Our first indy mini

I completed my fifth half marathon this past Saturday (and Jane's fourth), and it was our first time running the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis. It was a beautiful weekend, and we ran it in 2 hours 13 minutes - which put us under the goal of 2:15 - so we were pretty happy with that at our 54 and 55 years of age. Jane even crushed her previous best time by thirteen minutes!

We spent the weekend in Indy and had a good time all around. A friend sort of talked us into running this spring half, and we went down with he and his wife. We've previously only run this distance later in the year, but we actually felt fairly well prepared. I would even say this was the best I felt after any of the half-marathon's I've done. Probably partly because of the training, partly because I/we took ibuprofen BEFORE we ran, and I'm thinking partly because the Indy course is extremely flat and runner-friendly.

Just for kicks I did a search of our previous 'half' times, and they are as follows:
2012 (just me) -- 1:47
2013 (both of us) -- 2:26
2015 (both of us) -- 2:27
2016 (both of us) -- 2:36
2018 (both of us) -- 2:13 (or 2:08 if you go by Jane's phone that didn't count the potty break)

Actually, 2:13 was the "official" time, but Jane and I both recorded that we ran farther than 13.1 miles. My watch is usually .2 miles less than Jane's phone, and I had us running 13.27 miles. Jane had us at 13.4. So the 2:08 was what her gps said we ran for an actual 13.1. Either which way, we were happy enough!

POSITIVES
As for the good things about this race...

• First of all, I was super proud of Jane. She trained hard for this, set a goal, and achieved it. She works long, tedious hours at her job, and I know it's not always fun getting up extra early to run and workout. She's still a keeper after all these years.
• Again, this is a very runner-friendly course. It is as flat as flat can be. The only hill of any kind - and it wasn't really even a hill - was the dip when you enter the Indy 500 race track. I'm thinking this may have been the biggest reason for lack of soreness afterward.
• We stayed at the Westin hotel on Washington Street and our start gate was literally right in front of the hotel! It was also connected to the convention center where packet-pickup was, as well as within easy walking distance of everything downtown.
• This is a FUN event. Indianapolis really seems to go all out for this, and it's one of the more popular half marathons in the country. There were several celebrities (Meb, Tony Dungy's wife, one of the hosts from American Ninja Warrior, and others). Apparently it really kind of takes over the town, and I didn't witness any angry motorists at intersections like we always seem to see in Fort Wayne.
• There was plenty of entertainment along the course. I'd say there were few, if any, spots where we could not hear live music playing along the course. Perhaps the only place was when running around the race track, and they had plenty of music and other things going on there (various cheer squads, kissing the bricks, memorials, piped in music, etc.).
• Lots of people. There were a TON of people running this race. We heard reports of up to 30,000 people, though that may have been stretching it a bit. For sure there were almost 20,000 in the half and a record 5,000 for the 5k. I'm not sure how many wheel chair competitors there were. So there were a lot. We started in wave 3 - 20 minutes after the first wave of runners in the half - and it was still perhaps a bit too crowded for me. It was fun to be a part of such a big event though. Lots of happy people everywhere you looked.

In front of our hotel.

NEGATIVES
While we did enjoy this event, there were just a couple negatives...

• I would definitely stay at the Westin again, but a rather harsh disappointment was having to walk down 10 flights of stairs the morning of the race. We were on the 10th floor, and there were 5 elevators, but the morning of the race we waited over 10 minutes and never did get one. The same elevator stopped twice but was completely jam-packed both times. So the two of us, and probably a dozen others waiting with us, started the day off by walking down the stairs to get to the starting line.
• There were a LOT of people. While this was also a positive, it did create some problems for us while running. Part of the "problem" is apparently that we enter our ACTUAL time when registering. We intended to run 10-minute miles (and did), so that's what we registered for. I don't understand, then, why we had to maneuver through SO MANY STINKING WALKERS IN OUR CORRAL! And I don't understand why they don't put more effort into stressing that WALKERS AND SLOWER RUNNERS STAY TO THE RIGHT!!!!!!! I'm guessing part of the reason our gps devices said we ran three tenths of a mile farther than 13.1 is because of all the side-to-side maneuvering we had to do to get through walkers. It went on the entire race, and it probably annoyed me more than it should have, but I was on the verge of screaming a couple times. I wish more races would post reminders along the route for slower runners to stay to the right (and I say this as a fairly slow runner myself!). It almost made for an unpleasant event, but I do realize part of the problem is my own. We need to register at a faster pace than we intend to run; plus it didn't help that we were out to beat a certain time. While it was a fun run, it was also plenty frustrating trying to reach our goal.

Anyway, aside from the actual running event, this was a pretty swell time all around. Tim & Vicki drove, so it was a nice relaxing trip for us in the back of their van. We also ate well the entire weekend (and drank way too much Saturday). After checking into the hotel Friday and picking up our race packets, we walked down to the Weber Grill for supper. It was pretty good. I had a turkey burger and baked potato (carb loading), and just one beer. Saturday night we then ate supper at the Hard Rock Cafe, and afterward went to a beer garden at the Rathskeller. It was packed with people, and they had an awesome band (Woomblies Rock Orchestra). We then walked back to the hotel along Mass. Ave., and had a couple drinks at the hotel bar (Shula's).

Beer garden view.

I did see several people I knew from Fort Wayne. Most of them were people that worked out at the Y where I work. We even ran into a couple of them at Rathskellers. We also stopped by the Fleet Feet tent in runners village following the race (at the owners invitation). We had a couple complimentary drinks and hung out there for awhile.

All in all, even though I didn't think I would want to do this event again (early season half, so many people, etc.) I am thinking now that it was pretty fun and I wouldn't mind it. I feel very good following this half marathon, with only a small blister on my right foot to show for it, and it feels good to be this far into my training this early in the year.

I will likely take this week off from any serious running - mostly just walking and biking - and towards the end of the month start the training schedule for the full marathon towards the end of summer.

I give the Indy Mini both my thumbs up, and am feeling pretty good on this Monday morning.