Cheryl Completes The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon!

What a day!   Cheryl wanted to compare it to Rocky 2 where Sly says.  "This is the Greatest Day in the History Of My LIFE!"

New PR and Challenge Complete!

So why so dramatic?   Not only did Cheryl complete the Monumental Challenge... She also got a NEW PR For a FULL MARATHON!   Her time:  3 hours, 24 minutes,  24 seconds!  That not only qualifies her for Boston ... AGAIN...  But she is now qualified   for the coveted Second Wave.  ( Last time she was the third wave....   She's moving up!)  

Early and mostly Empty.

So with the Climax revealed,  Let's get back to the details:   

Cold!   Yes, the cold morning was there as promised.   I actually thought that it did not feel too bad.   And the wind was rather calm before sunrise.  We headed to the Start line and found our parking spot.  We were forced to park in a Garage with prices topping out at $25!   We were prepared to bite the bullet and pay it, but in the end, we did not have to...  (Lucky break by us!  The Attendant waved us through a broken card reader just to move cars out!)   But as we were waiting in the car, I was reminded why I stress about getting to the race line EARLY!   To find the best/only parking spots! 

Cheryl's Name on the Poster.

 Cheryl went through her checklist and we followed the directions to the staging area inside the Convention Center.   It was warm with plenty of bathrooms for everyone.   There were security people there asking everyone if they were with the Marathon.  (As if the Running gear and Bib did not give it away.)  So they could keep all the Marathoners from wandering around the building.   They could have simply made the announcement that the Bathrooms and Other Runners where in HALL A!  Marathoners are only concerned with two things on race day:   "Where is the Start Line?"   And "Were can we go Pee!"

Let's Find the other runners. 

Eventually Cheryl began to get antsy and we went out of the warm building into the cold to find the start line.  IT did not take long before we were both frozen,  but we secured a spot in her wave ( wave 2... again.) and waited for the ceremonies to get under way.   Lots of announcements, cheers,  and the National Anthem and we were ready! 

That's boring.  Let's do something else.

Let's find the finish . 

The crowd began to grow.   At first Cheryl was alone, but eventually the crowd became a Flash MOB!   Lots of people were running the half and full marathon.  In fact, the half, Full, and 5K were completely sold out!   First time in the History of the Race!    And the Monumental  is the 15th largest race in America..

Waiting by Wave 2

Massive Crowd Forming up. 

I figured I would never see her at the start, so I ran over to mile 2.5.   Even then,  I never saw her.   I was only able to find her after going through the photos in Post.   She DID see me, but noticed I was not looking at her when she waved.   I had thought I had missed her. 

At mile 2.5

I was lucky to catch her. 

I was not wrong figuring this would be like Twin Cities.   The crowds were huge!   And got in my way for pictures.   Also the race route did not have many places to get ahead of the runners.   So I was limited to basically the start ( missed)  Mile 2.5 (Almost missed) and the finish line.   But luckily,  Cheryl gave me the App so I could track her.   

She slowly gets faster....

At first,  they had her finishing the Marathon at 12:30!   But after the first check point ( 10K)  The App took a full hour off that time!   Having her finish by 11:30 A.M.   I watched as she got faster with each check point.  First at a 7:48 mile pace... Then a 7:45 mile pace.   Finally,  when she punched in a 7:42 mile pace at mile 18.5,  I thought she might have a shot ( or was actually trying) to break her previous record!

Coming into the finish/

Looking strong!

At the finish,  Cheryl came in strong!   She must have known she was very close to getting a new best time.    She headed towards the finish!  

Not only did she break the old PR.   She beat it by 8 minutes!   She has been wanting to run a Marathon UNDER 3 hours 30 Minutes for years!  She thought it would be impossible since she was under trained, cold, and over dressed.  But I guess those things did not matter in the end. 

Now Listen up Cheryl....

Let me pause for a moment to remind FUTURE Cheryl why Ethan thinks she did so well.   Mostly,  Running with a little wisdom instead of Ego and NOT GETTING INJURED!   Walking when the weather is bad or a niggle pain flairs up might not win any "Hardcore Runner" points... But it  DOES keep you safe from injury.  And in an Injury Free year,  She was able to break three old PR records in three different distances ( New PR in the 10K, Half, And NOW FULL Marathon!)   AND run MORE races than ever before!  She also noted that her "Head was in the Game!"  this time.   True!   Having a positive outlook can do nothing but help.   But if you are hurt, you will not be your best on race day.   Lessons Learned! 

the Final Tally,   No Age
Group award with that
Awesome Performance.

Celebrating at IKEA

There were possibly many other factors to this.  But let's just say she had a "Great Day!" and that her new PR for the Marathon might be really hard to break.    With  the 4% shoes,  limited training,  10 extra lbs.  (See....  Fat people can run just fine!  )  and a little bit of "Runner's Wisdom"   She was able to achieve  GREAT THINGS this year.  They can't all be awesome,  but at least you can make the ones you do work out in a positive light.  

And Beer...

Swedish Meatballs!  Yumm! 

So now,  It is rest, recovery and BEER Time!   For me!  I'm exhausted!   I have been running around and driving and dealing with crowds ALL DAY!  And then I have to blog!  ( It takes several hours sometimes!)  Sorting through hundreds of pics to get the right ones and all the other stuff.   Cheryl is lucky as she eats Ice cream on the floor and reads a Magazine.   Her "hard effort" is over and she has medals to tell everyone just how awesome she is.  All I have is the Blog... and Beer.   A local Brew called "Rail Splitter!"   It's good.   I have had two already and should stop before it effects my typing.  

It ain't braggin' if you can do it. 

So, In total:   Cheryl ran the BEST MARATHON of her LIFE!   And Qualified for another shot at Boston...   if we ever want to attempt that miserable experience again...  At least there are Bragging rights.  

Oh!  And she Completed the Ultra Indi_Thon.   Ensuring Bragging rights for at least the next year.  Or so the Shirt says.   

Thanks for stopping in and Sharing this Awesome day.