Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon - RunMarathon

The run went well. I started off with the 3:30 pace group. About mile 6, they slowed for a water stop and I went ahead. They were within 10 yards of me the whole time until they caught me about mile 18. Miles14-17 were in a park with some hills and I started slowing down, but not drastically so. Once out of the park, I started to feel the heat. The last 5 miles were back into the downtown area, across the huge bridge (long slow uphill going each way) and then a quick loop through downtown. I only walked at water stations from mile 19 to the finish and I never walked more than about 40 yards. My slowest mile was at 9:30. I was very tired at the end and my quads were hurting, but I never cramped up and I was able to run the entire last 1.2 miles to the finish. Overall, I was very pleased. I could have gone faster, but I felt good all afternoon, was able to walk around a bit and enjoy Churchill Downs with the girls and am only minimally sore today.


Nothing, pretty solid effort all the way around for me

walked around the food areas, met up with Nancy and the girls and walked 1/2 mile back to the hotel. Laid on the floor with my feet up for 30 minutes


heat


The race was excellent. I got to the Expo late on Friday night and a lot of it had been shut down, but it was a nice convention center, there obviously had been quite a few vendors.
Race start was very nice in Iroquois Park. My only gripe is the first 5 miles or so are mostly in this park with very narrow 2lane roads with no shoulder. 10000 people is a lot of people running very close together for 5 miles. Once out of the park, it was great. About mile 8, you get to run into Churchill Downs and run a loop around the infield - not on the racetrack itself. There were a lot of horses out for training runs but was a pretty diversion from the running. Miles 9 - 14 are pretty dull going across the city, and then 14-18 are in another park that is nice and hilly. Coming out of the park back to downtown was very genereic, but once you get back to town, you run across the bridge - a mile each way - and back to a finish downtown.

Organization was great, plenty of volunteers, good aid stations, lots of support form the crowds, especially in the first 10 and last 5 miles.

The best thing about this race was at the water stations, they gave out the little 6 or 8 oz bottles instead of little cups of water. It was nice to be able to take a bottle and carry it with me to drink or pour it on me. And the small size didn't make it feel like I was carrying around weights. It was a huge positive from my perspective