4.29.06 – Kentucky Derby Marathon

I was sitting in the board meeting for Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon last Monday evening when someone mentioned the Kentucky Derby marathon scheduled for the upcoming Saturday. I’m from Louisville – born there. It’s always held a special place in my heart – that wonderful southern hospitality. My aunt and cousins still live there. I looked at my calendar for the following Saturday. Reds game Friday night (I could skip that) and a wedding on Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm. Hmmmmmm. It’d be cutting it close, but perhaps I could pull this off.

I called and found I could still register. When the Flying Pig PR firm heard about my interest, they felt they could leverage a little publicity for the Pig. An old friend comped my room at Louisville’s Galt House Hotel, which meant I wouldn’t have to drive down real early Saturday morning. And then I got a call from a sports writer from the Louisville Courier Journal who wanted to interview me about my running background. Everything seemed to just fall into place. So I thought – why not?!

I drove the 100 miles to Louisville Friday afternoon and got my room and registration packet. I picked up Friday’s Courier Journal and found I’d made the headline of the sports page – “Ex-Smoker Now Trying to Smoke Competition”. Oh great…. “Ex-Smoker”. It’s like when you have gas in the third grade and then you’re called “Stinky” for the rest of your life. Yes, I smoked as a dumb teenager and continued into my early 20’s until I had a child and regained my sanity. But “Ex-Smoker” in the headline?!?! Oh well…..

I got up at 5am and boarded the bus to the start of the race. Arrived at the start about an hour before the start, which I don’t like to do. I prefer to show up right before the gun – less time to mull over what you have ahead of you. I went to the bathroom 30 or 40 times and then it was time to begin. And that’s when it started raining. Since the temperature was the in 50's, it provided a welcome cool down during the entire race - I loved it

We ran through parks and neighborhoods for the first seven miles. In fact, we ran very close to where my grandmother lived and where I spent countless Sunday afternoons on her front porch drinking very sweet iced tea and eating lots of fried chicken and biscuits and gravy. We ran so close, in fact, that I took a multi-block detour and ran by her house, and just stood in front of it for a few minutes remembering all those good family times with family members who are no longer here. It was a poignant interlude in the race, and surprisingly a motivator as well. I thought that perhaps they’d be proud of what I’m doing, so I took off and recaptured my middle pack fellow runners.

Perhaps because of the rain and the springtiming of the race, I’d be running along and be overwhelmed by the intense fragrance of a lilac bush, or a vibernum – a smell so strong it would just knock you out with its reminder of springtime. Those smells and the soft rain falling made me forget my legs for a while

And then, we had the treat of entering Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby, where we ran around the inside of the track, along the infamous “Infield”. I seem to recall the last time I was there involved copious amounts of beer and disgusting latrines. Felt much better during this visit….

The men from the boys split off downtown (that was low) where the marathoners continued their lonely, soggy trek out of town through more parks and residential areas while the half-marathoners coasted into the finish. I didn’t feel that bad – my legs were holding up pretty well and my shoulders weren’t tensing up and becoming painful like they usually do. In fact, I enjoyed this run down memory lane quite a bit, and finished in four and half hours to the silent appreciation of the few spectators still around at that time.

I got a bagel, water, yogurt, and banana and kept going to my hotel where I quickly showered and got in the car for the drive back to Cincinnati. I got home at 1:45pm and beat the bride down the aisle! Good job, Louisville! Nice race.