I ran the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon today in two hours and eleven minutes. But, it wasn’t the time that was important today. I just had a good time running!
I got downtown at about 7:00 but the traffic was backed up getting in to the parking garage, so I didn’t get out of my car until 7:15. I walked over to the convention center, waved at the group from work, then hit the bathroom. Another long wait. By then it was 25 minutes to the gun, so I walked over to the Indy Runners tent. I said hi and took off my warm up pants and jacket.
I was wearing shorts and compression sleeves on my calves and that turned out to be the right call. Up top, I had a short sleeve and long sleeve shirt, gloves, and a hat.
I went to the corrals at about 10 minutes to the gun. There was construction on Washington St so it was hard to get out on to the street. I ended up lined up pretty far away from the 4:30 pace group that I was hoping to stay near until the half split from the full. There were a lot more people there than I remembered when I ran the race two years ago!
The first mile or two was pretty crowded. We ran under the Arts Garden, by Lucas Oil Stadium, around a quarter of Monument Circle, then out Mass Ave. I saw a guy in old school Nike trainers, khaki pants, black belt, blue plaid short sleev shirt, red ball cap from Bubba Gump shrimp company, and clean cut hair…. Yep, Forest Gump ran! I saw his outfit and immediately thought of Forest, then I saw he was running with a lady that had a quote from the movie on the back of her shirt. I saw him between miles four and five but lost him at the water stop on Central Ave.
Anyone else see the guy dressed like Forest Gump running @IndyMonumental ?
— Perry Wolf (@plw4) November 3, 2012
I hit the 10k mark in 1:02, around 3000th place. My Garmin autolap splits seemed to be all over the place for some reason. I’m not too sure if I should trust them or not.
The water stop after the 8 mile mark was supposed to have Gels but they seemed to have run out when I passed by shortly before the 1:25 mark. That was about the only negative mark against the race today!
The run back gets a little long with nearly three miles running straight down Meridian St. It seemed like the right turn on New York would never come! But it did, and we headed for home. There was a rude cop yelling at people to stay right of the cones even though signs said for us half marathoners to stay left. I think he was confused and jealous he couldn’t run more than a mile.
The finish area was PACKED. They need to find a way to improve that. I got my medal, beanie hat, water bottle, bagel, chocolate milk, cookie, and mini Jimmy Johns sub and headed back to the tent. It was just starting to sprinkle.
It was a great run, a great race, and just a really enjoyable morning. It’s days like today that make all the training miles and aches worth it!
