Thursday In Indianapolis [Posted 5/9/05]

I'm writing the posts for the weekend trip to Indy in sequence, but posting them all on Monday, now that I'm settled back in here in Austin. It makes for more chronological reading that way. As always, my Truth In Blogging standards require me to reveal when I play fast and loose with the posting time and date. :)

I took care of a few last errands on Thursday morning, finished packing, and headed out to the airport to meet up with Frank for our flights to Indy. I had no trouble at all with security or checking in, and we noshed on some sandwiches as we whiled away the time before our flight. It's fun to travel with someone, even someone you think you know pretty well, because in all that time, you still find out stuff that is interesting. Frank and I had fun talking about a whole kaleidoscope of subjects, including, of course, our training, our race plans, and race goals. The first flight was exceedingly short, long enough to reach cruising altitude and then immediately begin our descent. We had a short connection in Dallas, and the fun there was this guy who nearly freaked out trying to get out of the airport train at a second terminal. I swear he was going to climb up and over me, even though I was having to wait for a long line of people at the other end of the car to clear out so that I could move out of his way. Some people...

I knocked out the airline crossword puzzle (only one small marked-through correction in the whole thing) on the longer flight to Indy, while Frank got a quick nap and listened to his mp3 player. As we banked over Indy for our landing, we saw the Speedway, and I was able to point out much of the course for the Mini through the window. Once we got there, my Carolina friends, Jeff and Andy, were waiting at baggage claim as planned, standing there with Alex. We piled into the rental vehicle, and were off to downtown Indy. There was lots of talk about running, racing, and food (isn't that always the way around the time of a longer race?). Our hotel was right at the finish line, maybe one block away, which was really cool. Frank, Alex and I shared a room (young Alex got the rollaway bed, naturally).

We took a short walk to the finish area, and saw one of the directors painting markers on the street for the finish line. The massive logistical efforts required for a race containing 30,000 runners were evident, some 36 hours ahead of race time. Tables, tents, fencing, barriers...giant piles of stuff stacked around the park and finish area, just waiting to be set up. The grandstands were already up along the finishing stretch. We walked through Memorial Park, to show Alex and Frank our meeting place for after the race, saw the start line, and then wandered back uptown for pizza. We had a nice stroll through downtown to Bazbeaux's Pizza, and then proceded to annihilate several pizzas. My ham and pineapple pizza was wonderful. The other guys had shared tastes for 'za, and knocked out large double thick crust pizzas. Andy and Jeff shared a Hennepin beer, a big 750 ml bottle of beer, and Frank, Alex and I had a token one beer each to celebrate the weekend early. Full and happy, we enjoyed the cool night as we walked back to the hotel.

I did a little guitar playing with Jeff, as we worked on our limited repertoire of tunes, and we started planning our new songs for guitar camp later this summer. By the time I got back to the room, Alex and Frank were deeply asleep, so I quietly settled in and read for a while until I crashed about 11:00. A good first day.