Indianapolis mini-marathon

Two days ago (Saturday May 3) I participated in the Indianapolis min-marathon. This is the largest half-marathon (13.1 miles) event in the country, with 35,000 registered participants. When one registers, they ask what your estimated finish time will be and group the participants accordingly. Runners and walkers were grouped into alphabetical corrals, with corral "A" being the fastest. Being honest when I registered, I was iplaced n corral "W". Even that far back, I could barely see the large orange sign indicating the location of corral "Z". This picture shows what the view was from my vantage point. The start line is somewhere far ahead. By the time I arrived at the start line, the elite athletes were near the half-way point at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When I saw the Kenyan winners later on TV, I could see that they were focused on only their perfomance. Our back-of-the pack group was busy taking pictures, calling friends on cell phones, and waving to the many spectators along the course.

I finished in 3 hrs 24 minutes, even improving last year's time by 5 minutes. And I had time to read the many signs spectators were holding along the course. The best sign: "You're all Kenyans to me".

Thanks for the encouragement!

The worst sign: "All viruses are male".

What is that supposed to mean?

Registration is already open for next year's event. The race organizers expect it to sell out months in advance, just like every other year. And yes, I'll sign up again.

13 mile leisurely walk

This past Saturday was the annual Indianapolis mini-marathon, which draws 35,000 participants. This was my 9th time to do this event, not my fastest finish but not my slowest either. Everyone is assigned a starting place in a series of corrals which are labeled in alphabetical order. The fastest people are in Corral A. I was assigned to Corral X. By the time I inched my way up to the start line 28 minutes after the first runners started, they were already near the half-way point at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But not to worry, one only has to maintain an 18:00 minute/mile pace to avoid being pulled off the course and forced to return to the start/finish area in a bus. This pace was not difficult to maintain, given the cacophony of noise from all the bands playing along the way. These bands could most kindly be described as "local talent" and inspired me to move along more quickly. Perhaps this is why I saw so many people wearing iPods.