Kentucky Derby Mini (Half) Marathon Race Report

Goal: 1:29:59

I heard that 18000 runners signed up for this race (full and half marathon together), so I was worried that it would be impossible to park in any reasonable distance from the start line. I got up very early (4:30), and I left home at around 5:25 for the 7:30 start. I found a parking spot (the lot was empty) less than a mile from the start line, and I relaxed in the car until about 6:20. Then I walked to the start area, found a port-a-potty (really needed it this time, but there were no lines!), and then I found my corral. I was starting in corral B, right behind the seeded runners. I was actually running more like the seeded runners' pace, but this was my debut half-marathon, so I had no chance to get seeded.

The weather was ideal: 53 degrees and cloudy, but no rain. I warmed up in the corral for 15 minutes, mostly just by jogging in place and in small circles, because there was no space to do anything else. But it was OK. Corral adherence was great: I only saw one or two people who didn't belong there.

I finished the warmup at 7:15, and for the remaining 15 minutes, we heard the national anthem, we watched the wheelchair racers to start, and at 7:30 to the second, the race started. I went out at a pace that was about the same as the runners' around me, which proved to be a little faster than intended. But I felt relaxed, so I didn't worry about it.

Mile 1: 6:43

Pretty much the same was true for the next two miles. We were running through some working class neighborhoods of Louisville, but the residents were very supportive, cheering us on.

Mile 2: 6:42

Mile 3: 6:50

I was still pacing off of people around me, i.e. I fought the urge to start passing people. We turned east on Broadway into some substantial headwind, and I found myself in no man's land fighting the wind myself. I decided to accelerate to pull myself close to a big guy to help me draft.

Mile 4: 6:47

Due to my acceleration I now was running among 6:45/mile runners, but I had no problem keeping the pace. I was slightly worried that I would die at the end, especially because I was planning 6:50-6:52 pace, but I'm a gambler.

Mile 5: 6:45

We were running through the beautiful Old Louisville with the Victorian houses. The spectators were amazing. An aid station offered oranges, but I skipped it.

Mile 6: 6:45

I caught up to a guy, who seemed to follow a tactic of sprinting 100 meters, then getting winded and slowing down, then recovering and repeating the pattern. I'm not kidding: he was doing this until at least mile 8.5, when I finally left him behind for good.

I started to feel thirsty, and that worried me. I skipped the very first aid station, and they only gave very little water in small plastic cups in the later ones, so I didn't take in enough. My worst bonks happened due to dehydration, so I was worried that I could ruin this race despite starting so promising.

Mile 7: 6:40

There was an aid station right after the mile marker, and I took two cups of water just in time. After this I took two cups in the next two aid stations (skipping the last one at mile 12), so hydration was fine.

Before the race I debated if I should bring my Garmin to the race, and finally I decided I would do so. But I also had a detailed pace chart (my wife was so nice that she laminated it for me), which proved to be very useful later in the race, when the Garmin's error grew large enough, so that the mile markers didn't line up with the Garmin any more.

Mile 8: 6:47

After the mile marker followed one of the most prominent features of this course: we entered Churchill Downs, one of the most famous horse race courses of the world, which will be the venue of the Kentucky Derby a week from now. We didn't run on the track, of course, but on the service road inside the track. We crossed two tunnels to go under the track. Even though this is a trademark of this course, I didn't like it that much. The tunnels feel claustrophobic, too many turns, and my Garmin lost signal in the tunnels, so it's data was very inaccurate after this.

Mile 9: 6:42

OK, 4.1 miles left, I was still fine, my breathing was still 2-2 pattern. Maybe it's time to accelerate. I changed to 2-1 breathing, accelerated, and started to pick out people in front of me. Maybe it was the liberation from restrains, but I started to feel better, even though I was running faster.

Mile 10: 6:34

There was one mishap here: I forgot that the Garmin would only display the minutes of the total time beyond 1 hour (at least in the display mode I was using), so I wasn't sure any more how much ahead of pace I was. But it did display average pace, and I knew I was running fast, so I knew that barring disaster, sub-1:30 is in the bag. So I just concentrated on the remaining distance and I tried to gauge my effort for that. I was fast and passing runners all the time. For a while I was running behind a tall guy, who did the same, but eventually I passed him, too.

Mile 11: 6:33

Straight road, close to finish, running fast, passing people. No pain, euphoria.

Mile 12: 6:27

We were back downtown, took our last turn before the finish line. The course had a slight incline here, and I started to doubt my strategy and that maybe I accelerated too early. But it's OK. Remember, if you don't struggle, you didn't run hard enough. I passed a few more people.

Mile 13: 6:33

Finish line, downhill, usual euphoria, out of body experience. I saw the finish clock showing 1:27:xx. Dropped the hammer and shot down to the finish line in 30 seconds (4:28/mile pace).

Total time: 1:27:11 (chip time; clock time was 12 seconds slower).

Overall 122th place (out of 12108), 103th male, 14th in my age group. No awards of course.

It makes me wonder that I could have run faster if I started out faster, because I ran the last 5 kms in 20:02 (according to Garmin), which is a pretty good 5K time by itself, and down right amazing after a 10 mile warmup at race pace. But it's not that clear: the first few miles felt relaxed, but not too easy. I think that I probably could have saved a minute, tops.

The past race party was fun. I met up with friends, had some snacks and a beer. It's funny that running makes everything so much better: I liked the taste of Michelob Ultra.

With this performance I can get seeded next year. However temping it would be now to start to work on my marathon goals (I think I could BQ after a cycle), it is even more tempting to run this race next year. The organization was perfect. Seriously, I had to think hard to find just one thing that wasn't perfect. (And I did: the plastic cups. Paper cups are so much easier to drink from while running.) The last 5K suggests I'm not at the limit of my abilities. I could drop a few more pounds, devote another year for half marathon performance, and I could probably go sub-1:25 or better.

For now, I will take a bit of a break. I haven't decided what it will mean, but probably a month of very little running. Though it's tempting to eradicate those very soft 10K and somewhat soft 5K PRs of mine.