02-06-2016 Miler Series - 3 mile training run

To help get people geared up and trained for the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon in May, the 500 Festival offers 3 training runs. This is known as the Miler Series.

From their website: The 500 Festival Miler Series, presented by OrthoIndy, are three running and walking events offered at three unique distances, a 3-Miler, 6-Miler, and 10-Miler. The series coincides with typical training programs geared toward a spring race. The 500 Festival Miler Series, presented by OrthoIndy is the perfect, low-pressure opportunity for participants to gauge their progression in preparation for the 2016 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon or a spring distance race of their choice. Not training for a race? These events also provide an opportunity to get moving and accomplish your 2016 fitness goals.

Tackle all three Miler Races during your training and become a Podium Finisher. All Podium Finishers will receive a gender specific technical t-shirt and the official Podium Finisher medal, in addition to bragging rights for perfect attendance! Participants must register for the option of all three races at time of registration to receive shirt.

This training program has been going on for several years now but this is the first time that I've participated. And I'll admit that - aside from being an Ambassador this year - the fact that you get a medal for completing all three runs helped me decided to sign up!.

The first training run - 3 miles - took place on Saturday, February 6th. Start time wasn't until 9:00AM. My husband and I left the house around 7:45AM. We ended up downtown earlier than we needed to be but that was okay. He was to meet his blind athlete at 8:15ish and I had the Ambassadors photo at 8:40.

The weekend before, I suggested on the Ambassador Facebook page that those of us that would be there on Saturday should gather for a group photo. We had a pretty good turnout. I especially like the "back of our shirts" photo.

Packet pickup was inside the NCAA Hall of Champions which was nice because everyone was able to be inside and stay warm until closer to the start. If you signed up in advance to do all three distances, you had to go to a different area to get your shirt. It was pretty easy and the line wasn't very long. To get your packet, you were routed through the Hall and back to (what I will call) an auxiliary room. This area was very open and spacious and I believe that you could do onsite registration at this time as well.

After we got our packets and our shirts, I took the shirts back to the car so that my husband could wait on Chris. I finally found both of them after our Ambassador picture was able to get a picture of them. Sadly I didn't get a picture of me and my husband. Chris had his Miler Series shirt, a coffee mug and his cane that we weren't sure what to do with so I offered to run them back to our car for safe keeping. All this running back to the car, I may have gotten in an extra half mile or so!

By the time I got back to the Hall it was 8:50. I needed to go inside and wash my hands - I'd gotten some GU on them - and also use the bathroom one more time. I was like a salmon swimming upstream trying to get in because EVERYBODY ELSE was coming out of the building. It was nice that the bathrooms were empty though!

Made it back outside with 2 minutes to spare and the gun went off to start the race.

I didn't set any time expectations on myself for this event. 

There was one section of the course that was an "out and back" so I kept looking for my husband and Chris but never saw them. It wasn't until we were headed back out on Washington Street that I noticed them passing me on the far right. It was easy to spot my husband with his GUIDE vest on. I hurried - as much as I could - to catch up with them and got this photo.

Sadly as I was trying to get another photo my phone completely died. I couldn't power it back on or anything.  To make matters worse....that is what I was using to listen to my music. UGH!!  I had to run the remaining 1 3/4 miles without tunes. For me - that was pure torture.  Note to self: go buy a new iPod shuffle.

It was a cold start to the morning; I forgot to take a weather screen shot but I think it was around 25 degrees. I felt like I was properly dressed but since it was so sunny and I was in all black, there were times when I was too warm.

It took me awhile to find my husband afterward. We socialized for a little bit with friends but then walked back to the car and drove Chris home.