Milwaukee Lakefront Half — Sun Oct 4, 2026

Mile-by-mile card · official course GPX · VDOT 46

Net−7 ft

Climb rate33.5 ft/mi

57% of climbmi 1, 8, 9, 12

Net-flat, not flat. No elevation penalty in the goal time, but 33.5 ft/mi of climb (flat is 10–20) stacked into four miles. Run one pace and the hills run you. Run the column.

The Pace Card

Mile	Profile	Target	Cumulative
1	climbing — crest is 1.24, not the sign	8:07	8:06
2	over the top at 1.24	7:40	15:46
3	gentle climb to 3.72	7:39	23:25
4	crest 3.72, then down	7:41	31:06
5	steepest descent, −4.4% — let it roll	7:19	38:25
6	bottoms out 6.18	7:34	45:59
7	long climb has already begun — gentle	7:36	53:35
8	big climb 7.76–8.55	7:54	1:01:29
9	first half is still the climb, crest 8.55	7:45	1:09:14
10	descending to 10.32	7:33	1:16:46
11	not flat — climb starts 10.32	7:38	1:24:25
12	3.2% core 11.84–12.11 — still climbing at the sign	7:56	1:32:21
13	crest 12.26, then −119 ft to the line	7:21	1:39:42
.11	downhill finish	7:17	1:40:30

The Four Miles That Matter

Mile 1 — 8:07. The climb runs to 1.24, past the sign. It will feel wrong on adrenaline. Chasing 7:40 here is the most expensive mistake available to you.
Mile 5 — 7:19. Don't brake, don't hammer. It should feel easier than mile 4. If it feels like work, you overspent early.
Miles 8–9 — 7:54 / 7:45. +118 ft cresting half a mile into mile 9. Hold effort, not pace. Re-settle to 7:36–7:40 within 30 sec of cresting at 8.55.
Miles 11–12 — 7:38 / 7:56. This decides the race: +103 ft, crest 0.26 past the 12-mile sign. Arrive at 11.8 intact and the last 0.85 is free speed. Trashed quads can't run downhill.

The Pacer

Mile 1 is the test. Group through in 7:35–7:45 = even splits, let them go. Group through in 8:00–8:10 = even effort, sit on them and stop managing pace.
Expect to drop on 1, 8, 12 and regain on 5, 10, 13. The sign pulling away on a climb is the plan working.
The cumulative column outranks the group. Checkpoints: mile 6 at 45:59, mile 10 at 1:16:46. If those match, you're on A wherever the sign is.
If it's windy, take the shelter. Exposed lakefront — a pack into a headwind beats any split-by-split call here, climb miles included.
Leash limit: HR above 178 before mile 10 means you're running their race.

Execution

Program the watch by PACE. One field, current-lap pace. HR on screen 2 as a guardrail only: above 178 before mile 10 = back off. Do not manage both numbers.
Auto Lap 1 mi, but trust the course markers. GPS reads long by 0.1–0.2 mi, which makes your watch pace look faster than it is. Check the cumulative column at the signs, not at the beeps.
Run the tangents — 115 m on the table, 18–25 sec realistically, and three-quarters of it is before mile 5.2. Bend-by-bend: tangent map.
Upside branch: if you crest mile 8 controlled rather than surviving, take miles 9–11 at 7:33–7:36 and bank ~20 sec. Not before mile 8.

Fueling

Bagel protocol for breakfast, unchanged. No new variables race morning.
Two own gels (100 cal), carried. Gel 1 at the mile 4 station, Gel 2 at the mile 10 station — both flat, both timed to land before the climb that follows.
Gels with water. Endurance at the other stations. Never both at once.
Take every station except 12 — five cups, ~15–20 oz total (~9–12 oz/hr, the bottom of your long-run rate).
Empty each cup, over 50–100 m — carry it past the table rather than chugging at it. Sipping is what leaves you 8 oz short across five stations.
Mile 8 station is not optional — longest dry stretch of the race follows. Water only, down before the grade starts at 7.76.
Skip mile 12. Mid-ramp at 3.8%, 1.1 mi from the line. Nothing taken there arrives in time.

Station	Terrain	Take
~2	just over the crest, −1.8%	Endurance
~4	flat, before the descent	Gel 1 + water
~6	last easy station before the big climb	Endurance
~8	foot of the 113 ft climb	water — don't skip
~10	flat, before the 1.94-mi climb	Gel 2 + water
~12	mid-ramp, 3.8%	skip

Cups on the move, no stops. What's unrehearsed is the sequencing — water-with-gel vs. drink-alone across five stations — and cup handling at 7:40 rather than the 8:18–10:07 of prior races. Run that sequence in the Wk 17 long run.

Abort Conditions

+30 sec ahead of the column through mile 6 — you're borrowing. Give it back over 6–7.
HR above 178 before mile 10, or the mile 8 climb takes everything you have — add 7 sec/mi to every remaining target and hold it to the line. That finishes around 1:42, still a 6-min PR over the April pro-rated 1:48:36. One adjustment, made once, not renegotiated each mile.

Source: half_marathon.gpx, 13.124 mi · Minetti (2002) energy cost · VDOT 46 (Aug 22 5K, 21:24) · elevation validated against your 2025 Lakefront Marathon barometer. Mile 8 may be ~9 ft worse than tabled.