CNO Indianapolis Monumental Race Report
Pre-race
I felt good coming into this race after a solid 15-week training block. With the exception of a one-week “reset” when my dad had open heart surgery, I did all my workouts and hit virtually all of the prescribed paces. If everything went perfectly, I thought I was capable of running 2:56-2:57, but worst-case scenario I knew I was capable of bettering my PR of 2:59:25 set at the same race last year.
My friend, Chris (running the half), and I arrived at our hotel, the JW Marriott, around 2:30. Super nice hotel, and I’ll definitely stay there again the next time I run this race. After a quick trip to the expo (nothing special) to get our bibs, I headed out for a quick 2-mile shakeout run. As I texted the guys afterwards, it felt like dog####. Pretty much par for the course, though, and not unexpected after a 5-hour drive and especially after not having run since early Wednesday morning. We had dinner (half roasted chicken and mashed potatoes) and a beer (Yuengling) in the hotel sports bar at 6pm and then headed back to the room. Got my stuff organized, texted back and forth with the wife for a while, and went to sleep around 10pm.
Alarm went off at 5:15am, and shortly thereafter I was in the hotel gym knocking out a quick 1-mile neurostim run on the treadmill before heading back to the room. Ate a couple of PB&J sandwiches, took care of bathroom business, quick shower, and then listened to
this YouTube video for a few minutes before heading down to the lobby around 7:30 to meet
@Steel Curtain and
@The Iguana for the short walk to the start line area.
Corrals were pretty empty when we got there, but they filled quickly. My plan was to run the first 10K with the 3:00 pacer, so I found the guy and waited for the start. Temps were in the upper 20s at this point, but I didn’t feel especially cold. Ditched my throwaway pants relatively early and took off my jacket after the National Anthem. I was left with shorts, singlet, arm warmers, gloves, and a headband to keep my ears warm. At no point during the race did I feel cold.
Miles 1-6: 6:50, 6:51, 6:51, 6:59, 6:51, 6:53
Again, I’m a big believer in running negative splits, so my plan here was to run with the 3:00 pacer for the first 10K in a conscious effort to keep myself from going out too fast. The only negative to this strategy was that it was a big group, and I was constantly jostling for position, especially while turning corners. Regardless, the pace felt easy, so I was comfortable moving onto phase two of the plan and ramping up to 6:40-6:45 pace…
Miles 7-15: 6:41, 6:42, 6:40, 6:45, 6:38, 6:49, 6:47, 6:49, 6:50
Shortly after the 6-mile marker, I started looking around and figuring out how I was going to maneuver around the big “sub-3” group so I could pick up my pace. I started to weave through the mass of runners when all of a sudden I saw a table standing right in front of me! It was one of the tables for the elite runners’ water bottles, and for whatever reason (a) it was set up in the middle of the road, and (b) there weren’t any cones or volunteers warning people that it was there. Because I’d been running in the back of the pack, I hadn’t seen it until I was literally on top of it. Anyway…I thankfully managed to sidestep the table, and after apologizing to the nearby runners for bumping into them, I was on my way.
Around mile 10, I saw some really nice “scenery” ahead of me and thought to myself that I would be really nice to run behind them for a while. I worked my way up there and was pleased to find that they were running pretty much my exact goal pace.
There was a whole group of them in short shorts and tight racing tanks, and they became my de facto pacers for the next several miles. This is a nice section with a lot of long, gradual downhills, and I felt really good. Looking back, not really sure why my pace slowed during the last few miles here, as I don’t remember being especially tired. I joke about the girls, but I did kinda take a mental break here and let them do the pacing for me when I probably should’ve moved ahead of them and stayed more focused on hitting my splits.
Miles 16-18: 6:50, 6:43, 6:38
This is the “hilly” section of the course, and I’m pretty happy with how I did here. I remember this part really kicking my butt last year, and this time I emerged none the worse for the wear.
Miles 19-23: 6:41, 6:40, 6:45, 7:02, 6:50, 6:50
This section starts with a nice, long, gradual downhill, but then it’s basically two miles straight into the SSW wind. I held pace pretty well from 19-21, but the wind (along with the previous hilly section) obviously took a lot out of me, because I really started feeling it when we passed the 21-mile marker and turned east onto the parkway. I remembered being pissed seeing a 7-minute mile for mile 22. It was pretty obvious to me by this point that I wasn’t going to hit my “A” goal, but I knew that a PR was still in reach as long as I kept on running sub-7.
Mile 24-finish: 7:07, 6:59, 6:52, 1:29 (last 2 tenths, 6:34 pace)
This section sucked. I turned south off the parkway onto Meridian and straight back into the wind. I was running all alone at this point with nobody to draft behind, and it was taking a lot out of me. I hit my second 7-minute mile for #24 and decided that enough was enough. I kept telling myself over and over to not be a #####, focused on running to the
Soldiers & Sailors Monument up ahead, and managed to reverse the trend and get my splits moving back in the right direction. I passed a fair number of people over the last couple of miles and even got back down into 6:30-something pace for the last two tenths. I crossed the mat at 2:58:29, good for a shiny new 56-second PR.
Prologue
I know I should be happy with this race, and I’ll never complain about a PR, but I know I can do better. I hit the first half almost exactly where I wanted it (1:29:02 versus 1:29 goal), but the second half (1:29:27) was about 2 minutes slower than I wanted. The easy thing to do is to just blame it on the wind, and while it definitely made things harder, I can’t help but wonder if maybe I overestimated my fitness or if subconsciously I just wasn’t willing to go deep enough into the pain cave. I don’t know for sure yet what’s on tap for this spring (lots of things up in the air), but I do know that there’s pretty much nothing I don’t love about Monumental, and I’ll likely be back to race again next year.