Jim's Indy Mini Report

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

Cross-posted from my log:

The Indy Mini could not have come at a better time for me. It was at the end of my week between semesters (a very much needed week off), and three weeks before my goal race, the Bayshore Marathon, in Traverse City. I wanted to use it as a gauge of my current running fitness as well as enjoy a couple days with some of the runners that have become friends and great support for me here at the forums.

After spending most of the week on the road in Minnesota and Milwaukee (where I got to meet another forum member, GG300), I came home for one night to get ready to leave for Indianapolis. Oh, and to drink beers and do a jigsaw puzzle with a friend. Yeah, I’m cool! Friday morning I woke up and did a nice easy couple miles and felt really good. Late that morning I hit the road for Indy. The trip was uneventful, though I may have found my new favorite road soda- Lo-Carb monster energy drinks. I was wired to the gills by the time I checked into the hotel. Dave showed up around 4:30 and we headed downtown to the expo to get our packets. We met up with Jamie when we got there. I have to say I was wondering what it would be like to meet people I really didn’t know, yet kind of knew. Well, walking around the expo with these guys was a lot of fun. From joking about me expanding my shoe collection to getting a photo taken with Danica, it was easy to get along because of our common connection at JP’s.

After the expo the five of us (Jamie’s brother-in-law and his wife came into town for the race, as well) found the nearest restaurant downtown with little to no waiting and went to town carbing up. I had the hugest plate of chicken parmesan ever served. After the meal we stayed a chatted for quite awhile. I can’t remember exactly, but it must have been 8:30 or 9:00 before we left the restaurant. Not especially late, but with a 7:30 start time in the morning we all needed our rest.

For the night before a race I slept unusually well, though the 4:45 alarm did come way too soon. After worrying about what to wear only momentarily (I switched from my short sleeves to long sleeves for the drive downtown) and making sure I had my chip attached to my shoe we did a little more carbo-loading at the continental breakfast and left for downtown about quarter to six. We (well, maybe just me) were slightly worried about being able to find parking within the county lines because of the expected crowd of 35,000 runners. I think we were among the first dozen or so people to show up that morning! We may have even got there before some of the volunteer workers. Well, I’m exaggerating a bit, but we got there in plenty of time. We had a meeting place set up to meet Ralph but somehow we missed each other. Could it be that we were trying to find somebody of which we had only seen small pictures in a huge crowd? Or were we just standing in the wrong spot? We may never know. Actually, we were probably in the wrong spot as I would shortly find out.

About 7:15, Dave made his way back to his corral and I made one last emergency pit stop at the nearby museum before hopping the fence to my corral. I was fortunate enough to get placed all the way up in corral B. Just as I got into the corral the anthem began. About 5 minutes after that the wheelchair racers started. As we waited, I talked with a couple guys nearby. I was very excited about running a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When I said this, the guys, who had both run many of these Minis, looked at each other a kind of cringed. They both agreed that the racetrack was the worst part of the course. That made me real excited. All of a sudden, the countdown began and we were off. Actually, the elites were off. We began a shuffle to the line. It took me less than a minute to make the start line.

Mile 1 – 7:26 – It was incredibly crowded. Even with the corralled start, I was dodging people. Of course, people were probably trying to dodge me, too. Every time I’d get around someone there seemed to be someone else to go around. I think I wasted a bit of energy trying to fight it. I even found myself starting to get a little frustrated.

Mile 2 – 6:55 – Things start to loosen up. On the course, that is. I’ve been fighting tightness in my left calf and hamstring for about a month now and today was no different. I tried to settle into a pace and groove as I went along, hoping I would begin to feel better. During this very early mile I also realized that it was warmer and more humid than I am used to. I’m already sweating profusely.

While trying to sort things out, I notice a guy that looks vaguely familiar. He’s running around high-fiving kids and some guy dressed in an animal costume. He does the Ronnie James Dio devil horns thing to a heavy metal band providing on course entertainment. I run over to him and ask if his name is Ralph. Sure enough, it’s kmwest! Imagine that, meeting him in the midst of all those people. I introduce myself and we start running together. I can immediately tell that he’s taking it pretty easy. After talking a bit I tell him I’m not going to be able to say much during the race because I’m just not feeling it today.

Mile 3 – 6:59 – Just running along, hoping to find that elusive groove.

Mile 4 – 6:51 – More of the same. We’re running past what seems to be every bar and garage band in the Indianapolis area, as well as a street preacher and a guy playing a heavy metal song on a cello.

Mile 5 – 6:59 – My last decently paced mile. I’m really feeling like crap by now and can’t believe that I have 8 miles to go.

Mile 6 – 7:12 - Ralph begins to pull away during this mile after pointing out the Speedway. I was already running with my head down wishing it was over. Actually, he keeps the pace and I fall back.

Mile 7 – 7:35 – We’re on the track now. It was pretty cool- for about 100 feet. The novelty wore off really quick. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the fact that it was just boring as hell. They should have had cars going around at the same time. That would have made it much cooler!

Mile 8 – 7:26 – During this mile we cross the famous yard of bricks finish line. I contemplated getting down to kiss them, as is the tradition, but figured I wouldn’t be able to get back up if I did. I’ll have to settle for the picture they hopefully got of me as I crossed.

Mile 9 – 7:33 – We have left the track by now and I’m really dogging it now. Inexplicably, the girl that sounds like she’s singing karaoke doesn’t inspire me to run any faster.

Mile 10 – 7:31 – I pass by a rough looking bar that is handing out small cups of beer. I probably would have taken on (I did during my marathon) but I was on the wrong side of the street and it just seemed like too much effort to cross over to the other side.

Mile 11 – 7:25 – Is this ever going to end?

Mile 12 – 7:34 – I don’t think it will.

Mile 13 – 7: 21 – I try to leg this one out because some 12 year old kid is trying to pass me. A ¾ mile to go sign motivates me as well. I pick it up. There’s the ½ mile to go sign. I see lift with photographer’s in it, over the street. There’s the finish. Nope. They tricked me, the bastards. There is still ¼ mile to go! I have nothing left in the tank but push on to the end. As I sprint past a couple people, I’m done. I’m not sure if I beat the kid, though. I check later and I did. And he’s 14, not 12.

Mile 13.1 - :35 (5:20 pace) – The winners kept up a faster pace than this for the entire race.

My results:

NUMBER - 25843
DIVISION - M3034
OVERALL - 964
DIVPL - 153/1936
SEXPL - 861/13968
TIME - 1:35:29
PACE - 7:18
5Mile - 35:12
10Mile - 1:12:31
Last5k - 22:57


Ralph was waiting for me at the end of the chutes. We go through; get our medals, return our chips, and get our finisher’s picture taken. We mill around waiting for Dave to finish but realize that it would probably be easier to catch him at the gear check. When Dave shows up we try to get a hold of Jamie, but only get his voicemail. We head back down to the reunion area to wait on his call back and to try to find some water. After quite a while we finally come across some water that we didn’t have to pay for. (What kind of crap is that? put on a race and charge for water after you leave the controlled area where they asked that you only take one bottle!) Anyways, Jamie wasn’t able to get back to us, so the three of us headed to Ralph’s favorite hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant.

It was a pretty shady looking establishment but the food was awesome. I ate a plate of steak nachos that rivaled the portion size of my chicken parmesan the night before. After we were done eating and just sitting around shooting the breeze, Ralph did something absolutely amazing. I had gotten a bowl full of homemade hot sauce for my nachos. I had used a little bit and didn’t think it was very hot. I told Ralph this and he decided to test it. He took a big spoonful and, instead of just testing it carefully, swallowed the whole thing in one gulp! I thought his head was going to explode! Nobody at the table even had anything left to drink to help him wash it down. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still hurting from that. After eating we went back downtown so Ralph could get his car and go spend time with his family. It would have been cool if we could have hung out a little more but it was awesome to meet him.

Dave and I got back to the hotel and after cleaning up, we both fell into a Mexican food induced coma. Jamie brought us back to the land of the living with a call at about 5:00 pm. We ended up deciding on meeting at a minor league baseball game that evening. After Dave and I toured the not so nice parts of Indianapolis, we finally reached the stadium. We both grabbed some delicious ballpark fare and a beer and settled down in the outfield grass seats to relax and watch the game. Shortly thereafter, Jamie and his brother-in-law Charlie showed up. It was such a good time talking with those guys that we hardly caught any of the game. When the game ended we made our way to the parking garage and parted ways with Jamie and Charlie. I hope we all meet up again.

Even with the four hour nap in the afternoon, I fell right to sleep once we got back to the room. Maybe the couple beers had something to do with that. When we got up in the morning we were planning on going to IMS for a pancake breakfast and to watch some of the first day of practice. However, we found out that the cars weren’t going out until noon. Dave wanted to be on the road by noon because of the longer drive he had. We passed on that and opted to partake of the hotel’s continental breakfast again. After I tried to eat all the sausage and Dave tried to drink all their coffee it was time to go. We loaded our respective cars up, said our goodbyes and I headed north and Dave headed south.

While the race didn’t go quite as I had hoped, this was such a fun weekend; I could have run it in 3 hours and would have considered this weekend to have been a success. To finally meet some of the guys that I’ve been interacting with and sharing the ups and downs of my life with was so cool. I really hope they had even half as much fun as I did. I can’t wait to do this again!

[UpNorth]

Excellent report Jim. Sounds like all of you had a great time. I'm impressed you were running a 7:30/mile pace and you call that "dogging it" It'll be interesting to see what you do for the marathon when you're feeling good.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

Thanks, Jeff.

[MissDee]

So what's your goal for this weekend? Looks like the weather's going to cooperate.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

No goal other than to run it. I'll take it easy and run with my friend Sheila. I imagine it will be around a 2:10.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

My Indy pics:

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_...PWD=&BIB=25843

[BamaDave]

The first one is the best.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

lol

[BamaDave]

I can't believe how much they charge for their pictures!

[GG300]

I thought that it was one of the original sins of real runners to wear the event shirt for the actual run. Was I misinformed or was this just some last minute wardrobe indecision on your part?

[jruck37]

I think that shirt is from a different race. Jim is in the clear... barely.

[kmwest]

Indeed, he wore a Martian Marathon shirt. The Indy shirt is completely inappropriate for any running, ever.

[BamaDave]

Yeah, the Indy shirt is long-sleeved, which makes no sense for a May race...unless they were expecting a bunch of runners from the tundra.

[kmwest]

Not to mention that the design on it is huge and uncomfortable. I have never worn (besides to try it on) any of my Mini shirts. I'm accumulating them for the inevitable shirt quilt.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

Yeah, I'm wearing my favorite running shirt- it's from my very first half marathon back in April 2006, the Martian Marathon near Detroit.

I kind of like the Indy Mini shirt. It is ugly as hell and I'll never run in it, but it fits me really well unlike most race shirts.

[BamaDave]

LOL. I just realized that I haven't even looked at the shirt.

[BamaDave]

You wanna see ugly - you should see the shirts given out by the Huff-n-Puff 15K in Sheffield, Alabama. I love the race, but I won't wear their shirts EXCEPT to run in them on cold mornings. They have three huge cartoon pigs being chased by a wolf and always on some really bright color. Two years ago it was grape sucker purple, and last year it was mustard yellow.