Today was the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, a half marathon held here in Indianapolis every May. This was the first time that I competed for a second time in the same event. This made it a perfect A race, since it allows me to compare myself on the same course over a fixed period of time. Last year my time for the race was 1:51:31, an 8:30 pace. Would I be in better shape this year? I found out.
The night before, as is now tradition, Emily and I went over to Erin's house and had our traditional pre-race pasta dinner. We ate early so I could digest and get some sleep, and left by 8:30. I was asleep by 10:30 which was good, since I had to be up at 5:00am.
I woke up at 5, ate a power bar, and headed out to pick up Erin at her house. We arrived at the parking garage at 6 and went to my office to change and put together our race bags. We made our way over to the race site and split up around 7. Erin was in coral 'L' and I was in coral 'B'. I managed to get a seed this year which was great, since last year I spent the first 8 miles of the race weaving in and out of runners. I made my way over to the coral by about 7:15 and managed to find Josh Winger already waiting. I talked with Josh for a few minutes before the race start and then we headed out.
Race Stats
| Split Distance | Split Time | Split Pace |
| 5 miles | 35:12 | 7:02 |
| 10 miles | 1:09:52 | 6:56 |
| 13.1 miles | 1:31:05 | 6:50 |
The biggest news of the day for me was a negative split over the course. A negative split is when your speed increases over subsequent miles throughout a race. The other big news was that I shaved more than 20 minutes off my time from the previous year. I also shaved more than 4 minutes off my previous PR, which I had set just a month before. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the results of the day.
The other highlight of the day was getting to share it with Emily, Kyle and Erin. It's always nice to share your joys with the people you love.
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