Indy Women's Half Marathon

Saturday was the 2nd Indy Women's HM, held in Indianapolis, my city. I was running the half while my 8 yo DD was running the 5k. She won her AG last year and was really hoping to repeat.  My mom was also run/walking the 5k.

Last year, it was so hot that they blackflagged the race at the 3 hour mark. This year, we had the remenants of Issac looming over us. Here's the Weather.com snapshot on race morning at 5:20am.


I warned DD that she's probably be running in the rain but that it wouldn't hurt her (DH was planning on running with her as well just so she wasn't by herself). I didn't care about the rain and was just hoping that we wouldn't have thunderstorms. Temp was 75* and humidity was high with the storm rolling in.

Race starts on time at 7:00. I don't have any plans to PR at this race as I haven't been training for a PR but I was hoping to finish by 1:55 and no later then 2:00. I set my Garmin pace keeper at 9:00.

Mile 1-3 8:39, 8:35, 8:43 - Started up close to the front, knowing this was going to be a popular race for first timers. Even with starting 10 feet from the start line, I had to dodge slow movers. Got settled into my pace and really tried to just enjoy running through downtown Indianapolis in the pre-dawn hours. Skipped the first water stop and walked quickly through the next one.

Mile 3-6 8:38, 8:31, 8:33 - Felt pretty good, course was still crowded but moving well. But the humidity was kicking in for me. I decided to walk the water stops from here on out, knowing they would be every mile or so. Ha. I'm running and see the neon yellow shirts of volunteers and get excited about water only to see that they have water, a table but no cups. Well, that means I'm going to at least mile 7 without water after getting water at mile 5. I start to get discouraged but decide to just keep going.

Miles 7-9 8:55, 8:42, 8:47 - Yea - water stop! And I'm not the only one who was happy to see it, nearly everyone stops and walks for a few steps here. The water was cold too so now I'm feeling refreshed. I check my watch and figure that DD is finishing her 5k by now and I'm sending her good thoughts. A guy driving a Uhaul ignores the orange cones and pulls out into our lane, about 10 feet in front of me. I pound on his window and yell "Closed road, dumba$$".

Mile 10-12 8:46, 8:31, 8:54 - Downtown buildings are now in sight. I'm thankful for the overcast weather but wishing it would just rain as the humidity was nasty. I want to be done. I'm running now on roads that I've run on for nearly every race I've done in Indianapolis and distract myself by reading the different races mile markers , start and finish lines that are spray painted on the roads and try to figure out which races they were from. I also start thinking about the post race party and deciding what type of beer I'm gonna get. I see my dad at mile 12 and he grabs a picture of me. I take my time walking through this last water stop. I can see the post race party and just want to be done.
Mile 13, 1/18th - 9:04, 1:35 Like I said, I just wanted to be done and mentally unfocused for a few seconds. I charge to the finish line and cross, happy to be done. Grab my medal, lose my breakfast off to the side (not unusual for me to puke after a sprint to the finish). My dad is there and tells me that DD did well but wasn't sure of her time. DH finds me and tells me that DD finished in 32 mins, a 10 min PR! But finished 3rd and was pretty upset about it. The first place girl for 10 and under finished in 23:20! And the second place girl beat DD by 15 seconds.
I grab a beer from the local brewery, some strawberries and pineapple and a turkey wrap. Turn around and there's DD walking towards me, with a trophy in hand but major tears. She just kept saying that she had wanted to win, that she was upset about losing. I just hugged and hugged her and told her how proud I was of her. We checked the results board and she finished 80th/414 so that helped cheer her up.




Her winnings:



My final finishing time was 1:54:51, just under what I wanted to finish at. I was pretty happy with that since my long runs and speed work have been pretty non-existent this summer. 15th in AG, 90/1414 finishers.
Mom finished in 47 mins and got 4th in her AG!  I hope she decides to push a little more with her training and try for another 5k this fall.
I love this race. I know there is controversy about women only races and "fru-fru" post race parties but there were some fast women there. The winner finished in 1:16 and won $1000. There was $4000 in prize money for the first 10 finishers and extra bonus money if you finished under 1:15. It's a well run race, nice expo, excellent post-race party, beautiful medal. And only $35 ($10 extra for a shirt, long sleeved) during early registration. I'll be back next year!