You see work out success stories on social media all the time. You hear tales of people heroically conquering the spartan race, the tough mudder, or the full iron man. But you haven’t heard of the epic quest that I embarked on this weekend: The Delta Dental 5K at the Indy Mini Marathon.
So there I was at the start of the race. It’s chilly and just a little misty out. I may have looked happy here, but I was definitely ready for it to be over before it started. Keep in mind, this was the morning after the little black dress event, so I was up until midnight and then back up at 4am the next day. I felt like death and was ready to pass out.
https://youtu.be/9Xst0sLHs4c
About half way through the race, fatigue started to really set in. I had just passed the 12 mile marker and was incredibly confused thinking that I may have gotten off course. Or maybe I really had gone 12 miles somehow. I had lost all sense of time. Turns out I was just about half way through the race and I was ready to quit.
From mile 1 to mile 2 was definitely the hardest part. I was already tired from the first mile and I still wasn’t even half way. Once I got to mile 2, my energy was revitalized. I knew that the end was in sight and I could make it! It says 27:27 in the picture, but keep in mind that I started about 40 seconds after the start time of the race because of where I was located in the crowd.
When I finally crossed the finish line I felt like I had been running for days, though it had only been 40 minutes and 25 seconds. I was feeling accomplished and wanted to take a break, but it had started pouring down rain and I wanted to get back to the car.
But where was the car? The problem with the race is that it didn’t end you where you started. You finished the race somewhere way far away and by the time that you got back to where you started, the Indy Mini Marathon had started and they blocked off the area so you couldn’t get through. Turns out, my journey was not over… it had only just begun.
I had to turn to Andrew for some Luck outside of Lucas Oil Stadium, hoping to finally remember where I parked… Indianapolis is too big.
After over an hour of walking around I finally found my car! It literally took me longer to find the car… than it did to run the race. Was it all worth it? Will I do it again? I mean… I did get a cool silver metal to make it look like I came in second place… and I did get some pretzels. Sure. It was worth it for the free snacks.
Did you run the Indy mini or 5K? How did you do? Let us know in the comments!
