KDF Mini Marathon 2016

I really should title this post reason # 12933094 I can be an idiot sometimes.  I'll just keep it as it and maybe it will make me look good.

You may remember my posts from last year when I decided to take up running and did the Louisville Triple Crown and KDF Mini. I was great, I had good endurance, I trained really well, I never once wanted to quit, I wasn't sore, it was awesome.

When I signed up again I had a goal to beat my time.  I'm a slow runner and all I wanted to do my first race was finish.  I had more left in me so I knew I could do it.

Back in fall I tried to start running more and getting myself back in the comfortable 5 mile range so I could begin training.  It was difficult trying to pack up the house and move into my mom's house but by Christmas I felt good again.

I could give you lots of excuses but it comes down to not getting the tine in to train.  I was working at Wee Ones while Cameron was there and Steve was seeing patients on Saturday mornings and it was dark when he left for work and dark when he returned.  I didn't want to ask my mom 4 days as week to watch my kids so I could run and I didn't put the effort.  Between December and the day of the race I ran a total of 2 times, each no more than a mile at a time.

I came very close to backing out but Laura assured me she wasn't in shape to run the whole thing and we could just do run/walk intervals.

I thought I can do this, I'll run when I can and walk when I have to.  I didn't want to leave Laura do it by herself.  Amanda, another JJ mom I've gotten to know, was doing it for the first time but she had trained and wanted to run it.  At the beginning of the week the forecast looked good and I thought maybe we can enjoy it and take fun pictures.

Day before the race at packet pick up.  Honestly I was still on the fence, weather had taken a turn and was going to be be rainy, heavy rain, possible thunderstorms.  My pride kept me from backing out, I thought if I got down there and I would get motivation to get back out again.  I've been a little down on myself for my lack of exercise and diet while being in between homes and it's shown.

With some complaining I pulled myself out of bed at 5 am and met up the rest of the gang and off we went.  We parked in Jeff and took the walking bridge over, it gave us almost an extra 4 miles total for the day, that's important.

We walked past the finish line to get to the start line, every runner's favorite!

A couple of dry pre-race selfies. Laura's husband Scott also did it with us. As we crossed the start line we lost Amanda and told her to just go.  She did awesome and finished around 2 hours and 20 minutes or so with an 11 min/mile pace.  That is my goal one day.

We started dry and it stayed dry longer than it did last year but around mile 5 or 6 it really started to come down.  Heavier than last year, then it let back up again.  We started out running  a mile and walking a mile for the first 8 miles.  We were around mile 8 1/2 inside Churchill Downs when Scott caught up with us and I was beginning to hurt so we but it back to walk a half, run a half.  Even then I was struggling, really struggling.  We got to mile 11 1/2 when we stopped to walk and Laura suggested we go ahead and walk a full mile so we can finish the last .6 miles, sounded good.  However, even then I could barely do it. I walked most of the way until we made our final turn and a downhill to the finish.  What a difference a year makes.

We finished in 3 hours and 11 minutes.  Like I said I was in pain and we still had almost a 2 mile walk back to the car.  We found Amanda, got our post race food and made our way back.  It began to pour again, we were freezing, and I had a death grip on my food.  I still laugh when I see this picture. I had puddles in my shoes, but thanks to Body Glide, no blisters.

I was hurting most of the rest of the day, I mean I just put 17 miles on my body after 4 months of nothing.  As far as soreness, I'm just now feeling better.  However my foot not so much.  It's not terrible pain but does begin to hurt after more than 20-30 minutes of being on my feet.  If I rest it at all I start to feel better.  So when I wake up in the morning I feel fine but by the time we leave for school, after 2 hours of being on it, it hurts again.  I'm gonna give it a few more days, I think if I'm intentional of staying off of it I'll be fine.  We've all talked about doing the Monumental Mini in Indianapolis and I would love to get myself back into the shape I was in last year.  It's a little depressing reading my post about last year's mini by the end of the year I can go back and read this be proud of myself for getting back.