Indy Run #1 (5/24/12)

We are on road to trip the Indy 500.  Yesterday was a travel day, so I took the day off.  I didn’t sleep much last night and we were walking around a good portion of the day, so I was a little beat.  I decided to head out for an evening run tonight though.

It was fairly hot all day, but also extremely windy.  I decided rather than run the roads around the track, I’d run along the White River.  We passed a path on the way in, so I sort of knew where to go.  We actually didn’t end up starting there though.  We drove along the path and eventually found a cool parking area.  It was near the Indianapolis Art Museum.

I started running around this art park.  It looked like there was a trail around the small lake there.  I started to follow it for a while, but came to a sign that said, “Trail may be impassible beyond this point.”  Rather than chance it, I ran the other direction.  Although the trails were long, there were a bunch of cool dirt trails all throughout the park.  There were surprisingly some hills.  After a short distance, I ended up on the river’s canal towpath.

The path was a nice, crushed white stone path.  I was glad too because I didn’t want to run on pavement.  I headed towards Broad Ripple.  That’s a bar area that I’ve been to before and I knew the canal towpath headed by there.  The running was easy, but I wasn’t feeling all that strong.  I ran at a nice and comfortable pace, but didn’t push it.

I went out until I hit the two mile point and then turned around.  There seemed to be a lot of different paths and trails shooting off the main path, but I didn’t take them.  I planned to run three miles, but ended up going an extra half mile to finish near the start.

One thing that surprised me was how unfriendly everyone was.  I expect that on the east coast, but not in Indiana.  Even a cop on a bike didn’t acknowledge me.  I only managed to get a couple smiles from some young girls after I passed them with my shirt off.  They didn’t even look at me when I first passed them clothed.  Maybe I should go skinless all the time.  Yeah right!

It was a decent run.  Certainly there won’t be a lot of challenging routes, but it was nice to run on a scenic and soft trail.  I might head more toward the city tomorrow or possibly on the actual river trail.  That looked paved though, so I’m not sure.  I still like running on the roads around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway too, so I might do that one day as well.  I plan on running tomorrow and Saturday and taking Sunday off.  Hopefully, I’ll get another run in on Monday even though I’ll be exhausted from traveling.

3.5 miles – 31:53 (9:07 pace)