Race Report: 2008 Derby Mini-Marathon
On Saturday I competed in the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon [Warning: Annoying "Call to the Post" audio when that page loads.]
All in all it was a good run. My goal was a sub-1:35:00 race. I finished with a 1:36:50. I was 329 overall, out of the 9387 finishing the half marathon. All in all I am happy with the race.
Some points:
1) With 12,000 people running (split between the half marathon and the full length marathon), the start should have been handled better. The road we started on was not wide enough to handle that many people. The first mile or so I spent running *around* people more than actually running "my race".
2) That brings me to a second point: While signs were up marking different desired paces (signs on the side of the start listing "6:00", "7:00" and so on), apparently no one except me and a few others actually followed them. As a result my first mile time was pretty slow. Instead of the 7:15 pace I had been hoping for, my first mile was timed at about 7:45
3) I have no idea what my second mile time was since I never saw the clock at the two mile mark. I never saw the two mile mark, which might explain part of that.
4) According to the chip timing, I did the first 10K of the race (about 6.2 miles) in 47:03, or about 7:34 pace. A lot of that was from the first two miles, I am sure. The only real hills on the course were from mile marker 3 to mile marker 5, as well.
5) My 15K time was 1:09:39, meaning from 10K -> 15K took me 22:36. That works out to be a 7:16 pace, or right about where I wanted to be. So after I got out of traffic I was almost exactly at the pace I wanted to be at.
6) For those of you keeping track at home, that means I did from the 15K mark (about 9.2 miles) to the end (~13.1 miles) in 27:11, or a blistering 7:10 pace.
After the race I felt pretty good. I took two more days off and today I finally did another run, an easy five miles.
All in all it was a good run. My goal was a sub-1:35:00 race. I finished with a 1:36:50. I was 329 overall, out of the 9387 finishing the half marathon. All in all I am happy with the race.
Some points:
1) With 12,000 people running (split between the half marathon and the full length marathon), the start should have been handled better. The road we started on was not wide enough to handle that many people. The first mile or so I spent running *around* people more than actually running "my race".
2) That brings me to a second point: While signs were up marking different desired paces (signs on the side of the start listing "6:00", "7:00" and so on), apparently no one except me and a few others actually followed them. As a result my first mile time was pretty slow. Instead of the 7:15 pace I had been hoping for, my first mile was timed at about 7:45
3) I have no idea what my second mile time was since I never saw the clock at the two mile mark. I never saw the two mile mark, which might explain part of that.
4) According to the chip timing, I did the first 10K of the race (about 6.2 miles) in 47:03, or about 7:34 pace. A lot of that was from the first two miles, I am sure. The only real hills on the course were from mile marker 3 to mile marker 5, as well.
5) My 15K time was 1:09:39, meaning from 10K -> 15K took me 22:36. That works out to be a 7:16 pace, or right about where I wanted to be. So after I got out of traffic I was almost exactly at the pace I wanted to be at.
6) For those of you keeping track at home, that means I did from the 15K mark (about 9.2 miles) to the end (~13.1 miles) in 27:11, or a blistering 7:10 pace.
After the race I felt pretty good. I took two more days off and today I finally did another run, an easy five miles.