Sun & Shower

Yesterday I ran the 2007 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, also known as the Indy Half Marathon.  My goal was to finish without injury and under 2 hours and 30 minutes.  I accomplished both.  But that’s beside the point.  I want to give you my thoughts on the race so you can decide whether you want to register for it next year.  So, here we go…

Registration: Online.  Closes in the late-fall/early-winter time frame so you want to sign up early.

Hotels: If you need one, book early.  I booked through the 500 Festival and was very happy with my location at the Crowne Plaza on Louisiana Street.  It was close enough to walk to the expo, to the start, from the finish and to local restaurants.  The staff was also incredibly friendly and helpful.  I highly recommend staying here.

Expo: Too crowded.  It was easy enough to pick up my packet but the vendors were crammed together, leaving the aisles much too small for the number of people.  I had wanted to shop a bit but was discouraged by the crowd and wound up spending just $5 on Gu.

Goody Bag: Very good.  Several samples and a nice nylon bag.  My only complaint here is that the t-shirt design is quite possibly the ugliest race shirt I’ve ever seen!  It’s a long sleeve cotton shirt with an ugly, ugly picture on it.  I’ll work on getting a picture uploaded for all to see.

Restaurants: Most places were over an hour wait the night before the race so make reservations early if you want to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  We had a reservation at Slippery Noodle but they started charging cover at 7:00 and didn’t bother to tell us that when we made the reservation so we went elsewhere.  Jillian’s was a 45 minute wait… unless you eat at the bar in the game room.  Plenty of booths, a full menu and good service.  Perfect.  I even got to have my favorite carb-loading meal: vegetable pasta alfredo.  It was delicious!

Start Line: Very easy to enter the corral.  Many races force you to walk up and down along the fencing until you finally find an opening which is too crowded to even get in so you jump the fence as close to your pace group as possible.  This race had clearly marked entrances for the corrals, including volunteers making sure that people were in the right one.  And you were allowed to start in a later corral if needed.  For example, I was in corral F and my friend was in G.  We wanted to run together so I entered G with her.  No problems.  Oh, and they handed out water at the start.  Very nice.

The Race: The course was great.  Aid stations were frequent, almost too frequent, and clearly marked.  My one complaint there is that they had water and Gatorade at separate aid stations.  I would have liked them to be together.  Bands played along almost the entire course which helped provide extra energy.  Mile markers were easy to see.  Running around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (home of the Indy 500) was also a very cool experience.

The Finish: Huge crowd cheering us on when we needed it most.  Personally, I really struggled at the end.  It was nice that they marked when we had 3/4 mile, 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile remaining.  They did a good job of keeping the runners moving through the finish.  I didn’t notice any bottleneck getting from the finish to having my chip removed from my shoe to receiving my medal to getting a water bottle from a volunteer.

Post-Race: The food spread was magnificent.  Bananas, apples, chips, cookies, 100 calorie packs of oreos and cheese nips, Snickers Marathon bars and more Gatorade.  I would have liked a different flavor of Gatorade available in a bottle though.  After 13.1 miles of lemon-lime flavor, I’m ready for something different that I can carry around and sip on.  They also offered post-race pictures with a nice backdrop.  That caused a bit of a backup getting out of the food area.  As for the post-race vendors and beer garden - it was really spread out and not easy to find anything.  Fortunately, there were several “Ask Me” stations with volunteers to answer questions so they were able to direct me to the beer.  Fortunately, the age on the bibs were valid enough proof to enter the beer garden because I forgot to bring my ID.  We each got a free Miller Lite draft.  Just what we needed after 13.1 miles!

Gear Check: I did not gear check but it appeared to be well organized.  There were several Fed Ex trucks lined up and people were to check bags according to race number.  There was even a sticker in the goody bag to attach to gear being checked.

Miscellaneous: There was a “family reunion” area post-race.  Big signs with each letter of the alphabet so you can meet up with people after the race.  For my group, it was just as easy to say “when you go in the beer garden, go to the left”.  We all found each other just fine.  But if you had people under 21, this would not have been an option in which case the family reunion signs would work very well.  The “Ask Me” volunteers were very knowledgeable and helpful.

Overall, it’s a very well organized, well supported and well run race.  I highly recommend it to anyone interested in running a half marathon. 

It’s well documented that massage therapy helps athletes recover from workouts but daily, or even weekly, massages are more than most people can afford.  The Stick is here to help.

I had seen The Stick at several marathon and triathlon expos, and even tried it out a couple of times, but I never thought it was worth the money ($30-50).  I always figured a baseball bat or something similar would work just as well.  It doesn’t.

The Stick works so well because of the sticky grips and rolling spindles.  It’s made of a space-age plastic that bends around the muscles, providing a complete and effective massage.  Use it both before and after a workout.  Pre-workout, it warms up the muscles and prepares them for the challenge ahead.  Post-workout, it helps with recovery and relieves muscle pain.

Recently, I used The Stick prior to a weekend long run and it was the best run I’ve had in a long time.  Normally, it takes me about 2 miles to get warmed up and find my rhythm.  After using The Stick, I was warmed up and in my rhythm in less than a mile.  This may not be a huge concern for runs over 5 miles but anything shorter than that and The Stick is a huge benefit.

A personal trainer friend of mine recommends using it prior to exercise and then waiting 2 hours after exercise to use it again.  Also be sure to drink plenty of water as you would after massage therapy.  It will help flush out the toxins released from your muscles.

Overall, I highly recommend this product for all athletes and particularly those who suffer from sore and/or tight muscles.

Only two years removed from the most amazing and most heartbreaking season in Illinois basketball history, I discovered I wasn’t ready to relive the National Championship game. For those not in the know, Illinois lost to North Carolina 75-70 to finish the season 37-2 and the “runner-up”.

John Feinstein’s Last Dance goes behind the scenes to describe the pinnacle of the NCAA men’s college basketball season. The first and last chapters describe pieces of the National Championship game in detail, making it difficult to read. And, being an Illini fan, reading it from the point of view of North Carolina did not help. Despite the dust in the room for those two chapters, everything in between describes what makes the Final Four one of the premier sporting events in the country.

The good… Feinstein did his homework, interviewing the legends of coaching from John Wooden to Dean Smith to Mike Krzyzewski. He also tracked down players and officials to capture every angle the casual fan doesn’t get to see. The book recounts stories of Final Fours past but not in the usual chronological order. Feinstein uses themes for each chapter, such as the different people involved in the Final Four and what happens each day of the Final Four. Although games are only played on Saturday and Monday, the fun actually starts that Thursday.

The bad… The book is very ACC-centric. Krzyzewski wrote the Introduction and the running theme throughout the book is Roy Williams’ and North Carolina’s journey to the promised land. The other thing I didn’t like is that many of the stories are recounted multiple times. The book is 400 pages and could have easily been 300 if each story was only told once. It even felt as though Feinstein just copied and pasted the text into two different chapters, as if the reader wouldn’t notice.

The recommendation… For a Final Four geek like me, this book is a must read. I also recommend it for the casual fan. However, there are two groups that should avoid it: Illini fans (it’s just too soon) and Duke/Carolina/ACC haters.