The Mini and the Mara

In my last post I had pictures from last week's Thunder Over Louisville, the beginning of the Kentucky Derby Festival. Well now that we're really into things here comes one of the first big events of Derby Week....the Mini-Marathon and Marathon.
Now, as you all know from reading these posts I'm a hiker person. I've never been any kind of a runner and never will be but I'm a pretty good walker. But I know what doing 26+ miles is like and you have to be impressed with anybody who does it. The pictures at the top are the two winners. I don't know their names but that doesn't really matter. It's the fact that they're finishing a 26 mile run and pretty much smiling about it. The male winner, as usual, was from Kenya. The Kenyans have always done it right when it comes to distance running. You're really got to be impressed with them.

Now....you can't have a big event like this unless you've got lots of pretty girls around so I decided the added the Festival's royal court here. Their boots, however, seem to gather more talk than what they were getting though. These boots, however, could have been a good thing if the weather had gone bad. While most of us had our regular shoes on that would have got completely water soaked, their toes would have been completely waterproof. I do wonder, though, if their toes maybe got a little warm. By the time the race was winding down the temperatures were in the 80's.

Now...back to the runners.....

This may be the closest finish of all the Mini-Marathons in Festival history. These two guys came around the final turn together then battled for bragging rights. This photo shows the final result. Now just remember. These two guys had just run 13 miles and still had energy to burn for a sprint finish like this. If you talk to most distance racers these are the kinds of finishes they dream of. And it doesn't really matter who finishes first or second...well maybe a little bit....but just to have a close finish is what makes it fun for the racers. I can guarantee you neither one of these will ever forget that finish and will be telling it to the grandkids later. It also made for a good picture. Photographers eat that stuff up too. What can I say....we like having great things to shoot.

These next two pictures show the female and wheelchair winners. One thing about the wheelchair racers. You really have to be watching as they're coming in to the finish line. They don't slow down much as they're crossing the tape. You really have to be impressed at how gutsy these people are. Some of the hills they go down can be rather steep and those race chairs can reach some pretty good speeds. Crash one of those into a tree and I can tell you for sure it's gonna hurt.

Now...how about the rest. What you are going to see next are the people who just run for fun. And there's no telling how they might be dressed for the occasion.

Now....I know somebody is going to ask why in the world would I put a picture of this man on here. The reason is simple. This is really what distance running is all about. This man had a goal of finish the 13 miles. It may have been his first big distance race ever and his body just couldn't take any more. But the goal was to finish. I've been to dozens of other distance races and seen this very same thing before. I've seen runners with no legs left to stand them up and watched the crawl across the finish line just to meet that goal. It's all about finishing. There is no doubt this man is in distress but even as ill as he looks he wants to make it to the end. He got a little help in the last six feet but the main thing was he made it to the end. And one thing I know for sure. He'll be running more races and finishing those as well, no matter what it takes.
I know you wouldn't want me to end on such a note like that so I thought I'd show some more happy faces at the end. This is the other part of what it's all about...just having fun. For a lot of these people the times they covered the distance doesn't matter. It's just about getting out there, getting that important exercise, and having a good time. With my next post you'll see something a little more adrenaline rushing. As a hint just think of NASCAR and Sertas. Until then.......ado.