One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon

May 8th, 2010

The Mini...This is the race that got me started running. My husband and friend Cyndi convinced me 3 years ago to run the Mini and it's been game on since. Friday I had the day off work. Not only was I running the Mini on Saturday, but I was in a very close college friends wedding Saturday night. Friday was spent getting ready for friends visiting for the wedding and the rehearsal dinner. Wendy chose well! Dinner was at Milano Inn, a very nice Italian restaurant in Downtown Indy. It was the perfect pre-race meal. The weather on Friday was sunny and hot. I could not imagine that 12-hours later the temperature would have dropped 40 degrees and the wind would have picked-up to a gusty 30+ mph.

We got up at 5:00 am. I had already decided that I was wearing compression shorts and a tank top and covering up with a throw-away sweatshirt. At the last minute I put on the heart rate monitor. I didn't really plan to race based on my heart rate but I was going to time my mile splits and it would at least give me my total calories burned. I also grabbed the GPS because I really wanted to use it to pace.

Jarrett, Cyndi, and I headed downtown about 6:00 am. Breakfast was a whole wheat English Muffin with Nutella and apple butter. I remember my vitamins, allergy medicine, and a Pepcid. The temperature when we got downtown was 48 degrees with a wind chill in the 30s. It felt like February, not May. We got to our starting corrals about 7:00 am which meant we had 30 minutes to stand in the wind before the race started. I was freezing by the time the race started and oddly enough, my stomach was growling. I have no idea how I could have possibly been hungry, but I was. After they announced the start, it took 25 minutes for me to actually cross the start line from my position in Corral N. Jarrett and Cyndi were running together and started in Corral R.

Mile 1 is always slow at the Mini. There are 40, 000 people running this race and it takes awhile for everyone to spread out.

M1: 10:34

M2: 9:06

M3: 9:23

M4: 8:55 - I dropped my throwaway sweatshirt this mile.

M5: 9:21

M6: 9:31

M7: 9:34

M8: 9:31

M9: 9:41 - I spent a little too much time during this mile trying to open a bag of Chomps. I finally managed to squeeze one through a tiny hole in the bag.

M10: 9:37

M11: 9:37

M12: 9:45

M13 + 0.1: 10:45

Total Time: 2:05:26

This is a new Half Marathon PR!! My old PR was 2:16:11 at the 2008 Indianapolis Half-Marathon. Here's my Mini history:

2008: 2:55:30

2009: 2:40: 37
2010: 2:05:26

I dropped 35 minutes off my time from last year. Wow.

After the race, I waited for Jarrett and Cyndi to finish. It was PAINFULLY cold. I didn't have anything to cover up after the race so I got to stand around in 40ish degree weather wearing a tank top and shorts. This is no one's fault but my own. I should have done gear check and I learned my lesson for the future.

After the race we went home and thawed out. Cyndi and I had to get ready for the wedding so we ate a quick lunch and headed out to get our hair done. Brooke did a wonderful job on my hair and make-up!

The wedding was beautiful! Wendy and Brian are adorable and we wish them a wonderful, happy married life. I'll post more pictures from the pro.