Saturday,
November 7, 2015Time: 4:12:34
Overall Place: 1909/3997
I can only describe this weekend as monumental, pun
intended, which exceeded all of my expectations. Going into this weekend I must say I was a
little apprehensive because I was doing this trip all alone, but was totally up
for the adventure.
The weekend started for me on Thursday morning to catch an
early flight to Toronto and then a second flight into Indianapolis. The flight to Toronto was leaving at 6:20 so
I wanted to be at the airport by about 5:15 which meant leaving home at 4:45
for the almost half hour drive. The only
problem was when we went outside to the car we had a flat tire, great. Nice start to the weekend. We decided that we would call a cab and then
Heidi would also call for CAA to fix the tire.
The cab came within about 5 minutes and off I was. Heidi later got the tire fixed and I got to
the airport so all was good.
The flight to Toronto was really nice. I didn’t have to do any driving. I just got to sit back and relax and let
someone else do all the work. The timing
was perfect to arrive in Toronto for breakfast in the airport and still have
plenty of time to get to my gate for the next flight. For breakfast I managed
to find a Timmies and have my favorite Bacon Bagel Belt and large white
milk. Breakfast all taken care of I
walked for what seemed an eternity to get to the next gate which was located on
the ground floor of the farthest corner of the airport. What happened to me while I was waiting for
my next flight made my whole trip. I had
just finished talking to Stephanie on the cell phone and I was sitting beside a
gentleman who was waiting for a flight going to Columbus, Ohio. We got to talking and he asked me where I was
heading and I was able to tell him about all my marathons and the purpose of my
trip. I mentioned to him that I was
raising money for an organization in Winnipeg that meets the needs of the
homeless and less fortunate. He had
mentioned to me that he had just come from Winnipeg and we were actually on the
same flight, which I didn’t know. He
asked me if the organization was Siloam Mission? I said yes it was. He said he was driving from Bothwell, just outside
of Winnipeg, and heard their commercial.
He asked me if he could give me something for Siloam and I said of
course and would be happy to pass along what he gave me. I didn’t look at the bills he gave me right
away and we said our goodbyes. Turns out
he gave me two US fifty dollar bills. I
was quite moved by this gentleman, that he would want to just give a stranger
this much money for an organization he knew very little about. What a way to kick off the trip.
The flight to Indianapolis was uneventful and short so I
made it there with lots of time left in the day. The next challenge was to get myself downtown
to where the hotel was. I didn’t want to
rent a car because it’s too expensive to park downtown and everything was
happening within close proximity to the race which was in the downtown
area. Indianapolis has a good transit
system and as a part of this they have a shuttle that takes you downtown from
the airport. I ended up within short walking distance of the hotel. The hotel was quite unique in that it was an
old renovated block. Not sure what it
was used for before, but the inside was just gorgeous, and very comfortable.
In the late afternoon I went for a walk to the convention
center where they had the race kit pickup and the expo. The expo was very nice and had lots to
see.
The thing I like about this event
is that they had a speaker series, and you know how much I love listening to
people talk about running. The speaker
they had on Thursday evening was Bart Yasso who is the Chief Running Officer
for Runner’s World which is a great running magazine. He had a story for just about every race he
had done and there were a lot of them.
He is kind of an ambassador for the magazine and gets invited to all
kinds of races so that the directors can get their races some publicity. He was so good I went to listen to him the
next day as well, and yes hear the same stories.
Later that evening I walked around the downtown area some
more in a nice warm 23 degrees Celsius.
There was a little bit of drizzle, but it didn’t seem to matter, it was
such a beautiful evening. Indianapolis
has a really well developed downtown area which is full of life and
vibrancy.
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| Circle Center Mall near the Convention Center. They had a great food court. |
You can just feel the energy
that this city gives off. There are lots
of things to do for whatever entertainment you are looking for. I made my way back to the hotel and went to
sleep for the night. It was a good day.
Friday morning I woke
up and went to have breakfast in the hotel. What I appreciated about this hotel
was that I was late for breakfast because I needed to sleep a little longer and
breakfast only went till 9:00. I went
downstairs at about 9:25 just in case I might be able to get a little bit of
food, and they were more than welcoming and didn’t rush me out to get cleaned up. I like hotels that include a breakfast buffet
in the price of their stay. After
breakfast I packed up and walked to my next hotel. That’s right I had to check out and go stay
in another hotel a few blocks away for the second night of my stay in Indianapolis. This trip was a little more challenging to
plan because I couldn’t get three or even two nights in the same hotel without
having to pay up and arm and a leg. The
hotels were either full or way out of my price range. One of the reasons for all the problems was
that the Colts were playing in Indy on Sunday so all of the Denver fans were
coming into town. Anyway I made it work
and the second night was right at the finish line which was really nice, except
that I had to check out before the race started because they wouldn’t allow a
late check-out. They did however make
their shower facilities available so that I had a place to clean up after the
race before I could get to my next hotel close to the airport. After I checked in I made my way down to the
expo to listen to the lineup of speakers that were presenting. There were five speakers that I stayed for
which took pretty much the entire morning and most of the afternoon. What a great way to spend the day.
I also met a couple of other runners, two
ladies from Albany Georgia and we hung out for most of the day talking about
running. They were also very interested
in the Fifty States Club and were able to talk about a lot of the same races
that we had previously done and the ones coming up. There are two races coming up in January and
May which we are going to get together again so that will be a lot of fun.
In the evening I had planned to have my pre-race meal at the
mall that I found in the downtown area and then walk to my favorite restaurant
of all time, White Castle for a slider.
After that the plan was to see a basketball game from the professional
team in Indianapolis the Indiana Pacers.
The ticket was quite reasonable at $23.00 so I didn’t mind spending that
for a highly entertaining game.
After
the game it was back to the hotel and off to sleep for the night.
I finally rounded the corner onto Washington
Street and with the finish line in sight I ran for the finish line and came in
about 2 ½ minutes faster than my previous best. I really had to work hard in
those last three miles but was happy to get a new best time. My plan was to give my phone to someone on
the finishing stretch to take my signature shot, but I was chasing a PB so I
opted not to stop.
On Saturday I didn’t have to get up until 6:00 in the
morning for the race at 8:00. I had no
problem getting a wakeup call as I am very dependent and rely heavily on a good
source for the wakeup call as I will tell you about a little later. I don’t hear at night because I don’t wear my
hearing aids so I need something quite loud to wake me up.
I took care of all of the pre-race
preparations and headed down to check my bags in to the storage area that they
had set aside for other guests in the same predicament.
It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining and a
temperature around plus 7 with an expected high in the low teens by late
morning. We lined up at the race start
together with the half marathoners.
Altogether there was about 5000 marathoners and around 8000 half
marathoners. They had corals for the
faster runners to about a 4:10 finish which was a little odd so I got stuck in
the everyone else coral. My plan was to
get in with the 4:30 Pacer so that I could have a nice slow start and maybe
pick up the pace later on in the race. I
did this last year in Des Moines with the same Pacer and it worked really well.
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| The start is right at the bottom and the half way point at the top. |
The first part of the race went through a lot
of the downtown area and slowly moved further out into the residential
area. At just over 7 miles the half
marathoners split off and headed back to the finish while we kept going further
out into the residential area. We passed
by many monuments along the way which is where the race gets its name from, the
Monumental Marathon. As I said my
strategy was to stay with the 4:30 Pacer, but for some reason this group never
caught up to me because I was running at a faster pace than this group. I was feeling really good because I had a
nice three week break since the last marathon.
I felt strong so I ran a very steady pace and decided to see how I would
feel once I got to the half way point.
By half way I came in around a 2:06 so I thought if I could keep up this
pace I would have a real shot at getting a PB (personal best), in the states
they call it a PR. I kept up the pace
that I needed only slowing down at the water stations, which were about every 1
½ to 2 ½ miles.
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| Hard to believe this was November |
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| I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures along the course. |
It was a beautiful
course and quite flat unlike some races they call fast and flat, where they
lie, this one was quite flat. There were
only two hills which were really insignificant.
With the pace that I was maintaining I was able to catch the 4:15 Pacer.
I also knew that the 4:15 Pacer had
started the race about 3 minutes ahead of me so I knew that if I could stay
with this pacer I would have a PB in the bag.
At about mile 23 I started to tire a little and by mile 25 I let the
4:15 pacer go taking just a few more walk breaks but still maintained a pace
fast enough so that I would not lose too much time.
After the race I went to the workout facility in the hotel
and did my stretching and then took a shower.
I felt good after this and went to the downtown area and had some
supper. My next plan of action was to
grab the shuttle to the airport and then go to the hotel via another
shuttle. Sounds like a lot of work to
get to the hotel but the airport/downtown shuttle is an express shuttle and
they don’t stop in between. I got to the
hotel and checked in and this is where it gets interesting again. I had asked for a wakeup call for 4:15 to
catch the 5:00 am shuttle to the airport to catch the 6:05 flight. This was a very efficient plan with more than
enough time to make it everywhere. The
only problem is that I never received the wakeup call and only woke up because
I had to go to the bathroom which was t 4:45.
No time for a shower and only enough time to pack my bags and get to the
lobby. If I would have missed that
shuttle I would have been in big trouble and probably would have missed my
flight. Your probably asking why not set
your phone, well I did, but I can’t hear it when I’m asleep. Well it all worked out anyway and I made it
back home. What a great trip it was and
filled with lots of adventure.
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| Running with a purpose - Siloam Mission |
Well, two more weeks and it’s off to Oklahoma for the Route
66. A race I have been looking forward
to for a long time. Not sure if I have
ever mentioned this before but really look forward to the next marathon when I’ve
just finished my last one. Running is fun!
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