I originally signed up to run the marathon in Indianapolis (Indy) since it’s a fast, flat course. Though one of the main reasons I picked it was actually because I liked the marketing around it…ha ha I mean who wouldn’t want to Be Monumental! It’s kind of like when I wanted to run the Miami Half because I wanted to be Miami Famous lol!

Any way, it wasn’t until later that I dropped down to the half as I realized I needed a bit more time to train due to some heavy traveling in Sept/Oct so I signed up for a different marathon and made Indy Monumental a good test race!

As I was on my way to Indy my coach uploaded my race day plan to Training Peaks (training app). I had asked earlier that week if I could go for the goal of a sub 1:30 for this race but wasn´t sure what he had planned since it was now not the main race for me. When I saw the time coach put it was indeed for a sub 1:30 half marathon time!!! This got me very excited to race!

• First, because I have had this goal since 2019 when I ran a half ironman (swim, bike, run) and did a sub 1:30 but don´t count it as it was together with other sports and have since wanted to achieve this time on a road race.
• Second, because I could see that my coach believed I could get this time.
• Third, because I like a good challenge!

It was gonna be fast, it was what I hoped for and my coach seemed to think I could so I was fully down to go for it! The time he put was 1:28:16.

I flew in for a quick 2 day trip to run and stayed at an Airbnb 5 miles out of town. I´d been to Indy before for a day and really liked it but this time having a bit more time to explore made me like it even more! I´m beginning to think I should live somewhere in the Midwest…though I´m going to keep thinking about that idea!

It was overall the perfect trip for me, fall foliage looking lovely all around the city, still warm days, cycled the many paths in Indy, ran a race, saw a friend from Colombia and checked out new neighborhoods!

Breakdown of the Race

Expo

Held at the massive Convention Center in downtown…which I thought was too much space for it and it really lacked signage directing you to the expo spot. Only way to find it was to follow the crowds…and hope someone actually knew where they were headed. Packet Pick-up itself was well organized, very quick and the expo had plenty of good vendors. I was disappointed though given the cool marketing for the race that had attracted me to register that the gear was just not as exciting… Where were the shirts with more than just the race logo? Where were the feelings of running a monumental race, a monumental personal record (PR) or having a monumental experience?? I totally thought I was going to buy something but no apparel got me excited for the race…I really hope they do better in the future with such a cool name for the race…hype was totally missing on the retail side! I did like the free race t-shirt though, finally a fun color…keep in mind sizing ran a bit smaller.

Start

The race closed down lots of streets so my original plan to take the bus in failed miserably…I waited 20 minutes or more then gave up and rode the bike into downtown instead. I had planned to take the bus with the bike and bike back since the bus fare is only for 2 hours…and I knew there was free bike parking for the race. They really should work out the bus routes for a race like this and actually promote using it but they instead pretty much shut it down the whole day…later after the race I waited to catch a bus into the city…it too never came…people were waiting an hour and I waited 45 minutes before calling Uber. I found that most people I spoke with who live in the Indy had no clue a huge race was even happening so I feel communication to the larger community should totally be improved in the future especially since it closes a massive section of the city!

Any way, besides my tiff with the bus and communication I loved riding the bike into downtown. No one was around, there was basically a bike path all the way into downtown and it was a good warm up. I loved that they had free bike valet (Pedal and Park) from Bike Indianapolis but again they could have promoted it more (and again signage! Volunteers didn´t know where it was…even volunteers literally in front of the spot!)! If cycling in, whatever you do, don´t cross E. Washington Street near the start and finish…as bike parking perfectly located right there and will be harder to access! I turned down the wrong street and had to walk all the way around with the crowd headed to the start…oops.

The bag drop for gear was easy unless you were in a later corral then there seemed to be lines. Don´t be like me and forget to take your warm jacket off after turning in the bag! Bathrooms were plentiful but per usual lines forever…I managed to squeeze in last minute…um 3 minutes before the start.

Corrals were what I thought to be clearly marked until the race was about to start and I jumped in mine and then realized I was in the corral behind mine instead (plenty of others also made this error) and that each were barricaded off….eek I realized this with one minute to spare so I jumped out and ran into my actual corral! Thank you race staff for leaving these open until the start! Whew!

Route

With the waffled tap tap tap of all the super shoes we ran! I too decided to use mine. I had been working though some foot pain and didn´t think I would be able to use them but I tested them the day before and they seemed to not bother my foot walking so I put them on and ran fast! I was surprised and thankful that the foot was completely happy the whole race!!

It was chilly out but the sun was shining just as we started running. The route went south of the convention center and then East for a bit into a couple of neighborhoods including one I had heard about and later decided to visit because we ran through it and it did look cool…that is Bottleworks District off Mass Ave. I often do this during races, see a neighborhood that looks cool while I am in a race and decide I must check it out afterwards! Eventually the route headed North and the marathoner´s continued North while the half turned left off into some neighborhoods before heading South and into the downtown to the finish with a couple more turns (right, left, right) just for shits and giggles lol.

This most Northerly part of the race was my least favorite, not for the neighborhoods but for the amount of turns we had to do before heading South. Each turn up here either had debris or broken pieces of asphalt or concrete which I thought was a bit of a hazard…plus every turn meant I slowed down some in order to take it and there were consecutive turns! I can´t recall how many turns there were but enough to get annoyed that another was coming! Take a look at the map before racing this if you need to know. Why they do this, no clue…it is what it is.

I was impressed with the amount of cheer on the course. You never know when you go to these less famous cities and races how that will be and I say Indy did a pretty darn good job at giving the runners cheers. I even saw later on the marathon course that there was plenty of cheer spots…hope it truly was the whole way!

The straight shot down Meridian into the city was nice as you can see the Monument (Soldiers and Sailors) basically for miles. I personally didn´t pay too much attention to it as I was focused on staying the pace to reach my goal but occasionally noticed and was pleased. Earlier in the race you run right by it which is cool…I remember doing that my first time in Indy and was somewhat star stuck when I encountered it on my run. It´s just a cool spot in Indy to see!

Logistics on the course was great! The split off for the half and marathon was very clearly marked and again once you returned to the city and the marathon joined back up…they kept the two distances separate until the finish so that slower half runners never got in the way of the faster marathon runners all while sharing the route, hydration/nutrition and cheers. This seemed like quite a popular race for both distances and the whole event (5k included) had just under 18,000 runners; 6,600 were marathon finishers! People running were from all over the USA and even runners from 22 countries came to race here!

NeverSecond Gels and Nuun were on course.

Finish

I had my race plan and seemed to be running on par with what coach had said for paces but I had also decided that when I reached the city and the Indiana War Memorial I would start to sprint so that is what I did. The last mile or so was somewhere around a 6:12 mile pace!

I was happy I could keep the sprint up but as per usual I probably started it a bit farther out than I could handle lol. I crossed the finishline with a sub 1:30 and then paused my watch and checked. Final time was 1:28:46…pretty darn close to what coach predicted…though without that final sprint I would have missed it! I´ll keep that in mind for the marathon at the end of the month!

The time got me 2nd place in my age group and I only realized later that the last person I passed near the finishline was actually in my age group too so had I not sprinted fully through the line it too would have changed the outcome here….crazy! It´s like what I tell my track athletes as a coach, always run all the way through the line! Nearly 6,000 ran the half and I had just over 300 in my age group.

I loved how everything for the race was color coded…each race had its separate colors for t-shirts, bibs, medals and finisher beanies. Made it easy on the volunteers for sure and everyone was happy with their finisher medals and beanies. I was really looking forward to that beanie!

Finisher shoot:

The best at the end was definitely the chocolate milk…and pizza! There was also some snacks, more gels, nuun, fancy water (Liquid Death…guess I can now say I´ve tried it) and beer. I grabbed my gear bag and then saw that they had some free stretching with a PT. Legs felt completely fine but I´ve noticed the trend of studios for stretching so I got curious but first I needed to change. I put my name on the list and found somewhere to hide behind to change since there were no changing tents and I was not about to go into a port-o-potty from the startline…nope! You had to change as the weather was just cold enough plus as a female… those sweaty sport bras will be the death of you! Guys had it easy to change but sucks that no tents were around to change. Just another improvement to make…I swear I´m trying not to complain but these are things I noticed. When I returned to the stretching spot there was now a line and even though I signed up they weren´t calling names so I lost my spot in line. This could have been done way better! There were literally people in line who had not changed, needed stretching more than me and were freezing…they eventually left because 3 PTs each giving 15 minutes was excessive. Then, just as it was my turn a couple came and said they signed up earlier and even though their finish time was slower than mine they skipped to the front…like, right in front of me. I almost gave up because this was quite frustrating….others were pissed. I should have just left but I was 1 away…ha like 2 times…so I stayed. In the end, it was just ok…so I won´t be doing any stretching studios anytime soon….sorry not sold on this yet.

Eventually I found my friend from Colombia and caught up for a while before grabbing the bike and cycling home (airbnb).

Indy Tips:

• Airport IndyGo bus #8 (it´s to the right, Zone 6) – current cost is $1.75 (in 2026 it will be $2.75) or Uber/Lyft (around $20 into the city)
• Visit Bottleworks District, Mass Ave, the Canal Walk and Broad Ripple if time. Architecture here is quite cool too so maybe walk around and check that out. If you have kids I´ve heard the Children´s Museum is great!
• Get on a bike – it is flat and Indy has a ton of trails connecting you Pacer Bikeshare
• Stay near Capitol Ave or along Meridian and use bus 90/92 (buses run every 10 minutes!)