Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Ky Derby miniMarathon- An Experience Like No Other

The day was beautiful almost perfect, the training was done maybe not the best or on schedule but was done, I was race day ready........so I thought anyway!

Gerard (orange). Sherry P(pink tank) beside him, Ricky(black) beside her and me(pink with Bondi Band) in front of them!
Miles- 1, 2, 3
The crowd was large with spectators and people rushing to get the start line or maybe we left the hotel lobby a little too late, either way we was rushing to get to the start. Yes many will say we was bad but we just jumped in where we could get in and didn't try to find the right corral ~whoopsie! Although it was a little cool I was already wishing I took off my long sleeve shirt. Everyone all kinda had personal goals to achieve in this race so no one really planned on running together, when it was time to go everyone just went! I passed Mom right up not seeing her but Gerard did to throw his long sleeve so I just went ahead and took mine off and tied it around my waist. We lined up pretty close to the start with the faster people so I was trying hard to not get caught up in the quick take off thing and just run my comfortable fast. By the end of the first mile I could no longer hear Gerard and Ricky talking so I really wasn't sure how close they was, my first mile was pretty fast so I told myself to slow down just a tad but keep running on how I felt. The beginning of this race has several turns around the city streets even though its flat that part annoys me I saw one girl go down pretty hard after one of the turns. My second mile ended up being faster than the first and running into the bright sunshine, I was wishing I had worn my visor, and it was into sunshine for about 2½ miles it wasn't making me feel to great at all. Towards the end of the 3rd mile my stomach was churning and not liking me at all!

Miles- 4, 5, 6
Yep my stomach was feeling awful almost like I was going to throw up I just tried my best to not think about it and push on. I caught up with Sheri about mile 3½, she has trained pretty hard and was quite a bit faster than me so I was surprised to see her, I did a little speed jaunt to catch her. I told her I was feeling awful and probably wasn't going to keep up with the pace much longer, she said she wasn't really feeling it either and wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it. I stayed with her for a little over a mile until I stopped for the bathroom around mile 5. I was nervous about stopping it was the same spot last year and I couldn't run hardly at all last year after I stopped. I untied my shirt from my waist, thankfully it was a throw away shirt so I just left it, grabbed some water and waited for the bathroom. I saw Gerard and Ricky go by while I was waiting I was glad they was still together and I kept looking for Sherry P (its confusing with two Sheri's:) but never saw her. I was able to start running again after leaving the bathroom but I slowed my pace down and by mile 7 I was having to take small walk breaks.

Miles- 7, 8, 9
I noticed I was running about ¾ of a mile at a time then walking so I tried to keep this pattern and limit my walking to as little as possible. In mile 7 comes the first hill of any kind where you go down the underpass and back up its small but its a hill. The underpass is a little dark and the road is not the best, the girl in front of me went down and went down really hard I almost tripped over her. I knew she had to have hurt something but I think she was in a little shock, she got up and tried to take off running I told her to stop and look her self over but she just looked at me like I was crazy so I told her friend the same thing. Mile 8 going into Churchill Downs is the most beautiful thing ever however I was feeling AWFUL by this time and I just really wanted to be done! I stopped again for another bathroom stop and took my time. After coming out of Churchill its the split for the Full Marathoners and knew we was getting closer to the finish!

Turns out Ricky was struggling as well and Gerard helped him to the finish! Must have been our day for being helpers:)
Miles- 10, 11, 12
I caught back up to the girl that fell in mile 10 she was walking and I was ready to as well so I asked her if she was ok. She thanked me for stopping earlier and asking again she told me she thought she had knocked her tooth loose! I knew she hit pretty hard!! I was struggling to keep running for an entire ¾ mile at time now and I was super shocked to see Sheri ahead again so I ran to catch her and really got a SHOCK! When she turned her head and looked at me she just started crying and really crying! It scared me. Here was one of my Bestest friends who should be having the best race and she's crying and talking about quitting?!?!?!?? At first I thought she was hurt but she was having something like a panic attack and was worried about her 1½ year old son, I felt so bad for her and knew there was NO WAY I was leaving her like that HECK NO! NO WAY! We walked together and I talked and talked a lot to try and get Sheri's mind off everything and get her to the finish. I tried to get her to "jog" a little but that wasn't working so well either and I didn't want to put any more pressure on her so in the last 2 - 3 miles we pretty much just walked. She kept telling me I could go on and I didn't have to wait and that her (step) dad should be coming through soon but I told her I was fine and wasn't leaving "sorry but your stuck with me"! Stoney, Sheri's dad, finally saw us around mile 11½ it was his first half and you could tell he was loving every minute of it. When he saw Sheri he looked panicked and told me to go ahead he would stay except I wasn't having any part of that and I told him "Its YOUR first Half you go on and finish strong! I'm just fine right here and not leaving Sheri!" and that's what he did!
Me & Sheri after seeing Chap!
Miles- 13, ½
After we went under the last underpass I told Sheri the finish was really close and maybe we could try to jog to it but I still wasn't going to push any limits by this time I had already walked so much it hurt to try to run again but I didn't care. I told Sheri several times during our conversations while walking "Sometimes there are things more important than having a fast time and I definitely put and think friendship is way more important!" We saw my mom and her mom with her son in the last ¼ mile and I think it helped her push on till the end! Although I really wanted that 1:59 or less finish I couldn't have asked for any better finish! 
Met as running friends turned into much more! So HAPPY to finish together!
Mile 1- 8:42                                             Mile 8- 9:51
Mile 2- 8:38                                             Mile 9- 11:19
Mile 3- 8:47                                             Mile 10- 10:43
Mile 4- 9:22                                             Mile 11- 11:05
Mile 5- 11:47                                           Mile 12- 13:27
Mile 6- 9:19                                             Mile 13- 13:51
Mile 7- 9:54                                             Mile ½- 5:48

Finish Time- 2:22:37 Overall Pace- 10:34 Even with almost 3 miles of walking it still wasn't my slowest half. Not sure how I ended up with 13.50 must have stayed on the outside of every turn! This race has been added to one of the best race memories ever!

Awesome Mrs Sherry P! I'm so PROUD of her she PR'd by about 4 mins!
My girl Jenna (team Beef) rocked it!
Aww aren't we sweet :)

 Dang I need some sun, LOL!!
Just plain AWESOME! That's what we are!
Pictures provided by The Picture Lady. Please don't steal them:)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great recap!! It's great to see and read that through the ups and downs and inner struggles, friends pull and push each other through. Always encouraging one another to strive for success. Two lessons learned from me:
1. Everyone struggles, just in different ways.
2. Just go one more mile- your almost there!!!!

kimert said...

Great recap! Congrats on a great finish and being there for friends! The running community is just awesome!

Anonymous said...

pretty nice blog, following :)