Monumental Marathon

We have returned from the great state of Indiana.  I was not necessarily excited to visit Indianapolis.  When I would tell people we were going to Indianapolis, they would say, "Why would you want to go there?"  I would answer, "That's a good question."  I would then explain that when we look for a marathon, we have 4 criteria, each met by the Monumental Marathon:
1) It must be flat
2) It must be near sea level
3) It must be on a Saturday
4) It must be  BIG race----thousands of runners.

We left our five kids at home in the charge of my 17-year-old son.  He insisted they didn't need a babysitter, and I figured between tracking his iphone and monitoring our home alarm system from my phone, I could keep pretty good tabs on where everybody was.   This picture shows me being a good stalker-mommy making sure the kids were where they were supposed to be.



We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and Mark got busy putting germ-free barriers on everything in our hotel room.  He also wore a mask on the plane.  He had trained hard, and he didn't want any microorganisms wrecking his race for him.  I think if you wear a mask on a plane, that is the best way to get EVERYONE to stare at you.  I think if he had been naked, he wouldn't have attracted as much attention.

We flew into a pretty awesome storm in Indianapolis, but that didn't slow me down.  I was out walking the streets, and I was absolutely shocked to discover a beautiful, clean, awesome city.  There are historical monuments and statues EVERYWHERE.  The capitol building is smack dab in the center of 

downtown, too.  I loved walking the streets and getting to know the city a little bit.

Mark's brother Stephen met up with us the next day and had the hotel room next door.  It is always fun to travel with Stephen, and we were so glad that he had decided to come run the race as well.  The three of us went out to see part of the city so that I could show them some of the cool monuments I had discovered.  This one in the very center of town is huge!  Fountains, statues, a very tall tower, and lots of steps to climb. 

Mark and Stephen mostly rested their legs in the hotel room while I explored the city and brought back lunch and dinner for them.

In my exploration,  I found this statue of young Abe Lincoln, and I fell in love with it.  It represents the age that Abe would have been when his family moved from the back-woods of Kentucky to the back-woods of Indiana.  Bare feet and a book in his hand.  I love Abraham Lincoln, and I wished so much that I could find a miniature statue of this to bring home with me.

 Friday night was the traditional pinning-of-the-bibs photo op.  We got all dressed up to race, and I pinned the bibs on (which is my official job every time).  We decided to go to the canal on the backside of our hotel for the pictures.

 Race morning came, and we were up at 5:45 to eat our breakfast and get moving.  The race began at 8:00, and it was a very cold morning.  Luckily, our hotel was just a block from the starting line, so we stayed in our nice warm hotel room until it was just time to head to the starting line.

I loved seeing 13.1 miles of the city.  It was beautiful, and the time actually went by quickly.  Miles 4-7 are usually hard for me, because I get bored, and there is still so much longer to go.  But I ended up chatting with a guy for those miles until he split off for the full marathon, and it made the time go so quickly.  The whole pack around us was amazed when I told them I had 7 kids and had gained and lost 350 pounds over all those pregnancies.  After mile 8, time just whizzed by, and before I knew it, I was in front of my hotel with 1/2 mile to go.  I kicked it up and sprinted to the finish line.  I guess that means I saved a bit too much for the end, but I ran 2:08:36, and I was happy.  I hurried back to our hotel and got the camera and some warm clothes on, and then headed back to the finish line to get pictures of Mark and Stephen.

Mark ran the best race of his life.  I was so happy to see him come down the road with a big smile on  his face and a kick in his run.  He felt great, and was so happy with his 3:03:28.  That's a 7-minute-mile pace!  He didn't even see me there with the camera, but he posed for me anyway.

 Stephen came down the road about 20 minutes later with a smile on his face.  He had also met his goal of qualifying for Boston again in 2015.  He was happy, but he was hurting.  He was 3:23:37.

 It took me a while to find these brothers at the end.  This is a very big race, and all the finishers were wrapped in emergency blankets and had the same hats on.  I found them, and they were both so happy.  They will be running Boston together in 2015!