Derby Festival Mini Marathon Race Recap

Good Monday to you! What did you get into this weekend? I didn't do much...other than a little half mary. I should preface this by saying sometime last week I tweaked my back a bit but didn't let it bother me. I finished classes and was pretty much hanging out at home most of the week so figured I was in perfect race shape. My mom has also started walking and did her first mile last week with me and the pup and I was really excited about that! Since my pretty great 10 Miler I've been really looking forward to the mini and decided I was going to shoot for a 2:30. The first time I ran it in 2009 I did a 2:45 so if I could've been close to that time I would've been happy...but I would've been happier with 2:30...or 2:25 ;) Anyway, that didn't happen and now that I'm done sulking I'm less disappointed and can write a relatively decent recap. Now that that's out of the way...

Alarm went off at 5 am and I headed downstairs to wake up my pup for her morning walk. It was probably one of the hardest parts of the day since we've gotten out of our early morning routine. I ate my standard half  waffle with cinnamon raisin granola peanut butter and drank a little Nuun before heading out to pick up my mom and head downtown. Everything about the drive was uneventful which is the way I like my races to start. I parked literally right at the start, Corral F to be exact and made my usual two trip potty run. Autumn was also running but like a crazy person she worked the night shift before the race meaning 7 pm Friday night into 7 am Saturday morning with a race start time of 7:30 am. Crazy stuff right? So I hung around the start with my mom hoping she would make it in time to start with me (Corral E) but we'd talked about it beforehand and I was just going to start even if she was late and we'd meet up at the finish. I got her race updates sent to my phone so I'd know when she started.

 Waiting around at the start

Louisville Loves Boston 

I'll keep my comments about this pic to myself

It took almost 10 minutes to cross the start and once again I was a lonely Harlem Shaker since my sister hadn't made it down yet. She luckily only works about a mile away but walking a mile before running 13 still sounds pretty awful if you ask me. I sent her some words of encouragement and made my way across the start. I was really nervous at the line and wanted to stop in the loo again but figured it was just nerves. Well half a mile in I realized it wasn't nerves and I really did have to go for an unprecedented third time. I was so mad! I've never had to stop during a race so I was really disappointed but made a mad sprint to the first potty I found which was just after the 1 mile mark at the first water stop. A pretty remarkably awful twelve minutes later I was back out on the course and pretty much heartbroken that I'd never make up that much time. Around mile 4 I came upon my sister who had started almost 10 minutes after me. It sucked I'd lost the time but I was glad to see her and we trotted along together. Not long after I started getting some pretty intense back pain. In my stress from starting the race and the pit stop I had totally forgotten about my back. I kept running but by mile 5 the pain had tightened up my lower back and started into my glute. I finally let my sister in on the secret and she informed me of how much her knee was hurting. Once again we were a mess so with the time lost and the unidentified injury I abandoned my hopes of a respectable finishing time and we decided to be "those people". You know who I'm talking about. The ones who give high fives to bystanders and woo all over themselves. We were just going to have fun. And fun we had...sorta. We did the chicken dance just before the 10k split. We picked up some fun purple leis after mile 7 then headed into Churchill Downs which is always a blast. By this point we were quite a sad duo with our hobbling and such but were still trying to make the best of it. Watching the Derby horses workout and trying to avoid smelling the Derby horses working out. We came out of Churchill which always makes you feel like a celebrity because of all the people out cheering. We came up on the marathon split and were glad to be turning left this time instead of right like in 2010. We also saw our lulus! You may or may not be familiar but they've got their fun signs that look something like this (compliments of their Facebook page):

We hit mile 9 right after the marathoners hit their 18 and it was neat to watch some of them go by. As awful as we were feeling we just kept talking about how excited we are for our fall full marys. The 3:00 or 3:30 (can't remember which one) passed us and they were looking strong. I'm hoping to do my full in the fall in around 5:00 but we'll see how that goes. More importantly, we came up on 10 miles back near the chicken dancers but I was feeling a lot less festive. Autumn hung tough about a minute or so behind me and I made sure to check out where she was from time to time. Unfortunately my mad dash to the loo and back to the course plus all of my usual zig zagging added about a quarter mile to my race which sucked since I'd get to the mile markers after my mile Garmin beeps but I just kept trucking along. There were some frat guys out with beers that they weren't handing out and I'm pretty sure they hadn't been to bed yet from Friday...you know, just like my sister. Around the 12.5 mark I spotted my mom who was quite excited and told me my sister wasn't far behind. I kicked it into the highest gear I had to come in for a strong finish. All I can say is ouch. My back pain had made it's way into my hamstring, my IT band was acting up on the opposite leg, my hips were already sore and my feet were killing me (from kicking so much ass-phalt) but I ran as fast as I possibly could and am legit nervous to see the grimace in my finish line photos. I was so happy and proud to have finished but apparently I looked so rough that 2 (count em, two) volunteers ran out to me asking if I needed help. Luckily I've had meningitis so most pain on a 1 to meningitis scale hangs around a 2. Although my sister made me use my 1 to last summer's shoulder injury scale which put my pain significantly higher. I pulled myself through the finishing chute but hung around long enough to meet my sister. We were both so happy to have finished and happier to know we could finally stop moving. We made our way back to my mom and eventually made it back home. I managed a 2:59 which was disappointing but I do feel better knowing that without the 12 minute pit stop I might have done something like a 2:47 which isn't far from 2009 when I was at least 30 pounds lighter. All in all I really am proud of myself and the disappointment has subsided a bit.

I took yesterday off and my back is actually feeling a lot better today although I haven't tried to run. I did however try out a swim and it went quite well. I definitely need another half for redemption but not sure when that will be, probably not until I start training for the full. Now it's Derby week which means it's also triathlon season!