That girl can move!

I remember being at the starting line at last week's Derby Festival Marathon and thinking,

"Dang. She looks YOUNG!"

I glanced over at a little girl standing a few people over from me. She couldn't be much older than 10 or so. Was there a 5K I didn't know about?

Um, no. Turns out this girl *is* 10, and she absolutely killed the half-marathon. Wow. Congrats on running a 1:41:53 in your first half marathon, Ms. Faith Roth.

I'm seriously speechless.

Here's her coach's race recap:

We decided to give Kentucky Derby Half Marathon a shot and it turned out well. She ran her very first 1/2 marathon (on Saturday 4-30-11). we began training for a half in December, and she pulled me out the door more times than I can count. Training went so well I knew she was ready. for this after 5 months of training, but even I was surprised by how great she ran. I of course ran with her as race support, to make sure she had a fun (and safe) experience. My job quickly became break-man, In that I really had to hold her back. From mile 3 to mile 10. she just kept sneaking the pace up just a little so subtly I couldn't tell we picked it back up, but sure enough at every mile mark we were 20-30 sec ahead of pace. After her mile 8 potty break at the famous Churchill Downs, just before 10 she told me “I FEEL GREAT” so I finally took the reins off and ptchooo she was gone, dropping the pace another 25sec per mile for miles 10 and 11. Mile 12 she dropped the hammer running a ridiculously fast 6:35 mile hahaha . She passed over 150 people in the final 5k!

A few race details :

She was the youngest competitor in the entire Race (15000 race entrants in the Half and Full)

She won her age group, in spite of the fact that she was competing in the 15 and under age group! (the difference between a 15 and 10 year old? 4th grade -to-Highschool! hahahahaha)

Her Last mile was 6.35 wow!

Her final 5k of the race she ran her 2nd fastest 5k EVER with a time split of 21:50!

Her time of 1.41.53 included a bathroom stop in Churchill Downs.

Her time is the fastest time ever run in the 15 and under age division at KDF according to results.

Wow. Just wow.