Bill Hable in the Race!

September 17, 2014

Submitted by Bill Hable

It really was one of the few hot and humid days during the summer of 2014. Perfect timing for the Milwaukee Striders half marathon. About 1,000 runners showed up for what promised to be an ‘interesting’ race.

I’m certainly not a fast runner anymore, but I’m experienced – a nicer word than ‘old’. And that helped a lot.

I virtually jog the first 3 miles and then took another 3 miles to build up to what passes for ‘race pace’.

Anyway, I’m about half way through the race and just about everybody seems to be ahead of me. Then, lo and behold, I start passing the myriad of ‘gassed’ runners as we make ourselves back to Estabrook Park for the finish.

Allowed myself to go to the ‘red line’ for the last mile and finished with a smile on my face which was goal #1. Ran the second half of the race faster than the first half (so-called ‘negative split’) which was goal #2.

And blessed are thinly populated age brackets. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the podium and receiving a 3rd place medal.