I’m back!
This morning’s run was less about training and more about exorcising all the junk I’ve consumed in the past four days. I was supposed to go to the track and do 1600-meter repeats at half marathon pace, but I just kind of laughed that off and did a sluggish lap around my 7.2-mile loop instead.
My right foot felt a little numb after working the pedals for almost 1,600 miles in four days (I don’t trust cruise control), but it loosened up about halfway through the run. There were some other weird aches that had to be worked out, and some sunburn on a part of my upper back that is normally covered by my sports bra but was exposed by the tank tops I wore to the race track this weekend. It was also really humid, which I had gotten used to not having to deal with that quickly.
Anyway, I finished the run without too much grumbling, believe it or not, and then did some stretching to finish up. I felt much closer to normal after I’d worked out.
Now, to recap my long weekend since my last post.
Friday morning, I got up very early and ran my 4.5-mile loop. It was early enough I had to use my headlamp for the first time since the winter. The sky had mostly lightened up by the time I got done.
We loaded up the rental car, a 2012 Toyota Camry, and headed to Mike’s parents’ house to pick up him and his brother, Keith. When we got there, we found out Mike and I had a little miscommunication, and we were supposed to pick them up at Mike’s house, which required some backtracking. We finally got to Mike’s house, ate the big breakfast he had made for us, drove to his parents’ house so he could drop off his dog and were on the road to Indianapolis around 9:30 a.m.
We expected it to take about 11 hours to get to Indy. Thanks to a 90-minute traffic jam in Ohio, it took a lot longer. Other than that, the ride was uneventful, and we got to our hotel on the southern outskirts of the city around 9:45 p.m.
After we checked in, we drove to a bar near the hotel that claimed to keep more than 500 beers in stock. I had a wheat ale from a local brewery and scarfed down my dinner. As soon as I was done eating, the long day caught up with me, and I just wanted to go to bed. We stopped at a liquor store so the guys, who had all napped part of the way to Indy, could get something to drink to keep their little party going back at the hotel.
I fell asleep around 1:30 a.m., listening to my travel companions making a lot of noise outside the room, and waiting for the hotel management to come tell us we had to pack up and leave because the other guests were complaining.
That didn’t happen though. I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and wanted to go for a run. I figured I had all the time in the world before the other three woke up, so I drove into downtown Indy to run around and do some sightseeing.
Indy has a “cultural trail” mapped out through its downtown area, that passes some monuments, the state capitol house, a huge park and other points of interest. I took my iPhone with me so I could try to follow it, and so I could take some pictures along the way. I parked at the zoo and soon ran right into this:
Of course there was a Color Run in Indy the one day of my life I wanted to run through there. The Color Run is a national series of 5K races. Everyone is supposed to wear white, and volunteers throw a corn starch powder, dyed different colors, at five points along the course. The point is to get as covered in this colored starch as possible. The runs are very popular, which meant there were thousands of runners in Indy.
I’m signed up for one in D.C. later this year. My friend Laura wants to try a 5K and got a bunch of friends to do the D.C. Color Run. Our team name is Shore Hate Running, haha.
Anyway, when I passed through the park, most of the runners were off on the course somewhere. I skirted around the finish line area and went on my way.
Downtown Indy is very runner-friendly, I soon found. There were nice, wide sidewalks to run on, including this 1.5-mile stretch along a canal that runs through the city:
There were plenty of memorials:
(After I took this picture and started running again, a passerby commented he’d never seen a running photographer before, haha.)
And I saw this really cool Dunkin’ Donuts:
Getting back to my car was a little more difficult. By this time, most of the runners had either finished or were nearly back to the finish area.
When I got back to the zoo parking lot, I checked the app on my phone that had been tracking my run, and found I had covered about 6.1 miles. It was a good way to see the city.
I stopped for an iced coffee on my way back to the hotel. After everyone was awake and showered, we headed to the track for the first time.
On the way there, we stopped at a White Castle, since none of us had ever eaten at one before. I got the double cheeseburger sliders. They were pretty damn greasy. They were OK, but I really don’t understand why an entire movie was made about two stoners trying to get to a White Castle just to eat those.
At the track, we tried to find free parking, but, after driving around for a quite a while, we eventually gave up and just parked in a $10 lot, the cheapest we could find. It also happened to be as far away as possible from our seats for the Nationwide Series race. It was a long walk.
When we got to the section in which our seats were located, we found that section was not yet open (Sprint Cup qualifying was still happening, which was general admission.) We found seats in the nearest section that was open, and I started working on the beers in our cooler.
Qualifying ended about a half hour before the Nationwide race was to start. Our section was still not open. I asked an attendant when we were going to be allowed to get in our seats. He looked at my ticket and said we could sit in them now — and pointed up.
Upon closer inspection of our tickets, we saw the word “deck.” We got to sit on a platform raised above the highest seats in that section! We could see the cars coming off Turn 4 on their way to the front stretch.
Saturday was one of those days the beer was going down like water, and I was pretty lit by the time the race was over. We ate some egg rolls on the way out of the track, and I managed to walk all the way back to the car, but as soon as we got back in the car, I was out like a light. Clark, who hadn’t felt like drinking that afternoon since he was still a little hungover from the night before, drove us back to the hotel.
I woke up around midnight and was pretty hungry, so we all went to the Waffle House conveniently connected to our hotel. I had two huge waffles covered in butter, syrup and chocolate chips. It hit the spot.
Sunday morning, I actually felt OK, much to my surprise. Clark and I got up early, showered and waited for the other two to wake up. We had brought our little grill, a couple of coolers and some chairs, expecting to tailgate before the race. But we wound up leaving the hotel too late in the morning to have time for that.
On the way to the track, we found out Indiana does not allow alcohol sales on Sundays. This was a problem. Between the four of us, we only had about six cans of beer left. (We had some bottled stuff left, but you can’t take glass into the stands.)
It was my turn to not really feel like drinking, so I wasn’t too concerned about the whole thing. We finished off the bottled stuff in the parking lot before walking into the track.
Our seats for Sunday’s race were right along the front stretch, just beyond the start/finish line. They were even better than Saturday’s seats had been.
Unfortunately, Jimmie Johnson had to go and win the race, but I didn’t let that ruin the whole experience for me. It was a really cool track to see in person. It was built in 1909, and hosted the first Indianapolis 500 two years later, so you can just feel the history oozing out of the place.
And even though it was Johnson kissing the bricks after winning, it was most likely the only time I will see that tradition live, so I got some pictures of it.
I did manage to get one group shot of us at the track, after the race had ended:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway easily gets the award for best traffic management. It’s a huge place that holds a ton of people, but we didn’t have to wait in traffic at all. We went downtown, where we had dinner at a sushi restaurant and then hung out at a bar until it closed at 11 p.m. I had one more beer, just because of the name. It was called Buttface Amber Ale. How could I resist?
The next morning, I was up early again. I wanted to get in a few miles before we left. But when I went outside at 6 a.m., it was still pitch black! I guess it was because we were right on the edge of the eastern time zone there. It didn’t lighten up until it was too late for me to run, so I just scrapped it.
We left Indy around 7:45 a.m. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I was driving, unfortunately. And everyone else in the car was fast asleep, which made me feel even more tired. The highway through Indiana and Ohio was surrounded by pretty much nothing, and all the music I had was whatever I could find on the local FM radio stations, so I was having a rough time for a while there. I stopped at a Tim Horton’s in Ohio (another fast food chain restaurant I can check off the list!) and got a big ol’ iced coffee.
Other than that, the drive back was much easier. We dropped off Mike and Keith before 6:30 p.m., picked up Pepper from Clark’s parents’ house, dropped off the rental car and went home.
It was a fun weekend, and now we have to decide which NASCAR track we’re hitting up next year.
One last thing — it’s the last day of July (already!) and I have to do my monthly summary.
Mileage:
- Week 1 (July 1-7): 30.8 miles
- Week 2 (July 8-14): 44.7
- Week 3 (July 15-21): 39.1
- Week 4 (July 22-28): 54.3
- Week 5 (July 29-31): 7.2
Total: 176.1 miles
If I had actually managed to run those two long runs in the beginning of the month, I would have almost broken 200 miles. Even without those runs, it was still a pretty solid mileage month.
I also ran my fastest 5K of the summer series, and ran another 25K trail race. I would say marathon training is on track.
Except for a 12K in Preston, August is going to be nothing but training miles. This should be my biggest mileage month before the October marathon, and I’ll also be doing the heaviest speed workouts to get ready for the Sept. 2 half marathon in Virginia Beach.