The Derb
It seems to be my tradition, over the last 3 years, to run a marathon this particular weekend every April. I ran the Country Music Marathon in Nashville for the past two years, and after a squarcher of a race last year, I decided it was time for a change of scene.
I was able to leave from Auburn on Thursday since my Friday class was canceled. I decided to spend the night in Huntsville with my parents to break up some of my traveling.
I got my packet at the lackluster expo, and proceeded to head over to The Trail Store to meet fellow running buddy, Tim Barnes. He was kind enough to let me crash at his place before the big day. On Friday afternoon I went on an easy 4 mile maintenance run to make sure all systems were go. They didn't seem to be. Maybe it was the long drive or something but I was not firing on all cylinders that afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow would prove to be better.
0430 my phone alarm woke me from a much needed couple hours of sleep. The weather reports were promising a full day of heavy rain and thunder storms. How exciting.
After parking my car near the finish line, I took a bus to the start line with plenty of time to spare before the race began. Good thing too as I was able to use the facilities at a nearby Walgreens before there were any lines. So far the weather hadn't been to bad; just a steady drizzle. As the sun attempted to penetrate a few of the clouds to the east, I went on a short jog, down a block and back. I thought of things I shouldn't be thinking about at that moment, reminding myself that I had given blood 13 days ago, reminding myself that my foot felt a little nqr yesterday. Down and back the block I went and I was actually feeling just fine. All systems go. The drizzle stopped. The temperature was in the high 50's. Hemoglobin deficiencies be dammed! This is gonna be a good day of running.
Of course it was. Knock on wood, stuff like this always seems to come together on race day.
The national anthem played, the hammer fell on the primer of a blank round and ignited some gunpowder to signal the start of the race, and sea of runners began spilling forward. The first few miles of a marathon always seem to go by quickly (very much unlike the last few miles) and these first few miles were no different. Though I was wearing my Garmin to keep pace, I was trying to look at it sparingly. Mile 1,2,3,4, my legs took easily in stride. I was doing my best to run as economically as possible, slowing it up on the first few uphills and taking advantage of the down hills, trying to maintain an even output of energy. After about 7 miles through some neighborhood roads and some roads flanked by a canopy of moist deciduous trees, the familiar, pungent scent of horse apples slipped up my nostrils as we made our way into Churchill Downs, the location of the famous Kentucky Derby for which this race was aptly named after. Up until then I had been running with the 3:20 (7:38 total average min/mile pace) pace group whose pace seemed to match mine so far. I had been averaging 7:19 so far and began to pull away from that group. I knew it would probably catch up to me later, but I was feeling pretty good.
The course took us through some business districts and under some very active train tracks before the "miniMarathoners" (half marathoners) split off and left a relatively small number of us to finish the full. A few miles later and we were taken into a hilly park. Til now the hills hadn't been so bad, but that would change.
I was back with that pace group and stayed with them throughout the park, from miles 13-17ish. I spotted some trail heads and started to wish the course would take us down those, but, disappointingly, it did not. I also spotted Tim Barnes on the side of the road at the top of a hill cheering me on. I kinda wished he had positioned himself at mile 23 or so so I could get his motivation when I really needed it, but it was good to see at least one person I knew. (That I know of, no one I knew ran the race, or was even in the city for that matter. I was flyin solo.)
The park section eventually ended and spit us out on a road that had a good vantage point of the bridge we would run over and back in a few miles.
Mile 20. I took my one and only walk break of the race to refuel with my last gu, another S!cap, and a hand full of chocolate covered espresso beans I brought with me. As I was crossing the bridge, it seemed to be a lot longer than it looked.
"Welcome to Indiana."
For the first time in a road race, I had crossed a state line. I did not enjoy my time in Indiana unfortunately. Mile 22-24 were spent on the other side of the river and my muscles were really getting tired of this whole running on a road business. They were missing the trails.
5k left. I was running along side of the Ohio River after a small out n back section and spotted the finish line on the other side. I could actually see the rest of the road I needed to run on between now and then, but I still had 3 miles to go.
Heading back across the bridge and I was ready to be done. My pace had dropped off, now closer to 7:40. Those hills had paid their toll. I wasn't too sure that I would finish in under 3:20 but at this point I just wanted to finish. I had spent a lot of energy today and didn't have much of a kick left.
Finally back across the bridge and on to my last mile. Most of this last portion was shared with the miniMarathoners (walkers at this point) and there were TONS of them who were still finishing while myself and the other marathoners were trying to negotiate those last few thousand feet. It didn't help either that these walkers tended to be on the, uh, heavy side, taking up a bit more of the road than they should've been. Hey, at least they're not kickin up their feet on the coffee table.
Round the last corner and the finish line was down the hill, spectators galore. As the mad licks from Metallica's guitars came booming from the speakers I sprinted the last few hundred yards for a solid PR of 3:23:01.
The finisher's corral was not nearly as well stocked as was CMM's but my race bib did have a coupon on it promising a free Michelob. As I made my way towards the huge tent handing out the free beers, I wondered if they really expected all us runners to have our id's on us.
I was feelin kinda stiff, yet extremely satisfied at being done as I made my way over to a bench with my recently acquired beverage, complements of Anheuser-Busch, over looking the expansive Ohio River and the bridge that gave passage to other marathoners finishing up their final mile.
I was able to leave from Auburn on Thursday since my Friday class was canceled. I decided to spend the night in Huntsville with my parents to break up some of my traveling.
I got my packet at the lackluster expo, and proceeded to head over to The Trail Store to meet fellow running buddy, Tim Barnes. He was kind enough to let me crash at his place before the big day. On Friday afternoon I went on an easy 4 mile maintenance run to make sure all systems were go. They didn't seem to be. Maybe it was the long drive or something but I was not firing on all cylinders that afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow would prove to be better.
0430 my phone alarm woke me from a much needed couple hours of sleep. The weather reports were promising a full day of heavy rain and thunder storms. How exciting.
After parking my car near the finish line, I took a bus to the start line with plenty of time to spare before the race began. Good thing too as I was able to use the facilities at a nearby Walgreens before there were any lines. So far the weather hadn't been to bad; just a steady drizzle. As the sun attempted to penetrate a few of the clouds to the east, I went on a short jog, down a block and back. I thought of things I shouldn't be thinking about at that moment, reminding myself that I had given blood 13 days ago, reminding myself that my foot felt a little nqr yesterday. Down and back the block I went and I was actually feeling just fine. All systems go. The drizzle stopped. The temperature was in the high 50's. Hemoglobin deficiencies be dammed! This is gonna be a good day of running.
Of course it was. Knock on wood, stuff like this always seems to come together on race day.
The national anthem played, the hammer fell on the primer of a blank round and ignited some gunpowder to signal the start of the race, and sea of runners began spilling forward. The first few miles of a marathon always seem to go by quickly (very much unlike the last few miles) and these first few miles were no different. Though I was wearing my Garmin to keep pace, I was trying to look at it sparingly. Mile 1,2,3,4, my legs took easily in stride. I was doing my best to run as economically as possible, slowing it up on the first few uphills and taking advantage of the down hills, trying to maintain an even output of energy. After about 7 miles through some neighborhood roads and some roads flanked by a canopy of moist deciduous trees, the familiar, pungent scent of horse apples slipped up my nostrils as we made our way into Churchill Downs, the location of the famous Kentucky Derby for which this race was aptly named after. Up until then I had been running with the 3:20 (7:38 total average min/mile pace) pace group whose pace seemed to match mine so far. I had been averaging 7:19 so far and began to pull away from that group. I knew it would probably catch up to me later, but I was feeling pretty good.
The course took us through some business districts and under some very active train tracks before the "miniMarathoners" (half marathoners) split off and left a relatively small number of us to finish the full. A few miles later and we were taken into a hilly park. Til now the hills hadn't been so bad, but that would change.
I was back with that pace group and stayed with them throughout the park, from miles 13-17ish. I spotted some trail heads and started to wish the course would take us down those, but, disappointingly, it did not. I also spotted Tim Barnes on the side of the road at the top of a hill cheering me on. I kinda wished he had positioned himself at mile 23 or so so I could get his motivation when I really needed it, but it was good to see at least one person I knew. (That I know of, no one I knew ran the race, or was even in the city for that matter. I was flyin solo.)
The park section eventually ended and spit us out on a road that had a good vantage point of the bridge we would run over and back in a few miles.
Mile 20. I took my one and only walk break of the race to refuel with my last gu, another S!cap, and a hand full of chocolate covered espresso beans I brought with me. As I was crossing the bridge, it seemed to be a lot longer than it looked.
"Welcome to Indiana."
For the first time in a road race, I had crossed a state line. I did not enjoy my time in Indiana unfortunately. Mile 22-24 were spent on the other side of the river and my muscles were really getting tired of this whole running on a road business. They were missing the trails.
5k left. I was running along side of the Ohio River after a small out n back section and spotted the finish line on the other side. I could actually see the rest of the road I needed to run on between now and then, but I still had 3 miles to go.
Heading back across the bridge and I was ready to be done. My pace had dropped off, now closer to 7:40. Those hills had paid their toll. I wasn't too sure that I would finish in under 3:20 but at this point I just wanted to finish. I had spent a lot of energy today and didn't have much of a kick left.
Finally back across the bridge and on to my last mile. Most of this last portion was shared with the miniMarathoners (walkers at this point) and there were TONS of them who were still finishing while myself and the other marathoners were trying to negotiate those last few thousand feet. It didn't help either that these walkers tended to be on the, uh, heavy side, taking up a bit more of the road than they should've been. Hey, at least they're not kickin up their feet on the coffee table.
Round the last corner and the finish line was down the hill, spectators galore. As the mad licks from Metallica's guitars came booming from the speakers I sprinted the last few hundred yards for a solid PR of 3:23:01.
The finisher's corral was not nearly as well stocked as was CMM's but my race bib did have a coupon on it promising a free Michelob. As I made my way towards the huge tent handing out the free beers, I wondered if they really expected all us runners to have our id's on us.
I was feelin kinda stiff, yet extremely satisfied at being done as I made my way over to a bench with my recently acquired beverage, complements of Anheuser-Busch, over looking the expansive Ohio River and the bridge that gave passage to other marathoners finishing up their final mile.
Comments
Post a Comment