First of all Kathy called me Wednesday to let me know she wasn't going to be able to go to Indy!! Her 7th grade daughter made it to the state championship game in grade school basketball.. Yeah for her! Kathy felt she should go with her family to watch the game and I understood that.. that's a once in a lifetime thing for them and Indy is every year.. and she had done it last year.. My thoughts changed for being happy for her daughter to: WHAT??!! How am I going to get though 13.1 miles by myself?! I haven't run long distance (to speak of) by myself in I don't know how long! This is going to be a challenge for sure!! Libby Jon and Jill rounded out our team of 5 but they are a little bit slower (no offense, guys!!) than Kathy and I.. and Jon was recovering from a skiing knee injury and was only going to do the 5K..so I was going to be by myself...
We started out Friday in the rain and it wasn't bad until we hit Crawfordsville, Ind and we couldn't even see the road for the rain! Drove on 6 more miles until we spotted another town and took the exit.. we were hungry and it was pouring. I think everybody had the same idea.. I've never seem so much traffic in such a little town.. All I was wanting to do was eat a quick lunch and get back on the road but that wasn't going to happen. The more we stopped and waited for the screwed up traffic lights who let 3 cars through at a time, the more impatient I grew.. and anyone who knows me knows I'm not a very patient person to begin with. So finally we grabbed a Quizno's sub, whoofed it down and got back into traffic. FINALLY we were back on the road and the rain let up a little.
By the time we hit Indy the rain had stopped !! woo hoo.. checked into our hotel (Embassy Suites) and checked out our suite.. one of those with the LR in the front and the bedroom was way in the back.. good thing because we were right off the elevator..
Headed down to the Expo which was busy as usual.. Got my packet, and we started doing some shopping.. ended up with an 'I finished' shirt, and nice very very light weight wicking shirt for this summer, pepper spray and we were about to leave when I saw Fuel Belts!! I was hoping they'd have them so I wouldn't have to pay shipping.. picked out a red 4 bottle one, paid and away we went back to the hotel.. SCORE!! It was by that time 4:30 and we had dinner reservations with the team at 5:45. Got cleaned up and walked down the street to Rockbottom Brewery for a beer and went back to the hotel to have them call us a cab. They were about to call us one when somebody said, Hey, isn't Mustaffa still here? Looked around and there he was outside his LIMO.. hey, this could definitely work!! So for the same price as a cab we got a limo ride to dinner.. pretty cool... Dinner at Iaria's was yummy and it was good to see the team! Although we were missing one!
The team!! Jill, Jon, Libby and me
RACE DAY: Rain was forecast but it turned out to be beautiful !! Met Jill in her hotel lobby and walked down to the team challenge tent to check in our bags.. Met Libby and Jon there and then headed over to get in our assigned corals.. I put 2:15 as my estimated time and was assigned to coral O.. Jon decided to run it at the last minute so we headed back to P so we could run together. Waited what seemed for forever when it was finally time to go..
The first 5 miles was cloudy but very humid!! Had a shirt on under my team shirt that I took off around mile 4 and tied it around my waist.. ahhhh much better.. Sun came just as we were getting on the track but it was behind us so not bad yet.. Jon decided to hang back around mile 6 so I went on. Thanks Jon for running the first 6 with me! When we got off the track and headed back east the sun was right in our faces and it heated up quick.. took every water stop there was to stay hydrated.. humidity went from 68 to 87.9% during the race so I played it smart and grabbed water or gaterade at every 'pitstop'.. slowed me down some but I wasn't on pace for a 2:15 anyway so I wasn't all that concerned. Coming in to the home stretch I spotted Kevin in the crowd (missed him last year) so that was cool.. he got some pictures of me running by and one just about ready to cross the finish line.. My time was 2:20:29 (2:23:49 last year) so I was happy I was faster than last year but still not a PR (2:16:33). I could blame the slower time on lots of things: being sick a few days before the race, not getting in my last long run because I was sick, not running for 10 days prior to the race, (except for 1 sucky 4 miler) and the humidity.. add all those up and you're just not gonna get a PR !!! Not to mention the crowd of people you are trying to get around... and the tight turns in places that backlogged runners almost to a stop.. like me! I would have loved to have a new PR but I can't be too disappointed given all the factors of this race.. and to have improved from last year is definitely a plus....
here's the route: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5570262
I'm coming in under the 'R'
The post-race party was great and got all the free beer we wanted in the team challenge tent... Saw Bill Owens there and he asked how my marathon training was going.. told him I start next week doing the Hal Higdon Novice II and he suggested doing some speedwork even though it's my first marathon.. talked more about that , came up with a weekly idea, and going to give it a go..
Hung out all afternoon at the post race party after closing down the Team challenge tent.. enjoyed listening to the band and relaxing.. see pic below!! Crashed in the hotel for a couple of hours.. Met the team for drinks at Ram brewery then headed to dinner at PF Changs...
Ahhhh.... nice cold beer!
Me and Kevin
PF Changs was awesome.. had 8:00 reservations and got right in.. The food was great and gotta love the atmosphere of the place.. After dinner everyone headed back to their respective hotels and called it a night.. Another great weekend in Indy and who knows, we may even do it again next year!
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