Half Marathon..Check!

This weekend, I was able to check one more thing off my bucket list.  I successfully completed 13.1 miles of glory bright and early this morning.  The Indianapolis Mini Marathon - the largest half marathon in the country - brings over 40,000 runners to take over the streets of Indianapolis (and the Speedway track) as the city gears up for its Indy 500. And I was one of them.  I finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes.  And by the way, I am NOT a runner.  Before the training, I had not run more than 3 miles at a time in my life, so this was quite an accomplishment. And believe me, if I can do this, anyone can do it. Like I said...I am NOT a runner..and neither my knees nor my toenails think so either.  I will probably lose both of them as a direct result of this race.

The people running along side of me, even though strangers, kept me going. They were an inspriration in itself and watching them helped me keep going...runners pushing wheelchairs, runners in their 70s, runners with disabilities. It was amazing to see them all.  The moments of this morning will be stuck in memory, but it would have been nice to capture a few other things with the Nikon...

1) The sweatshirts thrown off in piles on the side of the track.  Runners start off running with them and strip them off when they get too hot.  I found out later, that volunteers will pick up the shirts afterwards and give them to a charity.

2)The mass amounts of people running in front of me and behind.  At some points during the race, I would look ahead and just smile and shake my head in disbelief at the MASSIVE amounts of people in this race.  Wow! No word to describe.

3) The 50 year old woman pushing another woman in a wheelchair..while running!   or the few 70+ year olds and the runners who complimented them on the way. Simple pats on the back and "way to gos" were heard quite often - stranger to stranger

4)  The runners coming onto the speedway track as we were leaving the track and vice versa.  Another reminder of the amount of people running this race.

5) The thousands of cups thrown on the ground after runners took a quick drink.  This is the one time, I felt ok about throwing my cup on the ground if necessary.    

6) The local bands and entertainment lining the streets.  Over 80 bands came out to entertain the runners as we passed.  Many hand claps, fist pumps and YMCA dances happened during my race.

Here are some moments I was able to capture this morning. Thanks goes to my mom, who also helped me capture many of these.

My Supplies

Traffic from 40,000 people = insane!

Bananas at the finish line!

Official

Getting ready to kick this mini in its rear!

The runners

I finished!

The sign Jaimie and Robin made

Hometown peeps, Kasie, Phil and Mark..all finished!

I think I deserved the pimp cup tonight