Indianapolis Marathon 3h:49m:38s

I was coming into the "Indianapolis Marathon" having completed the "Steamtown Marathon" only 6 days prior, thus this would be my smallest break between marathon events. Moments after the "Steamtown Marathon", I had zero interest in attempting to race "Indianapolis". I was thinking I would just join Scott and Susan and assist her in her first full marathon adventure. As the week progressed, a desire to attempt to race "Indianapolis" began to increasingly grow. I didn't honestly believe I would run a personal best or a Boston qualifying time in "Indianapolis", but that wasn't going to stop me from at least trying.

Susan picked Robin and I up on Friday afternoon. I took on the first leg of the driving as we headed to Springfield to pick up Scott.






Scott ended up being the one who had to work the latest on Friday.

We stopped in Vandalia, Illinois for dinner at "Lorenzo's Pizza and Pasta". We took a chance at eating at a restaurant we didn't know anything about, but we were pretty pleased with the decision.

We made it to Indianapolis pretty late Friday evening, and we lost an hour to the time change. I believe I slept pretty good, but Susan was dealing with a sinus infection and did not sleep very good at all.

Race Day: Saturday 10.16.2010

After eating some breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the location of race day packet pickup. We got down there pretty early, and found a decent parking spot.



I had no difficulty picking up my race packet, but Scott and Susan ran into a bit of a snag when they discovered that Scott had forgot to register them. Thankfully, they allowed race day registration and they had some openings left for people interested in registering for the full marathon. We pooled our cash supplies and everything worked out well.



Prior to the start of the race I was able to pick up an energy drink at a nearby store and I found a reasonably short line for a port-a-potty near the starting corrals.

The Race

This time I was going to actually attempt to bank some time, whereas at Steamtown I focused on banking energy and kept it at an even split effort. This became a problem at Steamtown when my system required a port-a-potty stop.

The weather at the start was great. I took it out quick but gentle. Within the first mile the course had taken us into the Fort Harrison State Park and the scenery was amazing. I was pacing off of my Garmin and I was a bit disappointed when my watch indicated I had already covered a mile about 60 meters prior to the on-course mile marker.

My mile splits: (1) 7:00, (2) 7:04, (3) 7:21, (4) 7:07, (5) 7:06, (6) 7:17, (7) 7:11, (8) 7:31, (9) 7:25.

Coming into the 10th mile I found myself experiencing the fatigue that I typically experience around the 20th mile of a marathon. Around this time I also encountered a pretty significant climb and I opted to walk it. Once the climb was behind me I resolved to go after my half-marathon personal best. I actually picked up the pace as I approached the half-marathon split timing mat. I am guessing that the marathoners around me were wondering what the heck I was doing. I hit the half-marathon split in 1h:37m:39s (7:28). This was just short of my half-marathon personal best which I ran during the first half of the "Little Rock Marathon": 1h:37m:36s (7:26) [Someday in the future I will register for a half-marathon and attempt to destroy this personal record]

Once this half was complete I set my Timex to give me 8 minute and 2 minute intervals. The plan was to run 8 minutes and walk 2 minutes for the rest of the distance. I felt like this would be good preparation for my upcoming second attempt to get a 100 mile completion. I was able to stay with this until the last mile. The last mile of the course was a long uphill climb. I just didn't have the motivation to keep it rolling and thus I walked most of that last mile.

I was pleased to come into the finish under 3h:50m. I took some time to recover and then Robin drove me back out so that I could join Scott and Susan and run with them. The hope was to assist Susan in finishing her first full marathon. We found a good spot to wait for them and I was able to lay down and rest for a little bit.






I was able to run with Scott and Susan for 6 miles. I encouraged Susan to pick out landmarks up ahead of us to run to. We soon picked up another runner: Adriana Maniere. Adriana ran with us for a couple of miles before we left her at a medical station at the mile 24 aid station. Before leaving her I handed her a couple Thermolyte tablets. I later heard from her that those Thermolyte tablets worked wonders for her.



During the last mile we encountered a lot of traffic moving in on the course. The course was supposed to be closed for another 15 minutes so I found myself giving some of those drivers some pretty strong feedback.



It was way cool coming into the finish with Susan for her first full marathon completion.



I resisted the temptation to receive a second finisher's medal :)



It was awesome getting 32 miles for the day and by the time we made it to the finish I was hungry and able to eat the food offered to the event participants.






Another excellent marathoning trip. It was fun to have the wives along. It was great to be a part of Susan's first marathon finish. Robin was a huge support and she even got 6 miles running around crewing for all of us (which was rough on her foot).

Regarding this event: It was excellent. The course was topnotch beautiful! The only negative I encountered was the traffic issue we encountered during the last mile.

Stats

Total Marathons: 11

Total Ultra-Marathons: 3

Total Thon Event Completions: 14

Long runs covering 26.2 miles or more: 23

Thoning States: 12