i picked up alice from her new apartment near downtown around 12:15 and we started on our way to indy. so we were off! to get to the 90/94 from her house, i just had to drive straight down ontario and it should have been super easy. but it wasn't. we encountered ridiculous traffic. i kid you not it took at least 35/40 minutes to get to 90/94. and it should have taken like 5. super obnoxious, but whatever. ok, now we are on 90/94 and we start breezing along and along we go listening to music and chatting. we get on 65 and are going and then all of a sudden, we are stopped. i forget along where, but not far outside chicago. grrrr.... and every once in a while, we'd catch a glimpse of the road ahead when there was a bend or a curve... and the jam was as far as the eye could see. oh joy! well, i think that took us about an hour to get thru - and it wasn't even a 'good' accident to look at... it was construction and we were down to one lane in the middle of all the farm land. there is no other option to get to indy and so we sat it out and made our way slowly. we finally got through it and started moving again. i started to get tired and so, i made alice listen to my favorite sing-a-long soundtrack - grease! and oh yes, i turned it up high and sang right along. i figure she's a. trapped and b. known me for so long this can't possibly change how she feels about me. it is supposed to be a 3 hour trek and it ended up taken us about 5 hours + it is on eastern time so we got there around 6ish. eventually we got to downtown indy and to our hotel. the hotel, the wyndham, was conveniently located right in front of the convention center (packet pick up expo) and in back of the start line so it was super easy. but the traffic there was terrible too as there were so many cars and people milling about getting their packets and checking in. but, finally finally we got parked. and it was only going to cost us 25 bucks for the day/night.
we checked in to the hotel and i was thrilled that we'd gotten a room - i'd only called a day or two before once i found out how easy/convenient it was for race activities vs the hotel i'd booked earlier. we checked in and then headed to the expo. for being the largest half marathon in the country, the expo sure was small and pathetic! but that's ok... we got our stuff and then decided to go to noodles and co for carbs and take out. the line there was super long too and they ended up running out of chicken. really? yes, they ran out of chicken. somehow pasta marinara and steak just isn't the same, but i wanted protein! so we headed back to our room to watch a movie on tv. when we found one to watch, it turns out it was 14 bucks! holy crap... um, no thanks... so we watched bad friday night tv.
on the morning of the race (saturday), we got up and put on all of our gear that we'd laid out the night before. then we headed to the lobby to see if we could find a girl that runs in alice's ces (chicago endurance sports) group (the one we all run with to train on sats). unfortunately, we didn't find her, so we headed outside around 7:20 (race began at 7:30) and were immediately frozen. the mornings are cold! but, we knew once the race started we'd warm up quickly. and since all we had to do was literally walk out of the hotel to the starting corals, we didn't have to stand outside for too long.
at just before 7:30, the national anthem was played and then it was time to start! there were also shout outs from military guys to their families back in indiana which was super sweet. the whole thing was televised on their channel 8 - whatever network that is. while in the corals, there were tons of beach balls being tossed around (i hadn't seen this at a race before) and then as we crossed the start line, we ran under a huge american flag and that was very cool. and then we set off on the course... over the white river, past the zoo - where i spied an elephant near the fence!, there were also at least a dozen hot air balloons in the sky, and then on to the ghetto... on our way to the indianapolis speedway where the indy 500 takes place... then back through the ghetto and back to downtown where we finished.
along the race course, there were all kinds of bands, entertainers, singers, cowbells, people in front of their houses cheering us on and playing music from their boom boxes. there were cheerleaders from local middle and high schools too. but, my favorites were the cloggers and the square dancers... neither group had anyone younger than 75 and they were so fun and cute and energetic. i loved them! it was a great course and by far the coolest part was getting to run a lap around the indy 500 track. it's huge! i have no idea how far around it is, but it's at least a mile around. it's so much bigger than i ever imagined. not that i'm a race fan and i think going 500 miles around a racetrack would be utterly boring and even more boring to watch, but hey, that's just my girly opinion. but running around it, now that was cool! the track came in around mile 6-7ish so right about halfway. the best part was, i was still sticking to my intervals! last half, i stopped doing my full 3 mins run/2 walk about halfway through and this time (8 weeks later) i was able to do my intervals until about mile 10 or so which i was thrilled about. the only reason i wasn't able to do my intervals all the way through was b/c the way i was running was to protect my left foot (still hurting, but manageable) and so my right calf started to lock up. i think it was b/c i was running a little weird trying to protect that foot. so hopefully next half (in june!) i'll improve more and my foot will be all better. that would be great.
the race course
i knew i was ahead of my time b/c i'd been keeping up with my intervals better than the disney princess half, but i wasn't sure exactly how much better. when i crossed the finish line, i knew i'd pr'd by about 5 minutes, but i didn't know exactly what my chip time would be. turns out i pr'd by almost 6 minutes!! i was thrilled... now if i can keep that kind of progress up, that would be great. so as i crossed the finish line, i gave it all the energy my foot pain would allow and then collected my medal (it's pretty awesome looking) and a banana, some water, apples and cookies that they were handing out. before the race started, alice and i decided to meet up at the picture taking area on the left hand side. for every race we've done (we've done all our races together), we've taken a picture at the finish line by ourselves and one together. this time was no different. alice pr'd too - she did so fantastic - 2hrs 8 mins or so! in orlando, she finished at like 2hrs 30 mins. way to go alice!! i must admit i'm jealous of her (and dev's) running abilities, but that's ok, i go my own pace and hopefully i'll be able to improve more this summer.
once we'd taken our pictures, we went back to the hotel (about 2 blocks from the finish) and took showers. luckily we didn't have to check out until noon so we had plenty of time. and then we left and headed home. luckily we didn't have too much of an issue getting home (until we hit crappy traffic on lakeshore drive). and we even got free parking! it was supposed to be 20 bucks, but when we stuck our ticket in the machine, it said we owed nothing. i guess it was our lucky day!
i got home around 330, took a nap, and then headed over to megan's house for a night of beer/vodka and bags. and then some bar action in wrigley (which is either super casual or super slutty all in one bar) in our schlubby tees, jeans, flip flops and fleece. we were smokin hot. we watched the bulls lose and the blackhawks win - we didn't watch the full games - we got there for the end of games being the great chicago fans we are! it was fun, but i got tired around 11 and called it a night. what a great day!
i have no idea what mile this was... but check out the pony tail!
check out them pasty white chicago winter legs!!
me and alice are victorious!
oh yes, there's the coveted medal!
***pictures are not mine, as i borrowed them from the website... this is why they are so small***
2 comments:
nice work on the pr!!!
i got frustrated just reading about the traffic. wish i wasn't so familiar with that feeling!
congrats on the great run! sounds like it was quite the adventure.
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