I should have written this up two weeks ago, but better late than never!

I’ve been running with Moms Run This Town/She Runs This Town for a year and a few months.  It is a free women’s running group that is organized on facebook and it has changed my life.  The support, the group runs, the fantastic women are why I am still doing this running, instead of bailing after completing the Urban Bourbon Half Marathon last year.  I’m not 100% positive I for sure would have quit, but I started and gave up on running too many times to assume I would have persevered on my own. I do know that the women in my group made continuing much easier.  I know I would never have given trail running a try if not for the group. I know I would not enjoy running as much as I do.

Anyway, so can’t overstate how important M/SRTT is for me. 

About a year ago, one of the members came to a group run on a weekend morning wearing the Indy Women’s Half tank shirt and telling tales about how nice the race was.  We all admired the cute shirt, a bit of a novelty as race shirts are, in my opinion, frequently boxy, ugly, and garish. It could be just me, who hates HATES tshirts and turns her race shirt into tank tops, but I think in general women like tanks or tshirts that fit well.  The cute color and design elements didn’t hurt.

So a bit after that, she posted on the group’s facebook page that the 2019 Indy Women’s Half was having a limited time $30 entry fee.  $30 for a half is pretty cheap. Indianapolis is a less-than-two-hour drive from Louisville. A fun time for a little group of us crazy lady runners.  That was the first thought, but within a few days, 100 of our members had signed up! I guess we really wanted to go on a field trip.

I’d been looking forward to this race for months.  Both because I would be taking over Indianapolis with 100 of my best running buddies and because I was hoping for a PR. 

I did the Filly Women’s Half at the beginning of April and the Kentucky Derby Festival Half at the end of April of this year.  I felt undertrained. Not enough long runs, not enough cross training. My time for Urban Bourbon Half last year was 2:12. My time for the Filly Women’s Half was 2:13 and KDF was 2:11.  I thought this was an opportunity for improvement. Training this summer had gone well, despite the heat, and I began to experiment, seemingly successfully, with nutrition during a long run.  I’d been better with cross training and did lots of hill work.  I was hoping I could get under 2:10, maybe even under 2:07. 

Three weeks out, the weather looked favorable.  The low for Indianapolis the night before was predicted to be in the upper 50s.  Perfect! Unfortunately as the date drew closer, a heat wave fucked everything to hell.  We would be lucky to see 68 degrees the night before, which meant at least mid-70s by the time I would be finishing the race.  Ugh. 

I used to be the kind of person who preferred hot to cold.  I guess I still am, as I loathe cold and being cold. But I no longer have my tolerance for heat.  I don’t know if it’s my age or the tamoxifen, but heat and especially running in the heat is the worst.  So yay. Probably no PR. I was already getting in the mindset that I would just be happy to be there and finish with a smile.  Let’s hear it for low expectations!

Normally I don’t get nervous before a race, but packing up the car, I realized I was kind of anxious.  I assume it was because this would be my first out of town race. I often have some anxiety when I go out of town, but usually it’s when Stuart and I go together and have to leave the pets behind.  He was staying though. I think really my two fears that would make the race go badly were related to not being home, namely sleeping poorly in the hotel and not pooping in the morning because my routine was thrown off.

I slept not great but not horrible.  Pooping did not happen at the hotel, but the walk to the start got things moving and I had some success at the portapotty.  No complaints. M/SRTT did a group photo, another just-in-case stop at the portapotties, then off to the start line.  

It was hot and humid but so much great energy!  Lots of people, tons of excitement. Time to do the thing!  I quickly caught up to some friends I often run with. We ran together a couple miles, but I was ready to skip an interval, so off I went.  Everything was going well. My first few splits were right where I wanted, around 9:50 pace.  

Around mile 4, disaster struck.  I started getting stomach cramps and had to slow down, convinced I was about to shit my pants.  At 4.5 water stop, there was a portapotty. I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved. Another woman went in right ahead of me, and she was in there for at least two minutes.  It was a torturous two minutes. I saw my friends I had been running with go by. We waved. I contemplated saying fuck it and just going back to the road. My stomach wasn’t cramping much.  But it seemed stupid to have stood there for nothing. The woman inside came out eventually. And of course all I did was fart. But I physically felt better and I now had the confidence that I was not going to poop my pants.  

Back to the road!  I met back up with my friends and ran with them for another couple miles.  They had joined up with a couple other women from other states. The course had a section with a turnaround, so we got to see a bunch of our group members who were faster, then after we turned around, we got to see a bunch more friends.  So fun to cheer everyone on! It was getting really uncomfortable, and seeing people was such a boost. Again I started to break away from my friends. All was good. Mostly good. The road was not the best. Very broken up in spots, with some actual giant pot holes.  And I confess, stretches of the course were boring. So yeah, everything was good for a while. I knew my time standing by the toilet had pretty much tanked my hopes of a PR, but I wanted to see what I could do with the situation.  

Mile 7 was a tiny glitch.  I started feeling hot and tired.  Nothing I couldn’t talk myself out of.  But then mile 10 happened. So hot, so tired.  All I could think was running is stupid and all the people around are stupid just like me because we are running and it’s so so stupid.  Oh the mental state of a runner who is battling doubts. And the heat/humidity. Physically I was doing okay. Tummy issues were over and I was drinking at each walking interval.  I just wanted to be finished running. I actually thought about walking the rest of the way. Like, what’s the worst thing that could happen? PR is out fo reach…why suffer? Well, I kept going.  Around mile 12, my body started to hurt. RIght hip, my usual nemesis, was yelling at me. My pace slowed, but I was still running.

My finish time was 2:13:17.  Not too bad considering I wasted a couple minutes with my pooping false alarm and in general the weather was not ideal.  A couple of my favorite running friends finished right around when I did, so we went into the party area and decompressed and drank mimosas together.  The after party was fun. Every few minutes someone from our group would finish and join us. Lots of celebration for being done with a hard race, lots of camaraderie.  Several of our group were running their first half, so extra celebrating with them.   

Back to the hotel for showers and relaxing.  We said goodbye to some friends who weren’t staying a second night and did some room switching.  I walked around downtown Indy with a running friend and we got a late lunch, then shared an Uber with a couple other friends to a brewery for a group meet-up.  Good beer, good company. We walked through a cool Indianapolis neighborhood to get back to the hotel area, then got ice cream.

It was a hard race, but a great weekend overall.  Lots of fun with this group of women who have come to mean so much to me.  Urban Bourbon Half Marathon is in 3 days. Can’t wait!