Indy Mini : Part 2, The Expo

Wait......go read how we got to Indiana first!!!!

We had a relaxing Saturday morning before we headed out to the expo to pick up our packet of goodies. We had originally planned on meeting up with Jon who is an old college friend of ours. He and Jason lived in the same dorm as undergrads. He lives in Houston now and has completed two marathons (I am sure along with many other road races). The interesting stat of Jon's is that his first marathon was in 4:20 and his second was in 3:40....that's a lot of time to take off between races. We got a call from Jon at about 11:00 saying he and his brother were going to hit the expo together in the evening and so he wouldn't be able to meet up with Jason and I at that time.

So my Dad, Sue, Jason and I all went to the expo together around 11:30. This year was the 30th running of the race and the first thing they had as you walked in was all the t-shirts from the years past. My dad ran the Indy Mini in 1998 and was the first in the family to do any kind of long distance race. I think because of him a lot of my cousins and, I know myself, got into it and now, well, as you know, I am hooked.

We picked up our packets and to my surprise and delight not only did we get a really cool long sleeve t-shirt, but we also got a technical running hat which I thought was a really nice addition. We walked around a bit and found a booth that had some information about ALS (Lou Gerhig's disease). I talked to the representative about ways that I could run for ALS because they didn't look to be an official charity of the marathon. She gave me lots of ideas and things I could do, so stay tuned for information on that.

We walked around a bit more and my Daddy got me a new pair of sunglasses. I am where sunglasses go to die because I get a pair and INSTANTLY loose them. I am trying to be so careful with these because they are super light weight and polarized and sporty so I could wear them to run with.

After visiting every sunglass booth in the expo we went to where the speeches were taking place and watched a panel of 6 runners who would answer questions from the audience (a panel discussion you might say). I don't remember who everyone was, but three names that you all might recognize are John "The Penguin" Bingham, Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. They all gave some great advice and when they were done I realized that I had my Advanced Marathoning book with me (I like to keep it close by in case a marathoning emergency arises) of which Bill Rodgers wrote the forward. So with a bit of persuading from the family folk, I followed him through the expo and got his autograph!!!! AND I gave him one of the business cards that Jason and I made which advertise this site. I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if Bill Rodgers left a comment on one of my posts saying something like, 'Well that's completely wrong, you won't get anywhere training like that' "

After that we headed out for lunch and then back to my aunt and uncles house for the rest of the evening. We had a nice evening that included a boat ride around the lake (this is me taking the picture while I sport my way cool new sunglasses), quite the adventure getting my cousin Kirk's boat onto the new lift, glasses in the lake and a big spaghetti dinner. I love this picture of Scottie and his daughter, he's doing all the work and the little chatterbox is, I am sure, giving lots of instructions on how to do it.

That night two of the other cousins and families were planning on getting to the house late in the evening(Ok, maybe a slight family history....we are staying at my dad's sister's house. They have 5 (!!!) kids who are all older than me). I didn't want to stay up and then get to chatting with everyone and get to bed late before the big race day, so I headed to bed really early. Since I hadn't slept much the night before I actually easily fell asleep....I feel asleep thinking of each mile of the race and trying to come up with a strategy which would keep me going strong the whole way.

Stay tuned for part 3 where we actually run the Indy Mini (and stop rambling on and on about boats and houses and what not)