I’ve always been a fan of the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. There are so many reasons, but a few include that it was my very first half marathon in 2005, it’s right downtown Indianapolis; the city I am so proud to live in and it’s such a well organized and entertaining race. Seriously, you don’t go a mile without some sort of entertainment or organized cheering on this course. So much local energy cheering on runners on the race course. I smile so big when I run by the bands and the groups you see year after year.
This year, coming off baby number four and Boston- it was for the pure enjoyment of running for me. I was so happy to have friends coming in from all over to visit and run the race with me. (Well not really with me, they all ran much faster than I.
Janae, Charlie and Kim all came from Utah, Cali and London to be a part of this weekend!
We started the weekend with a shake out run and then a fun meet up at the expo. It was so nice meeting so many listeners and seeing new and old friends at the expo.
This is Jeff- who has been following along the podcast for a long time now and Glenn and I have become friends with him over the years. He is such an inspiration after being a long-time smoker, non-running kind of guy, he took up running in his 50s and hasn’t looked back having clocked several half and full marathons. He also gives back to the running community (which we should all do) He ran the back of the pack sweep crew last year at the Mini.
Race morning was super fun and Glenn and I partied the entire race. (We did pass up the whiskey shots a random spectator was passing out around mile 11 though. I just didn’t think I could keep that down haha.
Don’t mind me, live insta-storying the entire race. AND GLENN with his mouth full of donuts. We just don’t mess around with half marathons around here.
And this is what it looks like after you collapse from kissing the bricks in the most perfect push up you can muster halfway through the race. Shortly after this picture is when we found the donuts that Frank Shorter was passing out and Glenn had people ask him to also take their picture kissing the bricks. Race partner and race photog.
We finished just over 2 hours- talked the whole time about who knows what. I can’t really believe I ran Boston at a faster pace (barely faster but still) than I did at the Mini. I definitely was “playing” harder at the Mini than I did at Boston, but marathon recovery ain’t not joke ya’ll! Even though it rained the entire race- the rain didn’t feel bad and the atmosphere was still fun. It only got cold and icky feeling after the finish when we tried to hang out a bit at the Athletic Annex tent.
If you have never raced this half marathon- you need to put it on your list. It’s so fun and if you are looking to race fast, it’s a PR friendly course as long as you are in the right corral for your speed! Huge thanks to the 500 Festival for doing an A+ job per usual and bringing so many fabulous people to our city!
After there race, we had a great celebration with Michelob Ultra at Athletic Annex ‘s brand new location. Even though it wasn’t planned this way, there ended up being so many guests from my podcast in the building- we had to get a picture of it!
In this picture from left to right top first then bottom, Kristin Srour, Hollie Hughes, Janae Baron, Bob Kennedy, Charlie Watson, Tina Mui, Casey Kenely, Christi Beth Adams, Glenn Hein, Denise Mcmillan, Kimberly Clark, Ericka Andersen, Leann Faust, Holly Wheeler. (Holly, Wheeler, Casey Kenely, and Leann Faust were all part of a live podcast recording that is available on patreon)
Perhaps the coolest part of the weekend was getting to meet Hollie Hughes and her family. She pushed her son Jonah to a Guinness book world record at the Mini- running a time of 1:24:52 pushing a Hoyt Wheelchair. Hollie and Jonah are both a huge inspiration and if you haven’t listened yet- listen to my most recent podcast episode with her to learn more about their story!
Huge thanks to all my friends and family who showed up for this weekend! What an incredible community we have in running. I’ll finish this post with a family picture from the after party. Glenn showed up with all four of the boys- three of which had their “I’ll Have Another” shirts on, which was totally his idea and just way too cute. The boys don’t come to many of my work functions anymore… especially not the whole crew…. so it felt really special to have them there.
Big thanks to the 500 Festival Mini for a great weekend and thanks to Michelob Ultra for supporting our after party and engraving finish times into pint glasses— that was a huge hit! We’ll see you all next year for one of the most fun weekends of the year and certainly the best month in Indy! MAY!