Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon 2008

This photo is the team just prior to lining up at the start.  Today is Sunday, post marathon, and since I can’t walk, I thought that I would sit and blog some.  Here are the facts:

Bib	Name	Sex/Age	City, State, Country
352	Durham, Bobby	M44	Lexington, KY
Gun / Chip Overall Sex Div  10K   15K   25K   30K   Chip Time   Pace   4:12:21  /  4:08:36    490 /1206   363   66   0:57:18   1:25:26   2:22:53   2:52:19   4:08:36   9:29

I’m now wondering about my choice in homes.  This place has way too many stairs!  Actually, I’m already getting around better than I did yesterday afternoon, but I think that I’ll be feeling the after effects of this for a while.  As for the marathon, I couldn’t be happier with my time!  And the weather co-operated too, except for getting rained on before the start.  It wasn’t overly hot or humid.  It was a HUGE challenge though, and there were definitely points along the way where I had my doubts.  At about mile 20, I started to get spasms in my left hip flexor…never felt that before.  I didn’t know if this was some kind of early warning signal that the whole thing was going to cramp up or something.  With the view of the bridge ahead and knowing the climb up and over and back was coming, I just wasn’t sure about what was in store for me.  That was about the time that I thought of the comment on a recent post by my niece, Kelly.  Citing an inspirational quote she noted: It’s not whether it hurts or not, it’s whether you mind.  Thanks for that one Kelly!  I decided right there that I wasn’t going to mind about any spasms.

Thanks also to my own personal Scream Team!  My Sisters, Susie and Debbie, and my Dad met me at several locations and gave me a much needed lift.  Special thanks to Susie…as the family expert on running, I got alot of great advice from you.  Special thanks to Debbie who drove all the way from Chicago and my Dad who drove up from London…I know that a marathon is not the greatest spectator sport!  I can’t thank you enough for the support, and for helping me hobble around post race.

This has been a huge accomplishment for me, and there are so many people to thank for their help and inspiration.  Thanks to all of my teammates for their support and dedication to a very long training program.  Your commitment to this was a great motivator!  Thanks to all of my family, friends, and donors to our charity St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Your words of encouragement and your donations have been a great source of inspiration.  At this point we do not have a final count on our fund raising, but we will be around $13,000 with our company match added (here’s an update, 5-12-08, it looks like we will be around $14,300 total).  That’s GREAT!  Thanks also to my co-workers who helped in the fund raising efforts in our office.

I’ve logged 491 miles of running since I started training for this, so I know that I’ll think back on all of my training experiences as well as race day when I think of this marathon.  Congratulations to all of my teammates, including the mini-marathoners.  I’ll remember the lunch after the marathon with my sisters and dad, when the manager of the restaurant asked me if I had won the marathon when he saw my medal hanging around my neck (obviously not familiar with marathon customs).  I jokingly told him that yes I had won the marathon, and then proceded to explain that everyone who finished got a medal.  Now, I’m thinking that yes I did win and it does make sense that everyone gets a medal.  If you finish, you win!