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"duanemorse" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:huZjc.17959$Qy.13500@fed1read04...
Quoted message said:The Kentucky Derby Festival races (a marathon and a half marathon, the
latter known as the "Mini Marathon"😉 take place the week before the
Kentucky
Quoted message said:Derby. Both races start at the same place and time and follow the same
course until about the 12 mile mark. This year the races took place on
Saturday, April 24.COURSE. Both courses are point-to-point. The first few miles go by some
nice, older homes on a tree-lined street and around the base of a
beautiful
Quoted message said:park (the only hills in the half marathon). The course continues past
Churchill Downs and the University of Louisville, and the half marathoners
continue another couple of miles and finish downtown. This half of the
course starts out gradually downhill and then flattens out. When the
marathoners split from the crowd, they go through a seedy part of town,
then
Quoted message said:into a posh neighborhood and through another fine park (with more hills),
then another posh section followed by another seedy section. About a mile
from the finish the marathon course joins the half marathon course.SUPPORT. There were plenty of aid stations and lots of cheering
volunteers.
Quoted message said:With the exception of a hundred yards or so in the marathon course, the
runners never had to share the course with vehicles, and there were
traffic
Quoted message said:police at every intersection to keep it that way. Very impressive.
T-SHIRT AND MEDALLION. Marathoners received a long-sleeve T-Shirt, and
half
Quoted message said:marathoners got a short-sleeve T-Shirt. The designs were nice, but not
spectacular. The marathon medallion was very impressive, however.TURNOUT AND RESULTS. This year 5881 finished the half marathon and 625
finished the marathon. The half marathon winners were pretty fast:
1:05:49,
Quoted message said:and 1:16:41. The first male finisher in the marathon was also quite fast:
2:19:33; the first female had a respectable time of 2:56:34.BOTTOM LINE. I've run the half marathon a few times and the marathon once
(this year). I highly recommend the half marathon -- in spite of the
hills,
Quoted message said:it's a fast course (my fastest half marathon was on this course), and it's
quite pretty. Though the park in the second half of the marathon is even
prettier than the one at the start of both races, the second half of the
marathon doesn't stack up with the first half, so I'd have to say that the
marathon was nice but not great.(In case anyone judges these reviews by the writer's finishing time, I
finished in 3:38:40, 4th out of 42 in my division.)