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| Race Report from Ron Horton (start to Mile 22): From the start, we wound our way around a few streets and then headed into Iroquois Park. Nice hills, beautiful park designed by Frederick Olmstead. Stayed steady, after walking through the water station at Mile 2 - where Greg pulled ahead. We had run the first couple of miles at about a 9:30 pace which was WAY too fast for me, so I decided to go with my proven "you have to run your own race" philosophy and watched Greg gradually fade ahead in the distance. The roads were crowded, but not so that you couldn't run. Looking around, I saw very few marathoner bibs, we really were outnumbered! At mile 6 we crossed over the starting line again, from there it was nice run through residential areas to Churchill Downs. Along the way we passed a church choir on the right side of the street, singing inspirational music that brought tears to my eyes. The Lord was definitely in that place. Suddenly we made a sharp left turn, passed through an entrance gate then a tunnel, and emerged into the daylight of the infield at Churchill Downs. What a fabulous sight - beautiful horses exercising on the track to our left, the unmistakeable twin spires above the grandstand to our right. Speakers were playing the excited stride-by-stride commentary from Secretariat's 1973 Run for the Roses. As exited the tunnel leaving the track, we passed mile 9 on the course. Right out of the track, left in one block, and we were on 4th Street which was a straight shot toward downtown to the half/full marathon split just before mile 12. Up ahead, Josh and Jeff were making the right turn onto Breckenridge where the marathon and half-marathon courses split. They were still right on their 3:30 pace, having run each of the first 12 miles in 8:00, Josh varied no more than 10 seconds on each mile. He is an incredible athlete and an amazing pacer. After a few miles, one of the pacing group figured out that Jeff must know Josh. Here is the gist of the conversation they had as they ran along behind Josh around mile 8:
As you'll read a little later, Jeff was right!
Josh brings the pace group up to the split ' Jeff flies by Wendy just before making the right turn at the split A couple of blocks before I reached the split, I could hear Wendy. She really is the World's Greatest Scream Teamer. She spots you in the field, cheers you all the way in, then continues to scream until you are out of sight. It's nice to have that to look forward to as you click off the miles. I never saw Cher; she didn't have her cell phone with her at the start so we didn't meet there. As her race report said, she got hung up way in the back of the starting grid. Though she was running faster than me (she finished 13.1 five minutes faster than my Mile 13 split) she arrived at the 12 split a few minutes after I did. From there Bill and Terry escorted her to the Half-Mary Finish. Well done for her.
After Jeff, Josh, and Greg came by, the Running Elvis showed up
Ron brings his glacial speed into the split turn
Just after the turn, thumbs up on the way to mile 12 This split is where the "second race" starts. It immediately gets VERY lonesome. There are fewer than 1,000 marathoners spread along the course, and it seemed all those around me preferred headphones over conversation. Almost no spectators, no shade, wide open concrete streets. Even the designated "Scream Team" location at mile 12 had a DJ but NO spectators!
Ron and fellow marathoners fade in the distance after making the turn The second half of the course isn't all bad - we ran through Cherokee Park, another Olmstead creation. Beautiful and a little hilly but nothing that tough. Great volunteers, a few spectators here and there but you are pretty much on your own. I had been warned about this so just tried to stay steady. Walk through the water stations (about every two miles), it's all a matter of pace the rest of the time. I did find one young runner, Mike, who was running his first marathon. He would take a walk break of several minutes, allowing me to run by - then in a minute or two he would come flying by! We each have our own race plan, don't we? When I came by the mile 20 Scream Team location there was a rock band there, singing their hearts out - with ONE specator to help. We appreciated the music and inspiration. Next year they need to bus some spectators out there, I thought about what a great project that would be for a youth group at a local church. Meanwhile up at the foot of the Ohio River Bridge, Wendy and May were joined by Billiam, Jim, and Terry. Jim had knocked out the half-marathon in fine fashion, and they were going to wait there for Dave to show up. This point on the course is mile 22 (right where the course turns right from Main Street onto 2nd Street to head across the bridge into Indiana) and mile 24.5 (as you come off the bridge and back into Kentucky). Soon enough Josh came flying by, crossed the bridge, and was back in no time to head for the finish. He would end up running 3:29:42 - not only guaranteeing his pacees a sub-3:30, but look at his cumulative times:
How does he do that? No fancy GPS or anything, he paces not only the whole race to get in right on the goal time, but EACH mile is consistent. Jeff's GPS watch read 8:00 +/- 10 seconds for each of the first 14 miles. He does this even when leading different pace groups. AND even though he is so fast (he has run three sub-3:00 marathons), he is still humble and welcoming of runners of all speeds (or in my case, lack of speed). On our pre-dawn Speed Play sessions at the track in Charlotte, Josh gives us workouts for all of us, and encourages everyone from the people who can almost keep up with him (like Jeff) to the people (like me) who get to speak to him fairly often as he laps us doing his speed play at a much faster pace. No doubt about it, Josh is THE Man.
Here comes Josh - mile 24.5
There goes Josh - less than 2 miles to go! Back to the problem we now faced: as Josh came by, Jeff wasn't with him. For that matter, all but two of Josh's pacees had dropped by now. Josh said he lost most of them in Cherokee Park. What happened to Jeff? Soon enough, Dave came along, running well, and Billiam joined him for the trip across the river and back. Finally, Jeff came stumbling in. Literally. He shuffled into Mile 22 and if Wendy had not called his name, he might have kept going. She got him to the side and he wasn't in very good shape. Turns out he had tried some of the "sport beans" that were being given out before mile 12. They must not have agreed with his digestive system, for just after mile 14 he Kempaniened. Mile 14 was 8:01 on his Garmin, mile 15 was over 16 minutes. He Kempaniened several more times, and gradually fell victim to heat exhaustion over the next seven miles. By the time Wendy and Terry and Jim got him to the side at Mile 22, he was no longer sweating and couldn't remember his name. [We drove the course Sunday morning and he had no recollection of anything on the course from miles 16-22.] Pretty scary.
Greg and May at the Mile 22 turn Greg made the turn at 22, still in good shape. He had May to look forward to, she is fast developing into a professional Scream Teamer too! Shortly after, I arrived, had a dance with Wendy, and thought all was well with the world. I was ahead of my "hope to break 5" plan, no cramps, feeling as good as you could expect after 22 miles.
I know, it doesn't look like dancing. But then, only one of us really knows how to dance
A hug from the World's Greatest Scream Teamer, note the hot pink shirt she is wearing is from one of Liz's races in AZ Then Wendy pointed behind her where I saw Jeff with Terry, sitting on the curb. Once convinced there was enough help there to take care of him, I headed across the bridge. It was a mile across - nice river breeze to cool things down - a half mile loop on the other side (right by our motel), then instead of a mile back across, I swear it was THREE! As I headed across I met Dave and Billiam coming back, Dave looking very smooth and strong. I told them about Jeff, and here is where Serendipity comes in again. Terry and Jim, who had just met Jeff the night before, stuck right with him They found the bike medics and 20 minutes after Jeff stopped, his heart rate was still 120 and BP wasn't that great. The medics decided he didn't need an IV, so Billiam (who dropped off from Dave as soon as he came back across the bridge) and Terry walked Jeff across the bridge to our motel.They were in the right place at the right time to take care of someone they barely knew. What an act of kindness. Serendipity. click
here for Race Reports from Billiam, Cher, and Greg |
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