All right, so this race was in MAY and it is now JULY (though this post is in my May timeline because I started in May, and just finished it now - confused yet?). Stop judging me, and here we go...
The "Indy Mini" is the largest half marathon in the U.S., with something like 36,000 runners and walkers. Here's the story of one:
My teenage daughter, Hank, and I drove to Indianapolis on Friday so we wouldn't have to get up on race day at three-thirty in the morning. We stayed home last year and, because we witnessed a highway crash and stopped to help, almost missed the start of the '09 race. So, a hotel this year.
Here's how Friday went:
7:30 am - Deliver Hank and Abner to school
8:00 am - Throw myself on the mercy of Trainer Ryan, who "went easy" on me because of tomorrow's race. Ryan is half my age, 100x fitter, and obsessed with Halloween.
10:00 am - Run a couple of errands, pack for the trip.
11:30 am - Pick up Hank from school; she is sick and throwing up. What the school neglects to mention is that she is also upset because she thinks I won't let her run the Mini tomorrow if she barfs. So she's horking and hysterical.
12:30 pm - Having talked Hank in off the ledge, I get her to take a nap while I finish our packing. While she sleeps, her grandmother and I plot our if-Hank-is-too-sick-to-run contingency plans.
4:00 pm - Drive a pale-but-recovering Hank to Indy.
5:00 pm - Check in at the Sheraton. Fortified with chicken nuggets, Hank is much improved. The hotel guy who checked us in tries his best to get 5'7" Hank to tell her age. She just smiles at him. If he knew she was only 14, I hope he would be ashamed of himself. Surely the five pounds of eyeliner is a dead giveaway that she's a KID. And he should be very thankful that Hank's Marine Uber-Dad was not there to get offended and kill him on the spot.
Let's pause here for a shout-out to the Sheraton City Centre in Indianapolis. Aside from Desk Guy On The Make, this hotel was fabulous! We had the most amazing night's sleep and we were only a few blocks from the start line.
On race day, we met 36,000 of our closest friends at the start line:
And we ran this course. See the oval in the top left of the map? That's a lap of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Very cool!
Since we've already talked about barf and horny desk clerks, I'll spare you a mile-by-mile breakdown of this half marathon. Here's all you need to know:
1. At mile 10, I realized I had not walked AT ALL, not even at water stops (though I got water up my nose in two near-drowning incidents). Big smile from here all the way to the end.
2. No shuffling at the finish. I wasn't sprinting, but I wasn't limping either.
3. I beat my personal best for this half marathon by 13 minutes. That's right, I shaved 13 minutes off my best half marathon time! Not too shabby for a 40-year-old chub who loves donuts.
4. Hank didn't run well, for her, and she beat me by less than a minute. Yes, I know she had been sick but still - I almost caught my kid today!
5. If you must know, my time was 2h 44m. I'm not setting any speed records but I ran the entire way, so Yay Me! My new goal is to get to 2h 30m. Maybe next year!
And finally, if you made it all the way to the end of this post, your reward is a pic of me, being a dork at the finish. Enjoy!
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