< 23 Hours to 13.1 Miles
Tomorrow's the day - the OneAmerica 500 Festival Half Marathon. The main race has 35,000 participants (there's also a 5K with 4,000 people). There's supposed to be more than 100 entertainers - bands, cheer squads, things like that - along the route. It's the largest half marathon in the country. I don't think I even really understand how big of an event this is, but that's why I wanted to do it. The biggest event I've been in up until now might have had 1,000 runners. It's going to be crazy!
The course goes like this: You start downtown in Indianapolis (coincidently, my start corral is just outside a building where I used to work), you cross the White River and run north and west over to Speedway where you run one lap around the track (yes, The Track), and then head back to Military Park just a block or so away from the start.
I have to pick my packet up today, so I took the day off work. I'll drive down to Indy this afternoon and stay overnight.
When I signed up back in September or October, I put my estimated time down as 2 hours 10 minutes. I had grand plans for all the training I was going to be doing. But this and that happened, and maybe I slacked off a little in March and April and now, I don't think that time is realistic. I'd been planning to go up to 15 miles in training before the event, but now I've only been up to 11 miles. I'm not worried about finishing. I know I can do that. I'm just hoping the last mile or two aren't horrible. My main goal is to have a strong stride the whole race and not degrade into the tiny-step-jog that I tend to do when I'm really tired. If I can manage that, I think I should be able to finish in maybe 2 hours 23 minutes (about 11 minutes/mile average).
I'm starting to get nervous now but I'm going to just try and take it easy today. Tomorrow, I'm going to feel great!
The course goes like this: You start downtown in Indianapolis (coincidently, my start corral is just outside a building where I used to work), you cross the White River and run north and west over to Speedway where you run one lap around the track (yes, The Track), and then head back to Military Park just a block or so away from the start.
I have to pick my packet up today, so I took the day off work. I'll drive down to Indy this afternoon and stay overnight.
When I signed up back in September or October, I put my estimated time down as 2 hours 10 minutes. I had grand plans for all the training I was going to be doing. But this and that happened, and maybe I slacked off a little in March and April and now, I don't think that time is realistic. I'd been planning to go up to 15 miles in training before the event, but now I've only been up to 11 miles. I'm not worried about finishing. I know I can do that. I'm just hoping the last mile or two aren't horrible. My main goal is to have a strong stride the whole race and not degrade into the tiny-step-jog that I tend to do when I'm really tired. If I can manage that, I think I should be able to finish in maybe 2 hours 23 minutes (about 11 minutes/mile average).
I'm starting to get nervous now but I'm going to just try and take it easy today. Tomorrow, I'm going to feel great!