Indy Women's Half Marathon

Finisher Rose and Medal

If you haven't noticed by now, my race blogs tend to focus less on the course and more on the experiences while I am running.  This one will focus even less on the course due to impaired vision both times that I ran it.  Even without seeing everything along the course the Indy Women's Half Marathon is one of my favorite races.

Indy Women's is a unique race because it really is an only women's race.  I've seen races with a feminine theme where men don't tend to participate and ones where men are separated from women but this was the first one I had seen where the only gender option is female and the standard shirt is a woman's fit.  I liked that is was only women, I liked that it was only about 2.5 hours from home, and I loved the fact that they said they had same day packet pickup.  I could go to an out of state race in an awesome city and keep the cost low.  So I signed up for the race last year.

In 2015 I was so excited and wanted my girlfriends to join me.  Pam was already considering running the race so she decided to sign up too.  That's when I noticed something odd.  People were asking the race director if there was same day packet pickup and he was responding that there was not pickup on the race day.  I checked the website where it still said that there was indeed race day pickup.  I brought this to the attention of the race director, telling them that I hadn't planned to stay in a hotel.  They realized their editing error and tried to find a way to make it work.  Pam and I realized we might as well stay in Indy and enjoy the city for the weekend.  We ran our shakeout miles on the canal path, catching sight of the Rungatta 5k starting along the same route.

Pam and I in 2015 before the lightning

We took pictures of monuments and museums and ate wonderful Italian food.  We stayed in a hotel right near the starting line and picked up our packets very early on Friday so we didn't have to worry about them.  We also got loads of free things from the expo including an extra shirt.  It was shaping up to be a great weekend, until we woke up on race day.  Rain had been predicted but we didn't expect a storm.  This was going to be a shaky race.  The race was started when the rain cleared a little and we got about 2 miles onto the course before the director decided to cancel the race due to lightning on the course.  The police were trying to pull all the runners to safety but, as Pam said, our shirts said "Can't Stop Running" so we can't stop running.  We kept going despite the weather and finished our race plus an extra 7 miles.  Even though the race was canceled some people and police stayed out to cheer us on and support us.  One police officer said, "The race is canceled, get off the road, by the way the course goes this way."  And another stopped a group of us to make sure we really wanted to keep going and that we accepted the risks of running in this weather.  We still got our medals and goodies because they kept the finish area going until they absolutely had to shut it down.  While I had fun and enjoyed the race I was disappointed that it was not an official race for me due to the weather.  I was going to come back and run this again.

View from our Hotel room, Gorgeous! 

2016 came and Indy Women's Half was on my "Must Run" list.  I knew Pam would return with me, due to last year and we both wanted a big group of girls to go with us, I just needed to convince more friends.  Mindy was going to run it, until an announcement came out about the Air Force Marathon, then she signed up for that.  While I live in the Dayton area I don't really enjoy the Air Force Marathon races.  I volunteered at a water stop in 2012 and ran the half in 2013.  I enjoyed volunteering more than I enjoyed running at that race.  Things might have changed, but I don't really have a desire to return to that race.  So this makes me a rare Dayton person who leaves Dayton for one of the biggest races.  Rhonda wanted to run the race and convinced her husband and herself that she could do it.  She and I signed up for the race within moments of each other.  Kendra thought it sounded like fun and wanted to join us.  Unfortunately, from my point of view, Pam's goals changed to a trail ultra and didn't really want to run the road race.  Kendra just couldn't commit to the race.  That left Rhonda and I but we were going to have some fun.

My name on the back of the participant shirt

Rhonda picked me up after I got home from work and we headed to Indy.  We made great time and had over 2 hours to enjoy at the expo.  Even though this is a smaller expo, compared to The Pig, Air Force, and Columbus, I always come away with a bag full of free goodies.  This year we stayed in the host hotel so checking in and packet pickup were quick and convenient.  The expo takes up about 2 conference rooms in the hotel and an open space outside of the conference rooms.  There are around a dozen vendors but there isn't a lot of repetition, every place sells something quite different from the rest.  When you pick up your packet your bag is already heavy with free items from various sponsors.  As you make your way around the expo you continue to collect free items.  This year the bag was a clear, heavy plastic that can be reused with the race logo on it, wonderful for shopping the expo.  We checked out all the vendors, collected freebies, and took goofy pictures.  The one thing I HAD to buy was in the outer area.  This year they decided to sell participant shirts where they had the names of all the runners (registered by a certain time) printed on the back.  Since we got there close to the end of the expo, all they had was XL (I wear small) and the only color it came in was pink (I hate pink)...I bought it.  I don't know when I will wear it, but I had to get it, it had my name on it...

Goofy Expo Photo

This year we didn't have a lot of time to see the sights.  Neither Rhonda nor I could have taken off of work on Friday so that limited our amount of time in the city.  We did walk around, eat at Spaghetti Factory, listen to a band in the center circle, and check out the outdoor library so we made the most of the time we had in Indy.  Once again, rain was in our forecast and we were vigilantly watching the weather.

When we woke the next morning it was raining, but we couldn't see lighting or hear thunder.  We didn't care if we got wet, we just didn't want it to be canceled again.  Rhonda and I ran our warm-up mile to drop off a bag at the bag drop near the finish.  We got into the start and hoped that the weather would behave.  This is a good point to mention one of my favorite things about this race.  Indy Women's has a half marathon and a 5k.  They start together and run together for a few miles.  The 5k makes my heart soar.  As we wait for the half to start we are surrounded by little girls and their mothers.  They are running the 5k together which is sweet, but all these young women get to see over a thousand strong women of all body types coming together and supporting each other, running a half marathon together and it is just awesome.  There I times I want to grab one of my nieces to take to this race just for this inspirational moment.  I am moved by these amazing young women and all the strong women around them.  It truly is inspiring.

Pre-Race Photo

While waited for the race to start, the weather started to clear.... just like last year... we could take pictures and start without being drenched.  I had an ominous feeling.  As we started, it started to rain gently, then get heavier.... just like last year... I just kept wishing it wouldn't get worse.  The course goes away from our hotel and the city center, past the finish line and a couple more blocks, to turn back towards the city center by taking 2 rights.  We go through a quarter of the circle in the center of town then head away from the hotel in the opposite direction.  After that I get a little blurry, literally, this is where the rain has been bad enough both years to fog up and cover my glasses enough that I just want to avoid landing on a bad spot.  Rhonda and I had started behind the 2:30 pacer but we had caught her by the time we got back to the hotel.  I left Rhonda with the pacer and kept pushing ahead, I was chasing pacers.  Rhonda was laughing with the pacer about me ditching her.

As we continued on the course I was noting landmarks in an unusual way.  I was looking for the place where we were pulled in 2015.  If we made it past there we were doing good.  Then I looked for the intersection where we evaded the police (an officer was determined to stop us from continuing last year at a major intersection and as he was pulling us a car accident happened on the road behind him which distracted him long enough for a group of us to get across the road and keep going).  I made it past that, even better, no cancellation so far.   Rhonda wasn't so lucky at this intersection.  Even though the race wasn't cancelled the police officer working that intersection attempted to stop the runners, including the pacer, to let traffic go through.  Rhonda was in this group and they were obviously unhappy about this.  They paid for a race, they were not going to let him stop them from running their best time ever.  Even though he tried to stop them they would not stop and rode on a surge of adrenaline for the next few miles.

On Course Photo

I kept looking for things, despite my glasses, to let me know I was doing better than last year.  I talked to other women along the course, one pregnant and running her baby's first race an others who were curious about what happened last year.  There was a man cheering along the course and I swear that he was along the course last year in the same spot.  He hollered out that there wasn't any lightning so far.  It made me smile.  We entered a small curvy neighborhood that leads to a short out and back.  The out and back is great because all the women running are cheering for each other along that entire portion.  The guys at the turn around are very supportive and are always loud, they were sticking around though the lightning last year too.  I saw the 2:15 pacer, I wasn't far behind, I could catch her.  But that is when I got 6 text messages, in a row.  I worried that something was wrong with my kids so I slowed down to check it out while I was under the dry safety of an overpass.  Nope, my youngest just had to share a video of a video with me, sigh.  So I got back on my pace.  This is where the course jumps onto a bike path that would be great if it was evenly paved.  As it is, it is very narrow staying to one side of it.

Once I got off the bike path I started hitting puddles.  Having rain covered glasses makes it difficult to distinguish wet ground from massive puddle.  While most people around me dodged the worst of the puddles my feet seemed to find every one.  Around mile 9 we had a river crossing, the puddles were enormous and flowing through this street so strongly that everyone around me had to drop down to walk to get past it.  This is also when I thought I might have heard some thunder but I hoped that at this point it was safer to let us finish than it would be to try to gather all of us up and cancel the race.  That was the only rumble I heard, so it could have been many things, but it didn't cancel the race.  Now my shoes were a few pounds heavier and I could feel it on the climbs up the small hills.  I knew I had a marathon the next week, so I didn't want to push too hard and injure myself, so I took some walk breaks and caught my breath.  At the last mile I came alongside a woman who was running her first half.  I said to myself that I would run the last mile, she said she would try to keep up.  We ran together as long as she could and I finished to the roars of the crowd with a decent official time of 2:18.  I was happy to officially finish this wonderful race.

Running Rhonda to the Finish
She doesn't look happy

After I got my medal, rose, chocolate milk, and food in another awesome reusable bag I headed back out on the course to run Rhonda in to the finish line.  I found her less than a half mile out, just behind the 2:30 pacer.  I jumped back into the race with her and kept her moving towards the finish.  Even though this was her 2nd half marathon in 7 days she finished with a better time than Winans.  We could hear the crowd cheering for a quarter mile before the finish.  There was a man screaming at the 13 mile mark, he was in yellow, congratulating and celebrating every woman who passed him on their way to the finish.  There were dozens on men, women, and kids crowded around the finish to cheer in every last runner.  We both had fun, finished strong and got lots of goodies.  The course felt more hilly than last year, but we actually ran the full course this year.  The weather may not have been perfect but it was still good running weather since it didn't cancel the race.

Some of the other great things about this race: complementary physical therapy tent, a dozen people per aid station cheering and helping every runner enthusiastically, a race director who checks in with the runners when they finish, lots of port-a-pots and I never saw a line for any of them, free race photos, and a beer garden that we didn't have time to enjoy either year.  Luckily Rhonda and I had a late checkout so we could warm up and clean up before leaving.  Especially since we had been waiting for an hour for the PT tent.

I have enjoyed this race for many reasons and it is one of my favorite races.  I'm not sure I can afford to go back to Indy Women's again but if I can I will.  Maybe one day one of my nieces will join me on the half marathon course but I think that won't be for a while.  I recommend this race to any woman that can get to it and I hope I can come back again some day.