I’ve broken pre-race and race day into two posts so they’re not so overwhelming! Enjoy 🙂
35th INDIANAPOLIS MINI MARATHON
Stats:
Date: May 7, 2011
Half Marathon #: 7
State #: 5
Participants: 35,000 – Largest half marathon in the U.S., 3rd largest in the world!
Weather: Low 50s, cloudy, drizzle at the end
Partner: Dad
Time: 1:53:29
Place: 5,206th
I remember signing up for this race – post-Thanksgiving dinner in Auntie Warr’s kitchen stuffed on Criddy’s fruity cobbler pie, deep fried turkey, Coca-Cola cake, mashed potatoes (no better time to sign up for a gigantic fitness endeavor than when feeling like it will be a great physical effort to move from the kitchen to the couch!) Dad has run this race almost every year since 2006 (not quite as impressive as the 9 runners who hadn’t missed a race since the inaugural run 35 years ago!) and although I spent 18 years of my life claiming northwest Indianapolis as my home, I had never managed to be around for the race. I guess it’s kind of similar to my aversion to Graceland – the locals never seem to do the things the tourists do….
Anyway – I had a lengthy five months to prepare for the race and as I sometimes reported on the blog ran hills and fast laps and fast five miles to prepare for it and then along came a pain in my ass. This P.I.T.A. (thanks dad – King of Acronyms) basically knocked training of its track and I ran slowly when I could – never more than twice a week, continued to work out with Lisa as often as the butt would tolerate her games and had Donna’s velvet elbow pushing, rolling and rolfing all over my body to get the pain in there out. Some days I could handle an easy five mile run and other days, especially on the road, I couldn’t make it two miles without stopping. The race deadline was still fast approaching even though my running had disappeared. I tossed the PR goal out the window as the anxiety of not having enough miles under my feet rose. After the stress of traveling to Atlanta for two weekends in a row I even contemplated tossing the trip altogether BUT determination prevailed and I left the floody waters of Memphis Thursday afternoon to run, rove, walk or crawl my way to the finish line – after all, I have 40 something races to run before I die – there’s no time to waste!
EXPO:
Friday was the day of packet pickup and the expo. Dad asked me that morning what our plan was for the race after our last two mile taper run – very crankily I said “There is no plan”. Which was true – I would be running with Gary but was not planning on looking at him the entire time, I had no goal for pace or for final time. I was going to run according to how I felt and that was that thankyouverymuch and do not ask me again…..
My cranky mood about the race began to dissipate as Dad and I walked through downtown Indy to get to the Convention Center. I love this place and have many fond memories of these streets – field trips, running, walking, Colts and Pacer games, internships, shopping, Christmas dinners and store windows. The expos are a great place to get the energy going for any race – free t-shirts, a hat, lots of samples and demos (Dad and I made it a point to get every free sample possible – candy, honey milk, power bars, 5 hour energy etc.) I bought new shoes! I’m venturing into the minimalist mindset and switched from Asics to Sauconies – we’ll see how that goes!
Mama joined us later for pre-race dinner at Monical’s Pizza. Pizza became my favorite go-to pre-race fuel during my first marathon training. Dad and I split a half Hawaiian, half BBQ chicken thin crust pizza and LOTS of water. I passed on the Cold Stone ice cream and we went home to watch Dateline Investigates….exciting Friday night!
RUNMEM 