Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon [Entered 5/20/06]

Race goals: Indy PR: 1:49:36 (2005), Masters PR: 1:44:41 (corrected time from short course at 3M in 2/06), Lifetime PR: 1:44:04 (Nov. 1993), Calculated potential time from Bun Run 5K: 1:41:28. I'd like to finally beat that pesky lifetime PR of 1:44:04 today. That's my primary goal, and I should be able to get it with the great weather. My race plan is to go out and average 8:00/mile or so until we get to the Speedway, then pick it up slightly around 8 miles, and to "GO!" at mile 10, throwing down on the last 5K. That's what I did last year (different time goals), and it worked great.

I got up nice and early at 5:45 to get moving. I slept well last night, and I felt great once I got up. Immediately, I started snacking on a banana and Gatorade Endurance Formula (there were packets of mix in our race goodie bags). I made sure that all my post-race gear was in my check bag, and pulled on some extra clothes for the walk over to the park and starting area. A check of the TV showed fantastic 45 degree temperatures, and the predicted weather showed it would rise only to about 51 degrees by the time I would be done with the race. Excellent! I went with a singlet and shorts, my full Gazelles Fila outfit, with extra clothes over them for now. I was supposed to meet the Gazelles in the lobby at 6:15 am, so I wished Jeff and Andy good luck, and went on down to the lobby. After waiting for a while, it appeared that I either missed the Gazelles or they were running late, so I got out of there and started my walk to the start area.

The streams of people migrating around the starting corrals were steady as I strolled west to the start line. Our hotel was right at Corral "X," about a third of a mile from the start line. I had qualified this year for Corral "C," the third seed corral. Last year, I was in Corral "G," so this was a big promotion for me. It would be interesting to see how different it was racing up near the front. It felt great outside, by the way. Nice and chilly, just perfect running weather, especially for early May. For us Texas boys, it was downright cold, but a welcome thing. I finished off my pre-race Gatorade on the way to the gear check, and tossed that. Once I got to the gear truck, after I messed around a bit, I ran into Frank, Alex and Richard, so that worked out after all. I took off most of my extra clothes, made sure I had my Enervitene and my race number, and turned my gear bag in. Time for a warmup!

Richard was the Indy Newbie this year, so we showed him where the Indy Runners tent was for meeting after the race. This was while we did some fitful jogging around in Military Park. We also took a peek at the finishing stretch, pointing out to him about the "false finish" indicators and showing him the finish line. After that quick reconnaissance, we jogged over to the starting area for some drills and such. We ran up the course a bit, and found runner's Nirvana: A solitary port-o-john just waiting for our personal use. No lines, no worries. Okay, it wasn't like a sword in the stone or anything mystical like that, but for some of the other guys, it was a magical thing. :-) We did the Gazelles drills and some striders, and after a last pre-race stop, we were all ready to go. The wheelchair racers were staging in that parking lot, so it was humbling to see them get ready to race as we jogged around. Those guys and gals are tough!

As we walked back to the corrals, "Back Home In Indiana" was being sung. Not the great Jim Nabors' version, but a part of the pomp and circumstance of the morning nonetheless. Alex stopped off with the big boys in Corral A, Frank in Corral B, and Richard and I slid into the back of Corral C, the Seeded Group 3 corral, which was jammed full. Thankfully, there were no beach balls bouncing through the crowds where we were. That was a relief! National Anthem was solid but not spectacular. The pre-race music over the loudspeakers was deafening, but we never heard a horn or gun to start the thing off. It was more of a "On your marks, get set, go!" type deal. I didn't ditch my over-shirt until after we were moving after the start. Finally got rid of that 2004 Decker shirt! It only took 4 or 5 races to get rid of it. We walked for a bit, and finally broke into a trot right before the start line. We hit our watches, and it was time to get down to business!

I ran with Richard for quite a while. Figured I'd run my race, and if we ran together for the whole thing, good for both of us. If not, no big deal. In the meantime, I acted as a tour guide, of sorts, showing him and telling him about the course. Since he didn't get to drive the course yesterday, this would be all unexplored territory for him today.

Mile one: It was 1:30 or so to the start line. In the first mile we saw two preachers (left and right on the course). The first guy was really monotone in approach, but the second guy was much more of a fire and brimstone guy. His text for the day was that in the "Race Of Life," we all will lose that race to Death, and what will we do then? God help me, I giggled because it was a lot like Richard Pryor's preacher character's sermon/eulogy on one of those great comedy records. You may remember: "We all must face the ultimate test, Death. And, so far as we know, ain't nobody passed the Ultimate Test. Least of all, this [fellow] laying here." Just past that second preacher, there was a trio of kids (15-16) playing "Fire" by Hendrix. Random other musical acts, Zoo, elephant, and first corner. Slightly slow, but it was way too early to panic. Easy first mile is almost always a good idea in a longer race. Turned the corner. 8:24 to the first mile.

Mile two: This mile featured a bunch of the regular entertainers from past years. First, the same two ladies in the church parking lot singing with taped accompaniment. They really are pretty good. Very slight incline in mile two, but nothing to us, really. The same couple of acts later on that stretch, including the church group with pounding reggae and steel drum Caribbean music and the guy in the portable stage with his guitar playing along to his own pre-recorded backing tracks. Pretty cool. Next corner. Now on a long straight stretch going west, we heard a bunch of music. There was a cool band of two kids who couldn't have been much older than 14, playing guitars and some sort of metal rock tune, possibly self-composed. Their band name was "Over The Garage," which we thought was a pretty cool name. There was the almost obligatory DJ guy playing electronica, and then, for me, the musical highlight of the day: A cello player and a mandolin player, dancing their way through "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)" as if it was written for those two instruments. It would have been great fun in any case, but Richard pointed out that the best part was that they were really performing the piece. It wasn't a casual thing cobbled together that morning, but something that they had worked out ahead of time. The mandolin player had the famous guitar/bass riff going, and the cello guy had the "lay down and boogie and play that funky music till you die" descending musical riff for his instrument. Just priceless, but we had work to do. Remember that we only got maybe 10-15 seconds of enjoyment out of any particular band, because of the density of other acts on the road and our relative speed going by. We passed Coach Hathaway, a local Indy running coach and legendary figure, during mile 2. He's 74 or 75, and still turns out a half marathon in under 2 hours. Now that's something to aspire to do! This would be the first year I've finished in front of him in three years...but of course I've got a significant age advantage on him. Split, mile 2: 7:57, right on my projected early pace. I was still "behind" on my 5 mile pace goal, but it was way too early to worry about that. I was feeling great, and the rising sun was at our backs.

Miles 3 and 4: Finally reached the end of that western straightaway, and turned north for a little bit. Our usual rapper guy on that stretch was singing with backup tape at the time we went by, so we missed out on his rapping this year. Oh, well. I pointed out to Richard that he'd be returning to the same intersection as we turned back west for another long straightaway. This year, I beat the leaders to that corner, so that's an improvement! It would be about mile 10 on the way back, and for us, mile 4. As we passed the transmission factory on the left, we saw the clogging ladies on the right, very seriously going about their craft, and a family band on the right, playing "Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang. Very Partridge Family type deal. They launched into "Sweet Home Alabama" as we faded out of their sonic envelope. More rock and roll, too, from other bands. Life was good. We were visiting about every 2 or 3 miles for fluids, which was easy, because they had great amounts of stuff on both sides of the road, and huge "Pit Area" signs rising up to tell you what was ahead. The mile markers were fantastic, too. They were probably 12-15 feet high, with clocks on each one, and in day-glo orange, they were easy to see. They really do a great job with this race! Splits, miles 3 and 4: 7:49, 7:43. Oops. We got a little carried away, but no worries. Just settle down a bit. No harm done.

Mile 5: We turned north again, caught more good tunes as we crossed the mile 5 timing mat. I took my first Enervitene there. A band was playing Tommy TuTone's "867-5309 (Jenny)" as we went by there. Fortunately for me, there were so many other musical acts, I got that song wiped out of memory pretty quickly. Mile 5 split (7:53) right on schedule. I was around the 8:00/mile pace mark (7:57/mile) overall, which could be turned into a PR effort with a decent finishing 5K. I've done it countless times on long training runs, dropping overall pace for a run by a bunch just by accelerating at the end. Stay with the plan, Jay.

Mile 6: Another corner later, we turned towards the Speedway. It's really big, even from the outside. As we approached the entrance, we passed a gaggle of bagpipers outside the Speedway, and there was a big semi-truck parked across the road to enforce the fact that we had to enter the Speedway for the next 3 miles. Richard and I rolled down the short hill and underpass, and back up the other side into the Speedway proper. We immediately came upon the first cheerleading squad inside the Raceway, as well as a water stop and the 6 mile marker. I sipped water there and poured the rest over my head. It was still nice out, but I had to keep remembering to cool down with water. Split mile 6: 8:05. Okay, slight slip with the Enervitene and corners. Don't get distracted now!

Mile 7 and 8: On the track proper, once we toured the infield for a quarter mile or so, Richard and I ran down the backstretch of the 2.5 mile oval, and Richard finally understood what we had told him about the size of the place. It's just enormous, and it looks like it's forever to the corner (Turn 3). The guys exiting the track as we entered it were fast guys, of course, with a 2.5 mile lead on us already, and their pack was pretty small. Not so with our gang. It was nonstop people streaming along the track. We were running 5 to 8 people wide along the track, but you didn't have a problem running your pace if you just paid attention. The grass just off the track is very lush and almost unnaturally green, and the grandstands are empty of people but huge. There's no live music on the track (Speedway rules, I suppose), but they were playing stuff over the loudspeakers. We got "ABC" by the Jackson 5, "Fins" by Jimmy Buffett, and "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, along with one other tune that now escapes me. Last year, they taunted us with "Hot, Hot, Hot," but that wasn't as appropriate this year. :-) Richard told me to go on ahead if that was my plan, so I pulled away from him between turns 3 and 4 of the track, and kept on going. I heard Richard tell me that if I could finish in 2 minutes, I had a chance at winning, which was funny. It was true that at that exact moment between mile 7 and 8, the big video screens showed the leader about 3 minutes from the finish line. At least this year, I was more than halfway done when the winner finished!

My pace had slipped a bit during mile 7, which happens for a couple of reasons. One, the crowd of runners compacts down since we have less flat ground to maneuver within, and two, this is when those who've gone out too fast usually start feeling it. So, if you're not careful, and you're running with the crowd, you can slow down without knowing it. I picked it back up for mile 8, and crossed the yard of bricks on the track. I was steadily passing people, and kept making my way through the crowds around turn 1 (more cheerleaders here, in a 60's sort of costumes), turn 2, and finally we were out of the Speedway, on our way to the finish. There were still enormous streams of people pouring onto the track as we exited, with hours to go. It's just a staggeringly large crowd. Splits miles 7 and 8: 8:07, 7:47.

Mile 9: Now out of the Speedway, we did some quick zig-zags, past several musical acts (was this where the high school stage band was doing "Brick House?"), including the guy from last year with his 12-string guitar. This year, he was singing Dave Mathews Band songs, with a vastly understated version of that band's groove. I enjoyed the stretch of deep shade along here, and kept moving steadily forward. Almost time to "GO!" This stretch isn't that interesting, and it has a lot of sharp little turns, so it's easy to get off your pace. I proved that rule with a pedestrian 8:13 mile 9. Oops. Seeing that split made me snap to attention. I had sort of gotten lulled to sleep by the crowds slowing around me, and forgot to run my race. Now I had work to do.

Mile 10: As I crossed the 15K marker, I admit that I thought to myself, "Only 3.8 miles to go." A few more quick turns, and finally we passed that corner where the crowd was at mile 4 and we were at mile 10. A band at the corner was playing Grand Funk Railroad's "Heartbreaker," which was a blast from the past for me. I was a big GFR fan as a 13 year old boy. Is that too much information here? The stream of humanity was still very thick at that point going the opposite direction from us (their mile 4), but most of them were probably 30 minutes behind us just crossing the starting line, so no big deal. To this point, I had heard no songs repeated, which was remarkable. Last year, I heard a bunch of repeats. Would that streak continue? At any rate, I downed my second Enervitene and stepped across the 10 mile timing mat. Time to "GO!" Mile 10 split: 7:54, back on track. Overall pace through 10 miles 7:59. I had to get my act in gear if I hoped to PR today!

Mile 11: This mile was a long straightaway, and it seemed like it would never end. I was actually straining my eyes trying to pick out the sign ahead of me. Even with shades on, running into the sun made this a tough stretch to relax the tension around the eyes. I had picked up my effort level at mile 10, as instructed by Gilbert, and I was passing bunches of people now, which made it very satisfying. Good music along here, including some very good metal and rock (I think I heard a Metallica tune, for instance), and an excellent bluegrass band on the right. I believe the band "Necropharmacon" was the metal act. Cool name, but a little creepy, I guess. Also during this stretch was the guy playing "Here Comes The Sun" all by his lonesome. He did a pretty good job, too. The funny thing with him is that Jeff reported that he was singing the same song when he ran by some 8-10 minutes ahead of me. I think Richard said he was playing it when he went by after me, too. I suppose that, except for those spectators standing around you, you could conceivably play the same song over and over in this sort of gig. Your audience only spends 15-30 seconds with you, so you could go a long way with a repertoire of two songs. :-)

By this time, I grabbed my last cup of gatorade, and poured one last cup of water over my head. Fortunately, I kept those two things straight, and didn't create a Jay Marmalade with sugar water in my hair. Mile 11 split: 7:42.

Mile 12: Reaching the end of the straightaway, I heard the same rock band fronted by a good woman singer from last year. She was blasting out Melissa Etheridge's "I'm The Only One" this year instead of AC/DC tunes, and she was good! That propelled me around the corner and along the river down to the bridges. Now there was no stopping for anymore water or fluids, since the race was almost done. I cut tangents as best as I could, and rolled along towards the bridge across the river. Once again, I was fooled by the first two bridges in line, thinking I was almost done, but I just kept running. My friendly caribbean steel drum band was there again, as well as more rock music to keep us going. The mile 12 marker was just before the bridge, and I really only checked quickly to make sure I had a shot at a PR. Hasty calculations showed I had a good shot if I kept blasting. Mile 12 split: 7:43. I was working harder now, but I felt like I had enough left for a final big push.

Mile 13: Turning onto the bridge and a very slight incline (exceedingly slight), I was up and over it before it even registered that there was an elevation change. I took advantage of the slight downhill bit after that, and rolled into mile 13. By now, I had eyes only for the signs along the side of the road. I was uncomfortable now, but that was because I had picked it up some more, and I was driving to the tape. 3/4 of a mile to go! More running, more passing. 1/2 mile to go! False finish overhead bridge went by. I heard my first AC/DC song of the day right about here, "You Shook Me All Night Long." It was a CD playing, but it was still inspiration enough. Crowds cheering. Finally, the overhead photographers' cranes and the 1/4 mile mark. With the grandstands on the right, I pushed very hard all the way to the finish line, which now was finally visible. Mile 13 split: 7:27. Driving to the tape, I crossed as the clock ticked 1:45:00. I was done! Last 0.1 miles: 0:46, 6:25/mile pace for the killer sprint.

The Stats: 1:43:30 finishing time. I finally beat that younger Jay's time from 1993, by some 34 seconds. Mission accomplished. Lifetime PR, Indy PR (improved 6 minutes from last year), I ran my race plan, and it worked great. I had a great finishing 5K (23:38, 7:35/mile pace), and my last miles were my fastest. It is always great to run past people at the end of a long hard race. Except for some erratic miles there on the Speedway, I did a good job of pacing. Now I just have to work on replacing the only race times from my younger days that exist as PR's: 5K, 8K, 10K, and 15K. All longer race PR's are all since I turned 40, and most of those were set in the last 8 months.

More Stats: Finished 2729/27642 overall, a nice improvement over last year. More numbers, you say? 2342/13305 among male finishers, 279/1672 in my age group, 388 of 14337 women finished ahead of me, the oldest woman finishing ahead of me was in the 50-59 yr age group (3 of 'em, in fact), and the oldest man finishing ahead of me was in the 65-69 yr age group (just one guy in that group).

A little delirious, I gathered myself and made my way through the finishing chutes. Medal, water bottle, grocery sack, tons of food. You just walk along and turn the corner, and just collect stuff for your goodie bag. Banana? Why, yes! Apple? Don't mind if I do. Big 'ol cookies? One of each kind, I think. Potato chips? A man needs his salt replenishment, right? Wandered over to gear trucks, but the line looked pretty long, so I went for a cooldown jog instead. With food bag in hand, I jogged along the first part of the course. Peeked for a bit into the piles of clothing on the side of the road, looking for my Decker shirt. That would have been funny to find it, but alas, I didn't see it. Now, I was cooling down pretty quickly, and I needed my clothes in my gear bag. Still jogging along, I circled the museum there, and found my way into the backside of the park and the Indy Runners tent. I found the rest of the guys, except for Richard, and we chattered a bit about the race and our times. After hanging out a bit more, I went back to the gear truck to see if the line had dwindled. No such luck. It was now three times as long of a wait. Okay. More jogging to see if I could find a random piece of clothing to warm up in until I could get my stuff, and by then they had scooped all of that up. Oh, well. Back around again to Indy Runners, where I found everyone again along with Richard. I was getting a bit cool by now, not dangerously so, but I really looked forward to a long-sleeved shirt. Richard decided to go with me to see about the gear again, and this time, the line was shorter, but still no picnic. One of the guys in line said that the 5K truck had some of our bags, so I went over there, and after 30 seconds, I finally had my gear. Bliss! Happiness!

Putting on a long sleeved t-shirt and long pants was almost a magical feeling. Ahhhhhhh! Richard and I walked back again along the canal there, avoiding the massive crowds in Military Park, and returned for the last time to the tent. Alex and Frank had disappeared and were gone for quite a while. I thought they might have gone back to the hotel. I mixed up my Endurox and drank that down, and gobbled down a bunch more of the food in my goodie bag as we stood there. Saw some of the Indy runners that I knew from previous years, and that was pretty fun. Alex and Frank returned after a while, and they had been at the beer garden "listening to the band." Yeah. As they decided to go back for "more music," Richard and I went back to the hotel. Jeff and Andy went over to see more of Jeff's Indy pals. Richard and I had a nice stroll back, enjoying the beautiful morning. It was still only about mid-50's by then, maybe low 60's, and by now it was almost 11:00. The runners were still pouring across the finishing line even then.

Once we got cleaned up, the group split up again. Frank and Alex went for pizza and beer at Bazbeaux's (downtown). Richard joined the Carolina boys and me for some historical touring of town (who knows? Maybe a couple of miles of walking there?), and then we went up to Broad Ripple, a trendy suburb, to meet Jeff's friend Mark at a brew pub. I had a really good Grand Cru there, and the five of us shared what can only be described as an overabundance of great fries as a snack. It looked like a witch's hat turned upside down on the table. It was called "L'Enorme," for good reason. :-) For the record, there were no fries left once we were done.

Fortified, we joined Mark for a post-snack walking tour up the Manon trail (it's a long paved trail that finds its way from downtown Indy all the way up north of town) and into the woods, down to the river. Who knows how long this walk was? I don't, but we were gone quite a while. I checked in with Alex via telephonic device, and apparently, I woke him up out of a monstrous nap. Perhaps it was a post-race coma? Frank was a little more coherent, and we told them where we'd be eating dinner so they could meet us there. More walking back to the brewpub, and we bid Mark adieu, and commenced yet another walking tour of the surrounding neighborhood. We made a grand loop of the neighborhoods surrounding Broad Ripple, and ended up back at our dinner location, the Union Jack Pub, exactly at the appointed time. I'm estimating that we walked at least 5 miles this afternoon after the race, and maybe closer to 7 miles. It was probably good for me, but I could tell I was getting tired by the end of that last long walk.

Alex and Frank arrived promptly, and we settled in for some serious food. Another Indy friend joined us for the feast, and we all had a frosty adult beverage to accompany the meal. I had a Black and Tan, which has become an Indy tradition for me, along with fish and chips (again, it's that tradition thing). Richard convinced me to try malt vinegar on the fish instead of ketchup, and I must admit that it was a nice change. That's what you get for having a Brit with you. The conversation was lively as we recounted our racing days. Alex destroyed his PR and got the coveted "First 500" special medal, Frank beat his existing Indy course record, you know about my race already, Richard had fun even though his lack of quality rest over the last few weeks got to him in the end, and Andy and Jeff both had good races. Jeff ran almost exactly the splits and final time from 2005, which was kind of spooky.

The Kentucky Derby was on and done while we sat, ate, drank, and talked. Some horse beat the other horses by a bunch. Yippee.

The meal complete, we waddled out of there, heavy laden with food. We piled into the Rent-Mobile and made our way back to the hotel...I guess it was around 7:00 or 8:00 by now? After a brief rest in the hotel, we headed out for our last appointment of the day, a late and final beer with Mark downtown across from Bazbeaux's. Frank and Alex had had enough for the day, and watched NASCAR instead. Richard joined Andy, Jeff and me for this last bit of the festivities. We enjoyed the lengthy assistance of our waiter, who joyfully toured us through the beer menu. There were maybe 50-80 selections, so it was a choice deal, you see. I ended up with a brown ale, quite good. The Carolina boys had a couple of interesting beers, and I think Richard did the Monte Python Holy Grail Ale (which was actually a pretty good beer, silly label excepted). We chatted with Mark for quite a while, and finally headed back to the hotel at "Dark:30." The walk to and from the bar was relaxing, and ended the day on a great note. After making plans for a morning recovery run with Richard, it was time to get some sleep.

All in all, a great day, a great race, and lots of fun with friends. What more can you ask?