Thanks everybody! Here's a report:
Two (younger, faster) friends of mine rode up to Louisville with us(about 2-2 1/2hrs). I had to work on Friday, so we didn't get out of town until 4:30, so 5:30 Louisville time. We were shocked getting into the Expo at how packed the place was--the balloon glow was that night, and it seems that is some party. We picked up our packets and looked at the Expo for a few minutes before it was closing time and by this time we were starving. We searched out a Fazoli's and were eating supper at 9:30! I had a massive headache--probably because of this and couldn't muster much down. Back to our Holiday Inn for sleep. I didn't sleep much and I don't think the other girls did either.
Saturday morning I was up at 4:30(my time--local time 5:30) as my stomach has to have a 2 hour wait time between eating and running. I went downstairs for coffee and there were already runners heading out. I had coffee and as much of a Powerbar as I could stomach. I was just grateful my head had stopped hurting. We didn't want to get to the START line too early, so we left about 6:45. DH dropped us off as close as he could get(traffic was pretty bad) and we headed to the START line. We couldn't really see signs, but my bib was a "C" so I took that as meaning I needed to be in the C corral. We were pretty far back, as we couldn't even tell the race had started, but people were moving to the START line so we did too. Took 9 minutes to cross the start. There were a LOT of people and there was a lot of weaving in and out the whole race. There were many times, even just at 4-5 miles in that someone would stop right in front of me and start walking. I thought I was going to trip over someone many times--and I was paying attention, it was just that there were so many people. The race runs through Iroqouis Park, which had 3 semi good hills, then to Churchill Downs, then to downtown. There were lots of water stops, but we were heading into Churchill Downs at around mile 8-9 and it was full sun and HOT. Of course, since it was opening weekend they weren't going to set up a water station inside for us, but it still seemed like a good ways before we got to another one. This is when I started feeling it. At that point I was wishing I had my belt on. From mile 10 on the water stations were plenty but I had felt the toll of the heat and at 10.6 had to walk a bit. Walked off and on from there to 12. something but decided I had to finish strong to I did cross the finish line feeling pretty good. It was around mile 12 that the marathoners split off.
Was a pretty good walk through the chute to the water, but probably because there were so many people finishing. We got plenty of water, a powerade, a bottle of Fuse, a banana, bagels, sunchips, and granola bars. I sucked down the water and Powerade pretty quickly and tried to find the others. My dh found me pretty quick, then we got with one friend and were trying to find another. I noticed feeling a little lightheaded at this point(sun was hot and directly on us still) but I ate my banana and started immediately feeling better. We did meet up with a group from our church that was there and they told us that our other friend had run to the restroom and was coming back. We waited for her, and unfortunately when she came back she was very sick. We had to get her out of the sun and probably should have taken her to first aid, but other friend is a nurse anesthetist so she said as long as we kept getting fluids in her she was going to keep an eye on her. We pretty much headed home after going back to the hotel to get showers(which by the way, I had called ahead to get a late checkout but my friend had not. They would not give her one at check in, even though we told them we were running.).
Some things:
*It was a great first race--it was HOT, but if it had been June or July we would have been ready for it. From mile 10 on I was hearing ambulances and seeing people on the side receiving help.
*They should have had a water station coming out of Churchill Downs
*It was neat to see the horses as we ran through
*Some people were giving orange slices---they were out everywhere I would get to except around mile 11--a little girl had some. That helped a lot. Someone was giving out Dixie Cream donuts too. Didn't want any part of that---did not sound good to me!
*One water station was manned by firemen--they had set up their fire hose for us to run through---that was great!!
*My Garmin went out coming down the last hill in Iroquois Park----I fought with it for a little while, gave up and put it back on, then fought with it a little while longer and finally one last whack on it it came back on. I knew I had gone at least .2 and maybe .3 without it....this was confirmed at mile marker 6 when my garmin said 5.8. However, at mile marker 10---my Garmin was the same as the race course....hmmmm....I thought---maybe it had caught up with my last mile?????BUT, at race end, my friend, and another girl we know both said their Garmins had 13.3 something(and none of us started our Garmins until we crossed the Start line). I'm curious to read and see if anybody else says this!
Thanks for reading all this--I'm sure it's more than what you were wanting to read
! Here are my pictures:
http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=46571&PWD=&BIB=9729C
I would love to do the Princess next year if schedules permit---we're thinking one of the Chicago Half's next!
I have been lurking on this board for months( I usually hangout and do post some on the Budget and DVC boards)....but I wanted to share that I completed my first half marathon this weekend, so I guess I feel like I'm "worthy" of posting now, lol! I did the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon in Lousiville. Boy, it was much hotter than what we'd been training in, but I finished! 2:22:37. Would have liked to have broken 2:20 for my first, but I've been saying all along just to finish this one. If anyone has any questions about this one I'd be glad to answer--I'd probably do it again.
