Indy Mini Marathon Race Report

What a great day for a race! 46 degrees at the start, perfect running weather.
The Indy Mini Marathon has just become my favorite half (out of 18) of all time right behind Kentucky Derby Half. Also my time was my 2nd best 1:58:09 (9:02 pace).
It was just the perfect race from start to finish, I loved it!

First and foremost the Marriott (thank you Amy!) that we (my friend Kristi and I) were staying at was in the perfect location. It was between the expo and starting line, literately between the two. Once we parked at the hotel we never had to drive again until it was time to go home after the race.

View from the hotel window.

So at 7:30 the race started with 35,000 participants. We were in corral G and it still took 13 minutes to actually reach the start (the corrals went all the way up to Z). Then we were off!! For the first 3 miles or so i was totally preoccupied looking up at the balloon race (what a great idea), made the time go by pretty fast and it was just neat. I was feeling good trying to maintain my pace and not worrying too much about the fact that i was running in a brand new pair of shoes that i purchased at the expo the previous day, i like living on the edge. Oh did I mention that i loved this race??

By another few miles i was ready for the track, and there it was. I never felt such a rush as when i got to run down the shoot the cars come out of onto the race track, it was a fantastic feeling. Not to mention running on the track itself ,which was 2.5 miles long, was invigorating (the nice smooth asphalt made the miles fly by fast). After the track, it was back on the road to downtown Indianapolis. I absolutely loved this race, and felt good and healthy to the finish. It's weird running this big of a race there is never a moment when you're not surrounded by other runners for the entire 13.1 miles, pretty cool! I ended up with my 2nd best finish of all time, with a per mile breakdown of - 9:20, 8:42, 8:53, 8:44, 9:06, 9:01, 9:08, 8:52, 9:14, 9:13, 8:52, 9:09, 9:01, my slowest mile was the first one. The race was so consistent for me, I'm amazed! This never happens, usually the first few miles are so much faster then the last 3.

My friend, who just had baby Grace less than 2 months ago, did fantastic also and finished in 2:16. Which by the way was faster than my first half marathon and i think even faster than her first half. We will be running the Akron Marathon together again this year, she's going to kick my butt.


Do I dare say that I want to do this race again?? I think I do.