Firecracker 6–BOOM!

Since I have a dry spell from my last half marathon (June 1st) until my next half marathon (August 17th), I decided to do a 6 mile Fourth of July run in downtown Indy.  I did it last year but experienced some digestive/intestinal issues and it was a billion degrees so I was hoping for better results this year.
Packet pick-up is a breeze especially since I work downtown and can just park in my normal parking spot to go pick it up.  It is held in our City Market.  I hadn’t been in there for awhile (since last year’s packet pick-up) and I was surprised how nice it looked and how busy it was during lunch.  It must be a good location for people to go to.  It does have a lot of variety but…I’m a “take my lunch to work” kind of girl.  Got my packet and shirt and then headed back toward my side of town. 
  
  
I wanted to dress somewhat festive for this race but didn’t want to put too much money, time and/or effort into it.  I still needed to find a red top.  I had some luck at the second Walmart I went to.  It says that it is dry wicking but it seems very “cottony” too me.  But I think I can endure it for 6 miles.  Later in the evening I put everything together (or so I thought.  There would be a last minute hat change in the morning) and then went to bed around 10:30pm.
Got up at 6:00am.  The race starts at 8:00am and I live only about  30 minutes from downtown so there was no need to get up super early.  Initially I was only going to shave my legs (can’t stand for them not to be) but decided to take a quick shower anyway.  I tried to eat less than I normally do for a half.  Last year I think I ate too much and that was also part of my problem.  Left the house 5 minutes later than I wanted to and had to stop at a Thornton’s gas station to use the bathroom on the way there.  (Maybe THAT’S why I need to get up 2+ hours prior.  UGH!).  But still had plenty of time.  Dropped off my donations for the Hoosiers Helping Heros program and then got in my corral.   Way too many chatty people that we didn’t even hear the National Anthem - only the applause afterward.   I’m going to assume also that he/she/they didn’t use a mic either.  Then a few minutes later, the firecrackers are set off (that is the starting “gun”) and we are on or way.
The route changed a little from last year and I made it through the first two miles without any problems but then for some reason my stomach felt like it was cramping and that I might need a bathroom.  SO FRUSTRATING!    So I walked for a bit and took in some water at the next aid station and eventually it subsided.  I knew what my finish time was from last year (1:09 and some change) and really wanted to make sure that I was below that but with that walking break I got a little worried.  Crossed the finish line at 1:04:43.  Almost 5 full minutes faster than last year.  So I’m going to call it a success even with the “interruption” from walking.  I really enjoyed the new course.  It was wonderful that it wasn’t even close to being as hot as last year.  The temperature was cool-ish for July and overcast.  I never even put my sunglasses on.

Wish I had last year’s reading to compare

Start line.  We will run toward Monument Circle

Fountain Square has recently been revitalized and has become a good area to run through.  This is just before the 4 mile marker

Heading back in to the downtown area

Lucas Oil Stadium  - where the Indianapolis Colts play

The building on the right is Bankers Life Fieldhouse (FKA Conseco Fieldhouse) and home to the Indiana Pacers & Indiana Fever (where I worked for 11 years).  And the tall building in the distance is where I work now – Chase Tower

The finish line area is lined with American flags on both sides & you get a handed a small American flag the last 1/4 mile to run in with.

Best I could do for a Finishers Photo!

They had the standard water, bananas and pretzels at the finishers area.  But also had GOOD cookies and popsicles.  Popsicles have become one of my favorite items to get after a race.  They are so refreshing.  Initially I took two cookies but felt guilty (although they had plenty) so I gave one to a homeless man on my walk back to the car.
 
I would recommend this race to anyone and I will probably do it again next year.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

My husband & I have been watching the Tour de France and he suggested that I send in a question to Ask Bobke.  The next day, there it was.  Not sure why they listed my hometown (and spelled it incorrectly.  Its Terre not Terra) instead of my current city.  But fun nonetheless!

Those crazy high school kids!

On June 21 & 22nd, I was back in my home town celebrating with my former high school classmates celebrating at our 30 year class reunion.

Its difficult to think that I’ve been out of high school for 30 years since most days I still feel like I AM 30.  But a good time was had by all.  I’m not sure from a “numbers” standpoint regarding attendees if more people attended or not but I think it was a better “festivity” than our 25th.  Leading up to the formal dinner on the 22nd, I did a 30 day countdown on Facebook.  I had scanned pages from our yearbook and posted one or two of them each day.  It was a big hit.  It got people excited about attending and it certainly got some funny conversations started, especially about those 80s clothing and hairstyles.  And here we are a week past and people are still talking about it and commenting on photos.  Seeing all the fun we had made those that didn’t attend wish they had.  Hopefully we’ll see an even greater turnout for our (GULP!) 35th in 2018

Me and the hubs at the Friday night tent party

I’ve known these girls since Junior High!

30 years later and still acting silly.

Volunteering

On Saturday, June 15th my husband and I volunteered at the local Sprint Distance Triathlon.  The disadvantage was that we had to be there at 5:45am.  And when we got there, there was an athlete already there!  It didn’t even start until 8:00am.  We were to be body markers.  Two funny stories, I had a guy come up to me later (I didn’t do his initial marking) and needed to have a number added to his arm.  Seems that technically he was 258 not just 58.  At least that was an easy fix.  The other one told me that his number was 331 so that’s what I marked on his arm.  But then his wife chimes in and tells him that’s NOT his number.  That he is actually 351.  They bicker back and forth until he digs his bib out of the bag…sure enough he was 351.  Well, that wasn’t a “clean” fix but we made it work.

After the race started, we stayed to help direct the athletes coming out of the transition area out on to the bike course. We stayed until all of the bike were back in. 

It was fun cheering them on.  I was getting excited and for a brief moment thought how fun it would be to do another triathlon.  (I had done this event in 2010.)  But then I remembered that I suck at swimming and I’m not good on the bike and by the time I’ve struggled through those two portions, my run is even slower than it usually is.  So…I’ll just stick to my half marathon goals and leave the triathlons to my husband.

Until Next Time NYC!

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Well, we got a little more sleep than the night before but still not very much.  I think it was 6 hours.  Once again we got up, went to breakfast and then came back to the room to shower, pack our bags, check them at the front desk and head out for the day.  Our first stop was the Today Show.  We had to wait about 30 minutes but the crew finally came out.  Pretty sure we made the broadcast and hopefully our dog/house sitter was able to hit record on the DVR in time!. 

      

Next we walked past/through Rockefeller Center  and then up(?) Madison Ave.  Sadly we were on the wrong side of the road from Tiffany’s.  The city was getting ready for the big Puerto Rican parade so there were A LOT of officers out getting staged in various locations. 

We made it to Central Park and walked around a bit.  One of these days, I’ll run through there.  There were lots of runners, bikers, dog walkers and several softball games going on. 

      

Back through Times Square, we caught the Gray Line and headed to the 9/11 Memorial area.  The line moved quickly to get tickets.  Almost too quickly as they wouldn’t really let you stop and look at all the stuff in the museum.  Got our tickets and then realized that they were “time specific” and our time wasn’t until 2:00PM.  But after about half an hour, we decided to chance it & try to get in anyway.  NO PROBLEM.  They weren’t even looking at the times; just as long as you had a ticket for that day. The area is very surreal.  Sadly, I never got to see the Twin Towers in person.  I’d like to go back and see it all again when they have finished building everything. 

   

    

After that we then walked over to see the Statue of Liberty area & Battery Park.  It was a very short walk and a nice area.  We found a bench and waited for the Gray Line to come around.  Well…we waited and waited and waited.  We saw two of them but they were going the opposite direction.  I told my husband after 30 minutes, that we needed to make sure we were in the right bus pickup area.  So I started walking up the road.  Sure enough, we weren’t!  So I called him on his cell phone and told him to head up the street. Too funny.  Of course if we weren’t on a time restraint it wouldn’t have mattered but we still had to ride the bus all the way back around to Times Square and get our luggage, grab a taxi & get to the airport.

    

     

But everything worked out, we made it to the hotel in plenty of time and not long after we were in a taxi on the way to the airport.  Quick “editorial comment” about Gray Line – although our first tour guide wasn’t the best when we got on there on Saturday, the second trip with them on Saturday and then on Sunday’s trip, the guys were great.  Mostly they all pointed out the same things but each of them had a different flair and “opinion” of the area we were going through.  I’m glad we used that mode of transportation.  We got to see more of the city that maybe we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise and we got to hear different stories.  Well worth the money spent.

One last moment of panic as we are getting out of the taxi at the airport and he pulls away…our camera is still in the backseat!  Luckily since we were yelling at him, that caused the entire area ahead of us to yell at him as well and he stopped and we got the camera back.  That would have sucked to lose those pictures. 

I’m happy to report that all of our flights back home were on time and even slightly ahead of schedule.

I definitely want to go back to NYC one of these days.  And although I prefer half marathons over full marathons, after seeing the city, the boroughs and the bridges it make me want to do the NYC Marathon.  You never know….