Subject: Indy 500 festival mini marathon rr By: John G.
Written on: Thursday May 10, 2012 Message: I haven't posted on here as much as I would like,
most of which comes from work restrictions on
social networking sites. But here's my race report
from the weekend.
My dad, brother, mom,
and some friends arrived at our hotel literally
right beside the start line and tried to settle in
for a good nights sleep. Unfortunately I'm a third
shifter, and despite my attempt to flip my sleep
schedule coupled with my fear of sleep aids, I
slept hooribly. Probably only about four hours of
solid sleep.
I woke up, ate a clif bar,
drank a cup of coffee and headed to my corall.
This event was 35000 people strong. I didn't have
a seeded spot since I didn't participate in
qualifying events and haven't raced a HM in 11
years. Therefore I was in corall K, about 10-15k
people back from the start. This would prove to be
a key player in my end result. My goal was to be
in the 1:30's and I knew it was gonna be a long
shot with all the people to run around. Once I
actually crossed the start line, I found the
sidewalk and started strong. My first couple miles
were right around 7:00 pace, ahead of my target
but I felt strong. By mile 5 I had slowed a bit,
but was still right on track. In stuck with my
plan of a few shot blocks every 4 miles and
Gatorade and water at every station as humidity
was mounting.
I started having some
stomach issues about mile 6 running around the
famous brickyard. I don't know if it was the
humidity, taking in too much fluids, or just one
of those things that some times happens, but I
definately slowed me down. I was able to
successfully avoid taking a break for porta
potties and settled back into my pace. When I
reached my 15k mark, I knew my target time was
bleak. I tried kicking it in gear and just didn't
have any umph left. I still felt ok, no major
pains or grievences, I was just low on fuel. I
crossed the finish at 1:42:11. Not too far off of
the 1:30's.
However, I was encouraged
when I reviewed my running app I had going on my
phone. In order to run around the massive groups
of people, I was often on the outside of turns,
and ran a lot of lateral distance to find quicker
running lanes. My app actually had me running
13.43 miles due to the lateral distance. This put
my "unofficial" pace right where I
wanted to be.
It was a good event, and I
had a blast! Unfortunately time and money have
forced me to remove the HIM I was hoping for in
July, but I've got a sprint, and an OLY I'm
already signed up for, and am thinking of adding
another half mary or a 15k trail run in the fall. |
Subject: RE: Indy 500 festival mini marathon rr By: Leo F.
Written on: Thursday May 10, 2012 Message: Great job with that time coming from that far
back. It would be interesting to know just how
many people you passed during the race - probably
an astounding number.
Is running through
the speedway as cool as it sounds? I have run the
last two years through Churchill Downs infield
doing the mini and the full but the speedway
sounds like more fun. 35,000 doesn't sound like
fun but may have to think about doing that one. |
Subject: RE: Indy 500 festival mini marathon rr By: Teri d.
Written on: Thursday May 10, 2012 Message: Good for you Yep, like Suzanne said, I would love
to be able to do a 1:40. My vote is to do the
trail run in the fall. Nothing beats the trails
in the fall. |
Subject: RE: Indy 500 festival mini marathon rr By: Willard H.
Written on: Friday May 11, 2012 Message: I also agree that's a good time. Great job, and
good luck with your upcoming races! |
Subject: RE: Indy 500 festival mini marathon rr By: John G.
Written on: Friday May 11, 2012 Message: Thanks all. And I thought running through the
speedway was pretty sweet. I'm not a car racing
fan by any stretch of the imagination, but it was
cool to have some different scenery as opposed to
the normal running events, and an iconic location
at that. And I don't think the 35k people
would've been such a big deal if I would've
actually shows up to a qualifying event (they had
a few 10k type events they counted as qualifying)
they also take HM times within the past year for
official seeding. The event also has a lot of
supporters along the way. There were probably half
a dozen local bands playing a different spots
throughout the race, along with a lot of general
supporters. So Leo F I would recommend doing this
in the future if u can. Good luck to everyone and
I look forward to reading other RR's. |
