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Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 4.1 
Spectators 3.7
Number of comments: 362 [displaying comments 81 to 91]
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D. A. from Wichita, KS
(5/3/2011)
"Overall a Good Race" (about: 2011)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 The weather was great at the start but a little warm later in the race. Being the end of April it could have been a lot worse. The course took you through several neighborhoods and one park. The highlight of the course would be going thru Churchill Downs Horse Track. The water stops were well stocked with little water bottles and sports drink. The only negative thing I will say is the where the 'mini' marathoners and full marathoners share the course around the 17 mile point. The mini marathoners were walking and all over the street. Potentially a dangerous situation because you have marathoners running sub 8 miles mingling with walkers. I don't think it would have been too much trouble to station a few course workers directing them to the left side of road. The full and halves shared the road for what seemed to be 2-3 miles. The hills in mile 23 and 24 were a bit of a pace breaker, you just had to be smart running up them. The full marathoners mingled with the halves again for the last 200 yards. Again they were walking and all over the road. OKC has the same issue and they stationed course workers to keep the full and halves separated. | |
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Seth Denenberg from Westchester New York
(5/2/2011)
"Big City Small Town feel" (about: 2011)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Louisville is a nice place to visit. I came with my New York City bias but was very impressed with downtown Louisville and all it has to offer. Restaurants, museums, and entertainment where all first class. You do not realize how nice Louisville is until you see it. The city was a very pleasant surprise to me. As for the race it was well run. The one big complaint that I have is the same as in a lot of other races where the 1/2 marathon has taken over. When the two courses join together the slow 1/2 marathoners make for moving road blocks that you have to keep running around. Please keep the 1/2 and whole separated so the marathoners do not have to keep running around the 1/2 marathoners. This race is really for those who do the 1/2. The half marathoners out number the whole by about 10 to one at least. The course is nice with just the right balance of hills and flats. The expo was small for a race this size. The spectators where great. I would recommend this race but beware of the 1/2 marathoners they rule this run. | |
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C. H. from Louisville Kentucky
(5/2/2011)
"Enjoying the new course" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ Kentucky Derby Festival Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 This was my 6th Derby Mini and I really enjoyed the new course. I love that we now start and end downtown - the downtown feel and aesthetics are such a better way to start the race than the Kenwood/Iroquois area in years past. I also enjoyed that it is now a completely flat course. Support and spectators and always great in this race. I have always loved that they hand out bottled-water - I may not always be ready to walk during water stops and it's nice that I can hold onto my water and drink it when I'm ready. There are a few things I would make improvements on: 1st - the finish is WAY TOO CONGESTED. It's very confusing and it should be spread out down River Road more rather than curve around to the waterfront. 2nd - In no other race have the sponsor logo been plastered on the front of the shirt AND the medal. I don't particularly like advertising Wal-Mart on the front of my shirt, and especially the medal. I feel this cheapens the look of the medal. | |
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G. R. from Atlanta, GA
(5/2/2011)
"Nice event...but needs some tweaking" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 First off, many thanks to all the volunteers that helped made this event possible. The Kentucky derby marathon is definite a great venue with a nice destination location with plenty to do. As for the marathon itself, the course was scenic and moderately difficult. The course provided plenty of hydration stations and all were manned by enthusiastic volunteers. I love that the Powerade drink was coming directly from a premixed bottle a provide a consistent mixed throughout the race...very unusual to see in a marathon. They also provide a great tech t-shirt and a nice medal. I was pleased to see that half marathoners were given a different shirt. Over all, this event is well organized and I have one suggestion. If there is ONE thing that needs rectification, is where the half runners re-unite with the full runners (mile 8.5 & 17.5 respectively) around 3rd and Central Ave. It was a zoo...thousands of slow (mostly walking) half participants clogging the way for us full runners actually 'running' the course. I think this problem could EASILY be resolved by coning the road so that half folks stay to the left as they turn left onto 3rd and let the full runners stay on the right side of 3rd...just leaving 1/3 of the road coned just for the full runners would remedy this problem... Other than that, great job and I would definitely recommend the race! | |
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E. P. from Florence, KY
(5/1/2011)
"Up and rising Marathon" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 If this half/full marathon doesn't exceed 25,000 people within the next 2 years, I'll be surprised. The on-course organization was spectacular, most of the water was given out in mini water bottles which meant you didn't have to drink it all at once. The energy gels were handed out at the most perfect moment. The course was very flat for the first half then VERY hilly for the second half. I've run the Taterbug 30, and believe the second half's hills were quite the challenge. Whoever put a gi-normous hill at mile 22 should be placed into a mental hospital. Then the next one at 23 was uncaring!! Seriously though, the course was there to challenge and challenged it did. The park at mile 11-15 was hilly but fun. The downhill finish was appreciated. Congrats to all the people who kicked this course's butt, because it kicked mine!! | |
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J. J. from Louisville, KY
(5/1/2011)
"Minimal crowd support, poor planning." (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 6+ Kentucky Derby Festival Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 The new course is pretty weak. There's little to no crowd support for the first 6 miles of the race. The older course was much better as people came out from the start and were extremely supportive. It was especially irritating for marathoners at mile 18 to meet back up with half marathoners at mile 8. This means that 8:40 marathoners had to bob and weave between 15:00 walkers. Extremely poor planning. Lousy website, disorganized start. Really seemed like they were flying by the seat of their pants. Too last minute. | |
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R. B. from E.Granby, CT
(5/1/2011)
"Good course - fix the walker problem" (about: 2011)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Good course, relatively flat except for the scenic park around halfway and mile 23, with good support. Only remaining problem for the organizers are the walkers, ignoring the 'coral' system and clogging the start. Planning a slow 4:30, I was placed in coral C, and took over 7 minutes to reach the start. I passed most of the walkers, who were supposed to be in coral G. | |
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S. W. from Kentucky
(5/1/2011)
"Good job this year, much improved." (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 2011 was a well run event. Starting and finishing downtown was much better. The bottled water at most of the stops were a big improvement over the plastic cups. Running the full marathon was a good course. Re-joining the mini marathon group at 18 miles was a little tricky, but not bad if you are 'fun running' the event. Running full tilt would be tricky and less than ideal. I really enjoyed 3rd and 4th street. The park was great for the shady and the trees were beautiful. Fan support was great. | |
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G. C. from Flatwoods, KY
(3/9/2011)
"Great Course, Poor Post-Race Plan" (about: 2010)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 I ran the half in 2010 and did not have any trouble with walkers anywhere on the course. The run itself was a scenic run with lots of contour changes to make it fun and challenging. The post-race area was kind of inside a horseshoe and it was impossible for spectators to get there without crossing the course. It took longer after the race to find my family than it did to run the race. The Derby Festival has a great logo but it was barely visible on the shirt. | |
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M. S. from Louisville, KY
(11/26/2010)
"Greatly Improved finish area, but more hills added" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Biggest complaint: I agree with B.F of So. IL about Wal-Mart's name being larger than the word "marathon" on the shirt. Pretty tacky. But keep in mind, this is the city that for years billed this race as a "Mini Marathon and Marathon" instead of a "Marathon and Half Marathon." So some day maybe organizers will get the priorities straight. PROS: Much improvement over previous years. Better finish area (although difficult for spectators to find/access their runners), better bling (although it's a big Wal-Mart advertisement), enough water stations. Scenic course through 2 of Louisville's tree-filled Olmsted parks (designer of Central Park in NY), Churchill Downs and crossing over the Ohio River, BUT you had better be ready for hills! I ran the Cin. Flying Pig the next weekend having heard about the hills there and actually found Derby Marathon more challenging. With the tremendous improvements of this race I experienced in 2010 and having a couple of conversations with the organizers, I believe many of the runners' big concerns will be addressed for 2011. |
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