May 12, 2009
The nation’s largest half marathon — and I hepped!
Okay, you gotta say that last word like the little girl in the Shake ‘n’ Bake commericals. Just didn’t want you thinking I had a typo…
May 2 was the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis, and for the sixth year, I was part of the team of 4,000 volunteers making it all happen. I am one of the leaders of the “Post Race Party” (formerly known as Rest & Recovery) and spent Friday and Saturday helping things run smoothly. Like last year, we had a horrible day on Friday for setting up — rain and wind and general cold misery. But race day was just gorgeous. It started out pretty cold (I could see my breath when I got there at 4:30 a.m.), but the sun came out around 10 a.m. and it turned just gorgeous. I ended up with a tiny bit of a sunburn.
It had rained pretty significantly over the previous week, so Military Park was pretty muddy and disgusting. My golf cart looked like I had been off-roading, which I guess I had been! Note the tiara in this last photo — it had to be re-glittered after the rainy fiasco of the Chicago Half Marathon, but it made it through the day just fine!
