Originally posted June 9, 2018.
As expected it was a short night. If you have ever done road races you know you have to get up early and usually sleep light because you don’t want to oversleep. As I said in my previous blog post I also lost an hour because I was now in the Eastern Time Zone. My biggest issue now was that I needed breakfast as I realized on the way that I forgot to bring my egg muffin. I ended up getting an egg at McDonald's that was a great relief as I knew I couldn’t do a half marathon without eating breakfast not a good thing to start on empty. I made it to the start line with plenty of time to drop off my gear at gear check. It was interesting as I was getting ready to start the race I knew those who I trained with were probably just arriving at the St. Jude Marathon in Nashville. It did seem strange not seeing them since we had run together every Saturday since January. Also, I had completed the St. Jude ½ marathon or 5K since 2010. The Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon had been on my radar for a while and I decided it was time to do it. Although it is smaller than the St. Jude Marathon and ½ marathon the Derby Marathon and Mini Marathon is a large race. The mini-marathon began in 1974 and the marathon was added in 2002, “the largest day of road racing in Kentucky history”. There were approximately 12,000 runners in both races. Participants were from all 50 states and several other countries. The marathon is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. No, I have no plans to try and qualify for Boston. That would require at least two marathons that I have no intention of completing, one to qualify and then Boston. I would love to go watch the Boston Marathon sometime though. As advertised the course was mostly flat, compared to Nashville it was flat. Even though we were in corrals it wasn’t a wave start (each corral is started a couple minutes apart). I was in “F” corral, yep that’s right F for fabulous, and about three corrals from the back. As we moved forward I said something to this lady about her hat, yes, it is derby time and time for hats. She said that her and some friends are doing a marathon in each state. Next year they are planning to do the Quad Cities Marathon, it will count for Illinois. I told her that I did the ½ twice and that it was a great race. I didn’t realize that there is a club, but at this race I noticed people wearing shirts that had a map of the United States and then each state is filled in as you complete the marathons or ½ marathons. I like the idea and it would be a great way to see the country, but I’m going to pass on that adventure. As we got closer to the start line we wished each other luck and I didn’t see her again. It was packed as we were winding through the downtown streets of Louisville. At about mile 2 the streets started to thin out but there were always people around the rest of the race. I felt good the first 7 miles, it was warm but not bad. At mile 8 we were at Churchill Downs it was time to take a few pictures. A few years ago, I had stopped in Louisville and toured Churchill Downs and the museum, it was a cool experience and probably made this day a little more special. As I entered Churchill Downs I remembered seeing some of the different areas and their description of how things occur on the day of the Kentucky Derby. We then entered the inside of the track and started going around the facility, which was probably about a half-mile. When I exited Churchill downs it was 4 ½ miles to the finish line. I had been running the race at 2:1 intervals (run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute), but when I got to mile 10 I had to do some 1:1 intervals. Then I was just getting tired and wanted to finish so I did more 2:1’s. When I turned the corner toward the finish line I was ready to be done and with a block to go I decided it was time to dig deep and go with everything I had. I ran the whole block and faster than I thought I could. I was surprised I had that much left. I finished at 2:52:53 with an average pace of 13:11. When I finished I was initially disappointed because I didn’t PR (personal record), but as the day progressed I realized there were more positives about this race than the one negative of no PR. My goal was to finish at 2:30 or at the very least beat my best time of 2:43:52, which was in Nashville in 2014. I finished standing and upright to quote Peter Pressman. I ran most of the race doing 2:1 intervals and had trained to do 1:1 intervals because I committed to being a pacer/mentor for Fleet Feet during spring training. I had my most consistent splits through mile 10 except for mile 9 because I stopped and took pictures. My nutrition was spot on and I wasn’t extremely sore. The final and most positive about this race is that I was less than 10 minutes from a PR 9 months after major surgery (removal of my appendix). Life can be awesome when you put things into perspective. The medal is so cool with the twin spires and on the back, it says, “I ran through Churchill Downs”. (I didn’t notice that until I got home and was unpacking) Even though I had a great time I couldn’t wait to find out how the people that I trained with did in their ½ marathon in Nashville, which I would find out later that they all rocked their race too. The next part of this adventure will take me on two bourbon distillery tours, which will be in the next blog post. So, until then enjoy each adventure no matter how big or small.
As expected it was a short night. If you have ever done road races you know you have to get up early and usually sleep light because you don’t want to oversleep. As I said in my previous blog post I also lost an hour because I was now in the Eastern Time Zone. My biggest issue now was that I needed breakfast as I realized on the way that I forgot to bring my egg muffin. I ended up getting an egg at McDonald's that was a great relief as I knew I couldn’t do a half marathon without eating breakfast not a good thing to start on empty. I made it to the start line with plenty of time to drop off my gear at gear check. It was interesting as I was getting ready to start the race I knew those who I trained with were probably just arriving at the St. Jude Marathon in Nashville. It did seem strange not seeing them since we had run together every Saturday since January. Also, I had completed the St. Jude ½ marathon or 5K since 2010. The Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon had been on my radar for a while and I decided it was time to do it. Although it is smaller than the St. Jude Marathon and ½ marathon the Derby Marathon and Mini Marathon is a large race. The mini-marathon began in 1974 and the marathon was added in 2002, “the largest day of road racing in Kentucky history”. There were approximately 12,000 runners in both races. Participants were from all 50 states and several other countries. The marathon is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. No, I have no plans to try and qualify for Boston. That would require at least two marathons that I have no intention of completing, one to qualify and then Boston. I would love to go watch the Boston Marathon sometime though. As advertised the course was mostly flat, compared to Nashville it was flat. Even though we were in corrals it wasn’t a wave start (each corral is started a couple minutes apart). I was in “F” corral, yep that’s right F for fabulous, and about three corrals from the back. As we moved forward I said something to this lady about her hat, yes, it is derby time and time for hats. She said that her and some friends are doing a marathon in each state. Next year they are planning to do the Quad Cities Marathon, it will count for Illinois. I told her that I did the ½ twice and that it was a great race. I didn’t realize that there is a club, but at this race I noticed people wearing shirts that had a map of the United States and then each state is filled in as you complete the marathons or ½ marathons. I like the idea and it would be a great way to see the country, but I’m going to pass on that adventure. As we got closer to the start line we wished each other luck and I didn’t see her again. It was packed as we were winding through the downtown streets of Louisville. At about mile 2 the streets started to thin out but there were always people around the rest of the race. I felt good the first 7 miles, it was warm but not bad. At mile 8 we were at Churchill Downs it was time to take a few pictures. A few years ago, I had stopped in Louisville and toured Churchill Downs and the museum, it was a cool experience and probably made this day a little more special. As I entered Churchill Downs I remembered seeing some of the different areas and their description of how things occur on the day of the Kentucky Derby. We then entered the inside of the track and started going around the facility, which was probably about a half-mile. When I exited Churchill downs it was 4 ½ miles to the finish line. I had been running the race at 2:1 intervals (run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute), but when I got to mile 10 I had to do some 1:1 intervals. Then I was just getting tired and wanted to finish so I did more 2:1’s. When I turned the corner toward the finish line I was ready to be done and with a block to go I decided it was time to dig deep and go with everything I had. I ran the whole block and faster than I thought I could. I was surprised I had that much left. I finished at 2:52:53 with an average pace of 13:11. When I finished I was initially disappointed because I didn’t PR (personal record), but as the day progressed I realized there were more positives about this race than the one negative of no PR. My goal was to finish at 2:30 or at the very least beat my best time of 2:43:52, which was in Nashville in 2014. I finished standing and upright to quote Peter Pressman. I ran most of the race doing 2:1 intervals and had trained to do 1:1 intervals because I committed to being a pacer/mentor for Fleet Feet during spring training. I had my most consistent splits through mile 10 except for mile 9 because I stopped and took pictures. My nutrition was spot on and I wasn’t extremely sore. The final and most positive about this race is that I was less than 10 minutes from a PR 9 months after major surgery (removal of my appendix). Life can be awesome when you put things into perspective. The medal is so cool with the twin spires and on the back, it says, “I ran through Churchill Downs”. (I didn’t notice that until I got home and was unpacking) Even though I had a great time I couldn’t wait to find out how the people that I trained with did in their ½ marathon in Nashville, which I would find out later that they all rocked their race too. The next part of this adventure will take me on two bourbon distillery tours, which will be in the next blog post. So, until then enjoy each adventure no matter how big or small.
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