Moonlight Four Miler 2010

disclaimer: please do not hold poor quality photos against me. I’m not a professional blogger, photographer, or runner. It was dark and I was tired from running, so there!

While the bf and I have been planning on going somewhere over this past weekend for a month or two, it wasn’t until Friday that we knew what we were doing in Indianapolis. I found Brian Regan at the Murat Theater and a 4-miler in downtown Indy. Brian Regan tickets started at $59 and day-of registration was $25. I was supposed to run 5 miles over the weekend anyway, and 4-mile race = 5-mile LSR, right? Advantage: race.

pre-race game face

We packed hurriedly and I made sure I had everything for the race. Halfway there I discovered my running shoes and socks were missing. A quick trip to Athletic Annex fixed that to the tune of $123. I now have two identical pairs of Mizuno Wave Alchemy 10s which will confuse the hell out of me in a few weeks when they’re equally dirty. Advantage: Brian Regan.

That’s where all comparisons end.

Indiana War Memorial in foreground

After a quick nap we headed to the Indiana War Memorial around 6 with the promise of city lights, glow sticks, Christmas lights, “a cool one”, a jaunt along the canal, and a long-sleeve shirt ($12). The race was was a bit pricey (and didn’t benefit a charity), but no regrets.

This has been my best race to date (pshaw, ok, so I’ve only been in two others).

Everything was good once I secured a glow stick. When was the last time you had a glow stick? I think I was 11. I wish I was joking, but I started off this race with a big old smile on my face simply because I was holding a green glow stick.

The ~300 runners (and a few walkers) lined up to the north of the memorial and took off along Meridian. We headed north for a while behind Stinky Sweaty and Snotty (according to their shirts!) and then followed a fiercely paced walker until just after the first mile (~11:00). That’s when we headed east and south down a lovely incline to the path along the canal. I took advantage of gravity (why didn’t anyone else?) and passed lots of runners in that second mile with my 10:30 pace which I kept for the remainder of the race. Just after mile 2 we headed back up to the street level where I stopped to pick up a dropped yellow glow stick. See that below? I’m not even ashamed to tell you that right now I’m sitting in the dark writing this with my glow sticks. :D Nearly 24 hours later they’re still glowing.

Glow sticks aside, this was a wonderful race. The bf had so much energy keeping up with me when I pulled ahead, yelling back and forth with spectators, singing, chatting up the officers holding back traffic (I made sure to graciously thank each one, to which they all responded “you’re welcome!”), and talking to other runners. He was a lot of fun to run with (and he gave me his glow stick later! /glow sticks). I was impressed by his energy but he assured me later it was all to keep his mind off running. I didn’t mind and it made the race that much more enjoyable. Sweaty and Snotty passed us in the last mile but we chatted for a little bit first. They finished about 20 seconds ahead of us.

post-race, I felt great and boyfriend is hiding his little red cup behind his back

I thought it was really neat that they announced our names just after we crossed the finish line.

Post-race was tasty. They had the most delicious hot chocolate I’ve had (compliments of Bob Evans) and perfectly porous chocolate chip cookies for dunking. Bf had a beer but they also had banana nut bread, bananas, apples, and cider.

Awards were preceeded by a moonwalk competition (which is difficult to photograph at night).

This is my first chip-timed race except the chip was in the bib so I didn’t have to worry about messing with my shoes. My average pace was 10:37 which beats my 5K PR. Very cool. :)

Delicious hot chocolate and cookie:

Multiple failed attempts at photographing my excitement over delicious hot chocolate and cookie (they just keep getting worse!).