The Mini

I DID IT! I finished 13.1 miles and crossed the finish line at The Mini. I don't know what my time was, and quite frankly, I don't care! I finished!!!

The day started out oddly enough... Eric, Eric's neighbor, Amber, and I got a ride to the race staging area in the back of an ambulance. No... nothing was wrong with any of us. It was just windy and chilly (about 48 degrees Fahrenheit) and we started walking from the house to get there. It's about a mile and a half... but it's easier than trying to drive! Anyway... we got to the first intersection and an ambulance pulled up and asked if we wanted a ride, since she was heading there anyway. We took it for the fact that we got to stay warm a little longer! We thought that was pretty cool of her to stop, cause she didn't have to! But it made for an odd story to tell now...

As I said, it was a little chilly! If it wasn't for the wind, temperatures actually would've been perfect. But there was no sun, and it was REALLY windy! So that 48d felt more like 40d! As we stood in the corrals, it wasn't too bad since there were so many people, But once the race started and people spread out (and we got out from between all the taller buildings), you could feel it! But, as with any hard physical activity, I heat up pretty quickly, so I was fine until a large gust would blow through. All in all, though, it wasn't too harsh... at least until the walk home.

As I've heard from many other long distance runners, once you get into a pack, all the people seem to subconsciously motivate you to keep going, so Eric and I kept up a pretty good pace for awhile. Which made me sick (not literally) since he barely trained at all! I didn't get as much training in as I would've liked, but it was still more than him. By the time we go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to do our lap, he was feeling it in his knees, though. So we walked more. Which was fine - we were already doing better than I had thought we would, thanks to the pack mentality!

Then, at around mile 9, I got this pain/cramp in my foot and when I come down on it during a running stride, it'd send a shooting pain up the outside of my ankle. That hurt my pace. Funny thing was (not really), that as an engineer, I got all technical and insisted on walking on a certain side of the road, where the pavement slope dropped away from the cramped foot. Oddly, this did help - even the minimal cross slope in a crowned pavement took enough pressure off the foot and put the pressure on the foot that was okay, and I could keep up a better pace. I doubt most people think about that...

As we counted down the miles, the adrenaline kicked back in a bit so we could cross the finish line running. We were somewhere in the middle of the pack. Never saw the buses behind us, so that felt good to know we weren't even close to being too far off the pace. I'll check my time eventually, just to see. We got our goody bag of food to help re-energize us and then started the walk home. It was a long walk home! The adrenaline just turned off at this point, and the 13.1 miles hit both Eric and I. But it just felt good to have done it!

This was a huge accomplishment for me (Eric has run it before). I've never been a runner. Even when I ran track, I never considered myself a runner. And for that reason, I'm sure I'll be feeling this run for days! But it was worth it, just to be able to say that I did The Mini!

INJURY UPDATE: I pulled/strained my Peroneus Brevis, which is the tendon that runs from the outside bottom of your foot to the outside calf muscle. Just need to rest it and take an anti-inflammatory medication (ibuprofen). Lucky me...