This weekend, runners and walkers from across our city, state and country should have come together on Washington Street – stretching from the JW Marriott to the Arts Garden, all awaiting their moment to run under the giant American flag and begin their journey on foot the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway and back.
Although the Mini didn’t take place as planned this weekend, many still hit the pavement to log their miles. Many took a moment – as we often do on race day – to think about how far they’ve come since their race and some chose to write about it on a friend’s social media thread prompting the reflection.
Below is what came to mind. I’d love to hear memories from your first Indy Mini…
I signed up for the 2003 Mini with the hope that the idea of running alongside 35,000 people would motivate me to run regularly and lose a few pounds. I was doing step aerobics classes and, somehow figured if I could do two hours of step, I could do two hours of running and gently put off “real” training for a little closer to the race – running a few miles here and a few there, one 8-miler along the way.
I remember the people and the sights more than anything on race day – the elephants at the Zoo watching us go by, the belly dancers on White River Parkway, the cloggers before Allison Transmission… and the track! Why the **** do people think it’s FUN to run around that thing? But as a lover of experiences, it was pretty cool. And who drinks beer during something as long as a half marathon (I’d soon learn that it, too, was fun).
I remember barely being able to lift my feet off the ground and stumbling across the railroad tracks on 10th Street. The smell of popcorn ready to pop brings me back to race day and the stretch down White River Parkway. And I’ll never not know that it’s a mile from the turn onto New York to West Street. In fact, that’s where I got passed by a speed-walker – man, did she look fresh and did I feel humbled!
I remember laying on the grass in Military Park, exhausted, swearing off any future runs longer than a lap around my neighborhood. And then, the next day, signing up for 2004 where I took a similar approach to training.
