Last week my longest distance run passed the 15 mile mark and the pace increased by almost a minute to 9:35. My plan had been to run the Kentucky Derby Festival’s Mini-Marathon in April but I feel the full marathon is within reach in the same time frame. Last year the race sold out early so a decision will have to be made in early December I would image and if the 20 mile mark can be broken by then it looks like my first marathon will be in Louisville and not Chicago next October as was the original plan. The feeling of gliding along from early along until about mile 11 was amazing, mile 7-8 in particular was beyond belief as the run was covered in a canopy of trees full of fall colors, the trail was covered with crunching leaves whose smell took me back to days of raking the leaves into what seemed like huge piles with all the neighborhood kids and jumping into what felt like a bottomless pit of orange, red, and brown. The 31 year old Bruce Springsteen bootleg on my headphones helped as well, especially “Jungleland” from Born to Run where the scope of the lyrics The Boss wrote matched with the power of the E Street Band kicking in just lifted my feet and carried me along the Ohio River trail where I was eating up the miles. Amazing run in a great city, that’s why I run and why the question about increased mileage may already be answered.
4-27-10: As an update on this post, my decision ended up being to run the Mini. It was a great experience see 15,000 folks out running the park loop that a large number of my training miles were run on. Events like these are such a positive time for communities not only for the obvious economic/tourist benefits but more importantly it shows the general population that anyone can make a change in their lifestyle that will benefit their health. The time was a bit slower than my 2:15 goal finishing in 2:17:41 but that only leaves room for improvement next year.
