I took an early morning flight with US Airways out of John Wayne Airport, one of my favorite airports. I parked in the Main Street parking lot and took the shuttle over to the terminal. When I checked in for my flight, I was able to select a seat in one of the exit rows. So much nicer to fly with the extra leg room! I originally had a very short layover in Phoenix, but my connecting flight was delayed a bit before heading over to Indianapolis. Good thing that the expo was open until 9pm.
Yay for exit row seat!
After picking up my rental car, I drove over to my hotel to park the car and check in before heading over to the expo at the Indiana Convention Center. While walking over to the expo, I realized that the Indiana Pacers had a game at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse since there were a quite a few people at the corners trying to sell me tickets.
I went through the expo. Picked up my shirt and bib. Then on my way out I looked for my name on the poster with the names of all of the participants. My first and last name was split up on two different lines. They gave us a small souvenir version of the poster.
Poster with participants' names
My first and last name was split
On my way back to my hotel, I stopped by Noodles and Company to eat a quick dinner. I ordered the spaghetti with meatballs and a side order of the chicken noodle soup. The spaghetti was decent and served well for a carbohydrate rich meal for tomorrow's marathon. The chicken noodle soup also hit the spot as it was hovering around or below 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
Spaghetti and meatballs with a side of chicken noodle soup
I also stopped by a Big Red Liquors to see if I could buy some sports drinks or water. They had bottles of water for 50 cents a piece. Apparently the cashier thought I was underage and was trying to buy or steal alcohol. Oh if he only knew how old I was. There was also some unsavory characters staring at me the entire time. I paid for the water and hurried on back to my room. Since I couldn't find any sports drinks, I decided to just go with Nuun water for the marathon.
For this trip, I stayed at La Quinta. I had decided on running this race kind of late and it was pretty much a great find. Although it was close enough for me to walk to everywhere I needed to be, it was located near the outskirts of Downtown. In a way that was good since it was pretty quiet. The room was nice and came with a microwave oven and a refrigerator.
Microwave oven and mini-fridge
This was one of my favorite race shirts. Nice colors with a very simple design. I normally donate my race shirts to Goodwill, but this one for sure is a keeper for me. I got my race gear ready before hitting the hay. With the temperatures in the 20's, I was pretty sure that the arm sleeves and gloves will stay on for the entire race. This was also the race where I would be giving the Root Beer GU's a try.
Race shirt front
Race shirt back
Race gear
11/1 Saturday
I got dressed and jogged over to the Indiana Convention Center. Thank goodness they opened it up because it was cold outside. Since I was going to wear everything for the race, I had no gear bag to check. I brought with me a mylar heat sheet for waiting in the corral. Inside the convention center, they even had a stand handing out bananas and water. While waiting, I bumped into a few familiar faces and a bunch of Marathon Maniacs. We waited inside until it was closer to the 8am start.
The starting line was on Washington St between West St and Capitol Ave with the course heading East.
Here's a YouTube video of the course: http://youtu.be/DygBz7NxxnU
After a few miles around Downtown, the course headed into the suburbs. I ran the first 4 miles progressively faster around the vicinity of the 3:30 pace group. It felt okay, but it was prudent to ease off on the pace as I had been dealing with plantar fasciitis in both feet as of late. The course for the most part was flat. I got through the first 10k in 51:06 which was good for me in a marathon.
1: 8:23
2: 8:08
3: 7:56
4: 7:54
5: 8:35
6: 8:26
10k: 51:06 (8:15)
A little after mile 7, the half marathoners split off. Without the fresh eager to finish half marathoners pushing the pace around me, I eased off further on the pace. I just wanted to run a smart race especially since my legs have been feeling tired and heavy from so many races on consecutive weekends. At the halfway point, we were pretty much as North as we were going to go before we started heading back towards the capitol.
7: 8:41
8: 9:01
9: 8:56
10: 9:20
11: 9:31
12: 9:50
13: 9:48
Half: 1:55:30 (8:49)
I further slowed the pace down to try to make it to mile 20 running at a consistent pace. This section of the marathon has always been a grind for me. I kept sucking down the Root Beer GU at one every hour and a salt cap every 30 minutes.
14: 10:07
15: 10:27
16: 10:42
17: 10:35
18: 10:43
30k: 2:54:41 (9:23)
We ran about 2 miles down the White River Parkway which was a pretty scenic section. I started having leg cramping issues, so I had to start taking walk breaks. We then headed East along the Burdsal Parkway and Fall Creek Parkway before we head South on Meridian. No, I wasn't hallucinating! I did see a rainbow unicorn! I ran with him during the last couple of miles. He's a fellow Marathon Maniac and was running to support a peer support group for women that are going or have gone through breast cancer. Also apparently the girl, Hailey Danisewicz, in the red top set the world record for the fastest above the knee amputee marathon in 4:25:28, which was 28 seconds faster than me!
Mr. Rainbow Unicorn
19: 11:19
20: 12:49
21: 11:53
22: 12:32
23: 12:12
24: 12:21
25: 12:19
26: 11:33
26.2: 1:54
Finish: 4:25:56 (10:09)
It really never gets old. It was a nice feeling crossing the finish line especially with the State Capitol building as the backdrop. State number 29 finished! After getting my finisher's medal, I was given a bunch of goodies in the finisher chute. I got a bottle of water, TruMoo, a banana, and a cookie. In addition to those goodies, I was given a throwaway zip up jacket and beanie to keep warm. My fast friend, Sally, spotted me shortly after I crossed the finish line. She usually finishes about an hour ahead of me. After snapping a photo, I started making my way back to my hotel. I so looked forward to the warm shower!
Finish
Sally at the finish
Medal and post race goodies
For an early dinner, I walked over to the Circle Centre Mall to eat at the Granite City Food & Brewery. Per the usual after running a marathon, I went with a burger and beers. I started off with their beer sampler for $4.95. What a great deal to check out 8 different beers. For my burger, I got the Bison burger with bacon. All of their beers were pretty decent. Couldn't go wrong with any choice. The burger was flavorful, nice and tasty especially with the added bacon. I finished it off with a pint of the Batch 1000, their double IPA.
Beer sampler
Bison burger with bacon
11/2 Sunday
For some reason when I checked into my flight, they assigned me with zone 5. I wasn't about to deal with having to involuntarily check my bag when overhead bins are full so I paid the extra $20 for PreferredAccess which meant that I get to board with zone 1.
My flight was at 6am, so I got up super early to get ready and headed for the airport. I gassed up the rental and got to the airport at about 4:30am. There was a whole row of cars being dropped off ahead of me. They had conflicting signs there so some of us were confused as to what to do. Nobody was at the counter yet at that hour, so I went with the sign that said to leave the keys in the car. Since I had not driven more than 75 miles, they would later tack on their EZ Fuel charge of $13.99 which kind of sucked since I couldn't show my gas station receipt to anyone there. I guess I could've called in to get that money back, but that would be too much of a hassle for me.
We were about 15 minutes late arriving into Phoenix since they had to de-ice the plane before we left Indianapolis. I sort of had to hurry to my connecting flight. They had already started boarding. Fortunately it was a pretty empty flight. There were empty seats everywhere.
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