I'm Baaaaack - an Indy Mini Race Recap

Hello all!  I hope you haven't left me during my long absence.  And now I don't even know where to begin...

Almost exactly 2 months ago I fell down and I've had a hard time getting back up.  My knee has re-gained all of it's skin, but it still hurts like you wouldn't believe and feels a little twisty and out of place.  Leading up to my half marathon I never ran any longer than 3 miles, and most of my runs were more like 1.5 - 2 miles.  I knew there was no way I could run a half and that I would have to downgrade to the 5K.  Frankly, I was depressed about it.  I know it wasn't a lifelong goal like Boston (and I can't imagine living with me if it had been that big of a race) but I had been training and training and was having the moment robbed from me by a stupid crack in the sidewalk and I was angry!

I didn't want this blog to become a place where I wallowed in self-pity (and have it live on forever in the world of the internets) so I've been away.  Mostly taking piddly little training runs and then finishing off a lot of these:

Don't mind the Liquid Plumr.  I wasn't that down about the sitch.

So anyway, I spent the whole week leading up to the race toying with the idea of running the half anyway.  I mean, I had paid for the half, my shirt said I ran the half, and if I had to I could run or walk that far.  You know, if I was being chased or something.  The night before the race I laid out my gear for the morning:

We woke up race day and took the requisite pre-race picture (both of us still thinking maybe we could do the half, and knowing we would be crippled for a good long while if we did):

Yes we look haggard...it is early, don't judge.

We literally walked out the front door of our hotel room into the corral for the 5K.  The starting corrals are lined up for blocks and blocks, but somehow we picked the perfect hotel for our corral.  Go us!  Usually we have to walk a mile in the freezing cold.

Anyway, the 5K starts in the half marathon A-D corrals.  Corrals E-Z are already lined up behind you and the half marathoners who want to get into A-D stand off to the side and shoot you ridiculous 5Kers dirty looks.  As a person who downgraded to the 5K you can feel the energy, nerves, excitement, etc of all the people behind you who are about to do something they've trained and looked forward to and maybe even feared for months.  Personally, I understood the glares from the people on the sidelines waiting to get into my corral.  Last year I was in Corral D, and I wanted the 5K to get out of my way already, because it was COLD on the sidelines and at least in the corral I would have body heat surrounding me.  All of that energy surrounding the half made me still want to get out and run it while standing in the 5K start line.  Glutton for punishment?  This girl right here.

In the end, we did run the 5K.  It was so congested that we walked for almost the first half mile.  When it finally cleared a little you had to spend the next half mile or more dodging people, weaving in and out, because no one actually lined up according to their pace.  In the end, Dave and I finished together in 33:07, the first time we've ever run a whole race together from start to finish.  It was a nice thing, running together.  But next year we are totally running the half!!

We got done in time to head back to the finish line of the half (score some Dippin' Dots) and watch the quickies finish the race.  I even saw some people I knew from our running group at home and one guy I went to college with (random) and cheered them on as they ran down the final .1 mile.  It was exciting and fun to cheer for people.  You could see who had some left in the tank and who was totally crippled by their effort.  One chick actually had blood gushing down her legs (we think from chafing, we hope from chafing).

We cleaned up and went to do our traditional post race gorging of ourselves.  Dave wanted PF Chang's and so for the first time in my life I tried tofu (the sacrifices we make for love):

No, just no.  Nononononono.

I had to wash the taste out of my mouth with something:

While we were walking around the mall eating our cookies we saw a Proactiv vending machine.  The things you can buy out of vending machines these days astounds me.

The good news is, we weren't crippled by running a 5K (smart decision? yes.) and we were able to have a great weekend playing mini golf, shopping for new furniture, and eating yummy chocolate at The Melting Pot.  But we will be back to avenge the Indy Mini next year!