Date: November 1, 2014
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Finish Time: 1:31:05
Pace: 6:58 min/mi
Indiana. State number seven. The city of Indianapolis was the setting for what turned out to be a pretty good race. I was just shy of my personal record, but I am pleased with the race as it starts the push towards the Pittsburgh Marathon.
Like most of my races in recent attempts, the weather was not cooperative. Janel and I drove down on Friday through rain and spitting snow. The temperature plummeted and when we arrived in Indianapolis, the snow was spitting, the wind was blowing, and the temperature was a cool 32 degrees.
My mom and dad also came down as my mom ran the 5K. We arrived at almost exactly the same time to the hotel and walked over to the convention center together to pick up our packets. We ate dinner at a nice brewery around the corner called RAM and then headed back to wind down and get to sleep.
This was the first time I stayed at one of the race hotels and I must say, it was excellent. I enjoyed waking up in the morning to a breakfast room filled with runners. I enjoyed waking up at a respectable hour (6:30), as opposed to early morning like most other races. I enjoyed being able to leave stuff in my room and walk a few blocks to the race without stressing about parking and road closures and all the typical race-day stresses.
It was cold in the morning, 30 degrees and windy. It took a lot of effort to stay warm, so we spent a lot of time leading up to the race inside the convention center and hotel adjacent to the starting line. Around 7:30, we went out and began lining up at the starting gate. Every gust of wind was chilling and it required every ounce of energy to keep warm before we actually started running. Everyone was a bit subdued and the usual pre-race jitters were mixed with cold shivers.
The race started and immediately I started to warm up. It was a nice start with easy jogging and nice wide streets that dispersed the large crowd rather quickly. The first mile ran by the giant Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts, a Super Bowl, and NCAA basketball tournaments. By the time I ran by this huge structure the crowd was pretty split up and I could settle into a pretty good clip around 7 minutes per mile.
The race was fairly steady. It was a long, winding path north through the city before the full marathon split from the half and we turned back to head downtown. Each mile I watched the time on the clock and saw that I was shaving a second or two off each mile, a very good pace. It wasn't until around mile 11 that I really started to feel a bit fatigued, but at this point in the race, the road was so straight, that I could see the monument in the center of town we were running to. It gave a great object to run towards. By the time I was at the monument, I was in the final half mile of the race.
I finished the race in 1:31:05, just 14 seconds shy of my record I set in Buffalo. I'm very pleased with the race and was happy with how steady I ran through the whole thing. Sometimes I tend to speed up too quickly and exhaust myself, where sometimes I don't speed up enough until I really fly at the end. I was very happy with how consistent I was throughout the race, which lends itself to good vibes for the full marathon in Pittsburgh next May.
After the race, Janel and my mom and dad met me at the finish line to congratulate me and help me find warmth inside. It was quite cold after I stopped running and my sweat made it worse. We walked straight back to the hotel and cleaned up. A warm shower felt amazing.
We explored some of the monuments in the city, especially the large tower-like statue in Market Square. We also found the War Memorial that was featured on my medal. It was too cold to explore much of the city, so we wandered back to the race area and found a tasty pizzeria for lunch. After lunch we traveled to Benjamin Harrison's Historic Home, just north of downtown for a quick history tour of the 23rd President's home and then jumped on the highway for the drive home.
Overall, I think the Monumental Marathon crew is second only to the Detroit Free Press. In terms of online communication, experience at the race, markings on the course, and spectators, I've only seen Detroit do it better. I was very pleased with my experience and would certainly recommend the marathon to others. If the weather were typical of November 1 in Indianapolis, we probably would have stayed to explore more as the city has some fun things to check out. I'm already looking forward to Pittsburgh! 
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