spots available (which was free on Sundays). 
 
Drop Bag: I found out the night before the race that I could use either the plastic bag I was provided with when I got my bib, or my own bag, as the clothing drop bag at the starting line. I wish I would have known this earlier, as I did not have a good bag of my own to use, and the bags we got at the expo did not have a cinch top to secure my clothing and wallet in. To make due I just tied the entire top of the plastic bag in a knot when it was ready to get dropped off. I looked on their website and didn't see anything that indicated you could use your own bag for a drop bag, and on the starting area map we were provided with there was no indication of where the drop spot was located at. I think this is one area they could improve upon for next year. Luckily enough, when I was actually at the starting area, the drop spot was clearly marked and easy enough to get to.
 
Porta-Potties There were plenty of porta-potties available at the start, and the lines moved surprising quick for having the half and full marathon start within 10 minutes of each other.
 
Starting line: The starting line was about half way down Mifflin St. with the half and full marathon racers starting on that block. While standing at the starting line, this race gave me more of a smaller town feel (I believe there was just under 3000 runners in the half). With this being Madison I had figured the race size to be larger. There were pacers with pace flags clearly identified in the corals, with the corals being self seeded for the runners. This meant you were able to go to where ever you felt your pace group was. The weather the morning of the race was 39 degrees out (but I think my phone said it felt like 33). I was able to run in a tank top and shorts, with arm sleeves. 
 
Race:
The course is a circular route that starts and ends at the Capitol. There were spectators on the course, but overall it was pretty spotty on where they were located. There were two bigger hills, one after mile 7 and one after mile 12. The plus side to this was that there was an almost equally large downhill that followed each of these uphills. The course in general was through a lot of residential neighborhoods. A lot of the course was on one side of a street where there could be traffic on the other side. There was plenty of volunteers present to help with traffic and direct runners if needed.

Aid Stations: There were a lot of water stations throughout this course. Each station had water, Gatorade, and porta-potties. There was at least one water station that also had GU for the runners.
 
Post-Race:
I was provided with a finisher medal once I crossed the finish line. The medal had a scenic view of the Capitol skyline which was really cool, and memorable for where the race was located. I was also provided with a heat sheet and a bottle of water as I made my way to the post race finisher picture area. Did I mention that all race photos are FREE at this race!! And they were provided to us the very next day (VERY QUICK TURN AROUND)! This race also had a race results tent that gave you a printout of what your finish time was, along with overall place.

The post-race food and drinks consisted of water, chocolate milk, bananas, oranges, and a Panera Bread bag lunch (I got the turkey sandwich, bag of chips, and a cookie). There was also a ham or veggie sandwich option. I also got 1 free Michelob Ultra beer for finishing the race! In addition to all of this, there was also a band, Wheelhouse, playing music for the spectators and runners.

Overall:
For me I went into the race knowing I wasn't going for a PR due to just completing a full marathon a month ago, but I still had a goal of finishing in under a 1:50. This course definitely helped make this possible, and I was able to finish in a 1:48:27 with my family cheering me on as I crossed the finish line!

This race is about 4 1/2 hours from my house in MN, so I made the trip with my family and stayed at my in-laws house in Madison all weekend. It was nice having the start and end of the race in Capitol Square. The size of the race was really nice and didn’t make for much congestion at all. For a November race, the weather couldn’t have been better. I would recommend this race to others looking for a well organized, late season fall race! In addition to the race being well organized, they were also very active on social media providing need to know information leading up to the race weekend!

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