Due to recent and previous injuries, I really had ZERO training for this event. The most I had put in before the race was the 6.2 miles in January and 3 miles last week.
I don't recommend to anyone to ever do a race without any training. If you do, make sure it's a walker friendly race like the Indy-Mini, as they have a minimum race pace of 18:00 minutes per mile. Given my corral placement and condition, I was able to finish the race before the time limit expired.
Re-cap of the Indy-Mini
This year was the first year that the Indy-Mini used wave starts. It seemed to work well, as there was a LOT of people on the course, but never did I encounter a bottleneck.
I started at the back of wave 4 of 5. Corral V, on corrals that went A-Z.
They were actively checking bibs, not allowing anyone to pass that they didn't view their bib before entering the corral.
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| 2014 Indy-Mini Starting Waves and Corrals |
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| Corral Entry |
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| Waiting in my Corral |
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| Photo-bombed Selfie |
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| 2014 Indy Mini Course Map |
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| We're off! Heading to the Start Line! |
The small stretch going north towards the track takes you by Dallara IndyCar Factory and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. Then you head into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, entering under the 1st short straight of the track, heading to the Museum.
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| Dallara IndyCar Factory - Producer of all IndyCar Chassis |
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| Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing |
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| Nearing the entry to IMS |
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| YEAH! Made it to the track! |
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| The IMS Museum |
With that business finished, I was out and onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!
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| On the track, approaching the 10K line |
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| Out of Turn 4 and heading to the Start/Finish! |
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| On the main straightaway |
It was also at this point that I notice that my phone is almost dead. At some point, the screen stayed on, thinking I was going to take a video and drained the battery. So I have very few pictures after this.
Once I was at the track, it was all walking from there on out.
After leaving the track, you wind through a couple of areas heading south of the track. Once we hit 10th street, it seems like it is an extremely long straight road heading back to downtown! It probably just seemed that long, since I was just walking at this point.
Once you cross the bridge and head into the Victory Mile, they have lined the streets with checkered flags. I tried a couple of times to start jogging, but I had nothing left. I had several people encourage me on, so I must have looked pretty miserable at that point.
Nearing the finish line they are playing loops of many exciting Indy 500 race finishes, which gets you a little pumped up to get to the finish.
I made my way across the finish line and head to the medals area. Got a bottle of water handed to me, a bag (Finishline, you're brilliant for handing out bags before getting all of those other race finish items!) I grabbed a banana, a small bag of pretzels, a couple of oatmeal cookies. I ate one of the cookies right away. Then I went to the finish photo op and then headed into Military Park for the end of race festivities.
I wasn't feeling festive at all, as I took my own finish medal selfie.
The phone camera lens was all munged up with sweat, so it makes my photo look "soft".
They had several food trucks at the park, but I just wasn't thinking about food at that point. I had brought a little bit of cash with me just in case, but the smell of food was actually kind of revolting at that point. I eat the other cookie instead, while I walked over to get my official time.
The walk to the parking garage was awful. It was the longest 8 blocks to walk in the condition I was in by then. Then, the parking garage elevators weren't working! One wasn't working at all, then the other, the 5th floor button wasn't working! I, of course, was on the 5th floor. So I went to 4th and slowly made my way up a flight of stairs.
Made a couple of calls on the phone in the car once I hooked it up to the charger.
So that pretty much winds up my race experience!
Indy-Mini race Entertainment
There are loads of entertainment spots throughout the entire course of the Indy-Mini. The ones that I liked the most were the groups of kids playing rock songs and a drummer line that was mostly made up of kids. I wish Indy-Mini would post a list of all of the entertainment, because a lot of it was quite enjoyable.
2012 Video of the Indy-Mini
The course has had a SLIGHT change, due to one road having been re-worked from a straight to one that has a curve in it now, so the markers going on the track onward a just a bit off of how it is actually run now.
Would I do this race again?
Yes.
I would like to do this race again someday, when I've actually trained for it. I would like it to be a much more favorable memory than what I experienced yesterday.
In the last half of the half, I was pretty miserable. Once we were out of the IMS setting, there wasn't much to keep my mind off of how I was feeling. At that point I was mainly just trying to keep my legs to continue moving forward.
The Road to Goofy 2015 has officially started!
With this race in the books, this sets things in full motion going forward for the Goofy Challenge in January 2015.
I have four more races before Goofy! Three of them are more half marathons and one is a full marathon!
Regards, ~Kipp
 | 2014 - The Road to Goofy 2015! Check the link above to see my current and past races. |
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