500 Festival Mini Marathon...

...I will be running a mini marathon, AKA half marathon, this weekend in Indianapolis, IN. I'm actually kind of excited since my last marathon race was in October and I love that runner's high after a race. Part of the race is actually on the NASCAR Indy 500 track which I think is 2.5 miles long so that'll be cool and they've got live bands throughout the course so it should be a good time. Now let me tell you how this idea to run this race came about...

After I ran the Lewis & Clark Full Marathon in October, my friend Angie (who'd ran half the full with me) said let's do the Indy Mini Marathon. She has family in the area and her SIL had decided to run it. I was like, I'll think about it and checked out the website. Keep in mind that as soon as the full was over, we went straight into IVF so I had no idea where or what I'd be doing in May. I kept going back and looking at the website trying to figure out what to do. The problem was that the fee drastically increased after Thanksgiving and we wouldn't know whether IVF would work or not until the end of December. I was torn at what to do! I talked to the running guru at work and got her opinion. The Mini Marathon has a 4 hour time limit so she and I decided that if I was 5 months prego that as long as I stayed on a training schedule, I would be able to walk the mini in 4 hours. I decided to bite the bullet and register saving me about $25. When you registered, you had to put your estimated finish time so I just put 4 hours. After I registered, I told my friend Beth about it because I knew her granny lived in Indy so she registered too. Plus my DM friend Mary Beth (or MB as I call her) is also running. MB is planning on staying by my side and running the entire race with me.

A couple weeks ago, I got a postcard in the mail about the race. I didn't really read it, almost tossed it but sat it on the table to read later. Upon further reading, I found out that I need that little card to pick up my bib and it had my corral listed on it. So here it is May, I'm no where near prego, hoping to beat a 2:46 time and I'm in CORRAL Z!!! UGH! I had emailed back in February to ask if I could change my time and they said no. Now I'm stuck in the back of the pack to dodge around walkers and still try to beat my goal time. I wouldn't be as worried about this except for the fact that the three other ladies (Angie, her SIL and Beth) are in corrals P and Q and will probably finish a good hour before me. My goal is to try to sneak into a corral that starts before Z but we'll have to see how strict they are on race morning. Did I mention 35,000 people are running this?

OH! AND Mattie and I have to drive back to MO that afternoon. Yeah, I registered back in November then got my work schedule and I was scheduled to work this upcoming weekend. Luckily, I got the Saturday switched but no luck with switching Sunday since it is Mother's Day and I'm the only non-mom at work. . Luckily on Friday, Matt and I are both off work so we'll be able to take our time, not get up too early, get there in time to meet up with Beth and head to the expo and carb load (my favorite reason to run!). Saturday, however, is just going to be a whirlwind that includes racing, showering, lunch and driving. Whew, I'm tired already!

Anyways, I am excited about this race and just trying not to put too much pressure on myself. I feel like my running is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was this time last year but I don't want to take anything for granted. I know that weather, what I eat, how I feel, etc...all play a huge part on my performance not to mention this is definitely the BIGGEST race I've ever run in. My time from Hospital Hill last year was 2:46:42 which was a 12:44/mile. My 1st goal for this race is to beat that time. My realistic goal is 2:43 or less and I have a "push-it" goal but I'll keep that to myself for now.

So there you have it, the deets on my race this weekend! Not sure if I'll have Internet this weekend but I have my FB and Twitter set up to post my splits DURING the race (how cool is that!) but a race report will have to wait until Monday. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Think of me when you wake up on Saturday morning and know that I'll be running...and running...and running...