Derby Festival Mini-Marathon: My Race Review

Hello Everybody! Justin and I went to Louisville over the weekend and ran the Kentucky Derby Festival “Mini” Marathon. I put it in quotations because there is nothing mini about it! It is an honest, to goodness, half-marathon. Calling things mini, make it cute and enticing doesn’t it?

Overall, I would have to say it was a good race for my first half marathon. Here are some of the pluses:

• Relatively flat course (some small hills but that’s about it)
• You got a tech shirt and medal for finishing (As a running newbie, you gotta get give me a good incentive, other than the standard cotton tee, to run my butt off, lol…).
• Good support from the crowds all along the course
• The free snacks afterwards. It was a literally smorgasbord with bananas, waters, bagels, South Beach Diet bars, Fig Newtons, and wait for it—chocolate milk! I was wandering around the post-race area looking for my sis-in-law and Justin with my arms full of snacks.

And of course there are the minuses: 

• PowerAde wasn’t being distributed until the later part of the race. It was a pretty hot day and I wish it had been provided earlier on.
• Port-o-potties were few and far between (I saw runners going into gas stations and fast food joints in order to use the facilities)
• Some parts of the race were not so scenic…let’s just say that I got to see the nice and the not-so-nice neighborhoods of Louisville.

Included in these minuses would be my race time. After the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler we had run earlier in April, my training schedule had become quite lax to say the least. Plus, I think my running shoes were so worn out from the last race they gave in during the mini causing my feet to hurt really bad! I came in at a little over three hours and Justin came in at about 2 ½ hours (but I definitely know I can do better!).

Anyway, next up on my race schedule (whoa, never thought I’d be saying that!) is a 5K with my good friend, N. Funny how, I’m running a 5K as my third race as when most people do it as their first. I’ve always been a little backward. Stay tuned, because I have more racing news on the horizon!

**Sorry I don’t have any pics with this post. We tried to get some guy to take a picture of us, but he quite technologically challenged. I’ll wait until I can “borrow” the proofs from the race day photographers and add them on later.**