Monday, May 30, 2016

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Run (Friday)

Not surprisingly, I haven’t run much lately.  I did put in 36 miles of backpacking over the weekend.  Today, I managed to get a run in.  We are at the Indianapolis 500.  I wanted to trail run, but I didn’t have the energy to drive anywhere.  Instead, I hit the roads for the first time in months.

I almost didn’t at all.  I started at about 7:30 PM, from the campground.  It was still hot and humid.  I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt and was sweating a lot early on.

I headed along the frontstretch of the speedway.  That was cool for road running at least.  It’s about 1/3 of a mile to where we’ll be sitting on Sunday.  I then, headed to the town of Speedway.  They have a cool Main Street, with bars and such. 

This area was a little busy.  I ended up getting over a mile into the run at the end of the street.  I dodged people, but did okay.  The plan was for only about 4 miles.  I decided to turn right and run through the town. 

This road was nice at first, but then became busy.  I ran out of shoulder, but had a bike lane to run on.  I felt like I was paralleling Crawfordsville Road, but I guess I wasn’t.  I got over mile 2 and kept going.  I knew I’d need a little farther to do a loop.

When I was ready to turn, there was nowhere to actually turn.  There were a couple dead end apartments.  I finally turned down a road and found some cool wooded houses.  This road went nowhere then.

Eventually, I found a busy nearby road that seemed to head in the correct direction.  This was wooded and went on and on and on.  I checked off the road for dead bodies.  At times, I even lost the shoulder.

I figured I was going the correct way, but unsure.  I was going next to the highway, so I figured my direction was good in general.  I then came to a T-intersection.  I took a right on to 22nd Street.

I was around mile 3 now and clearly would be well over 4 miles for the run.  I thought I had a rough idea of where I was, but then 22nd Street ended too.  I went right again.

I now had no idea where I was.  However, I could see the street signs were the same as those in the town of Speedway, so at least I was on track.  I followed this road more and more.  After a curve, I saw what I thought was Crawfordsville Road.

It turns out this was actually Lynnhurst Road, but that is by the track too.  At least I knew where I was now and how to get back to the camper.  I took a left and continued on through.  I then made the right on to 20th Street.

I was now just a few blocks from finishing up.  I cruised on in to the campground.  I was approaching mile 6.  Amazingly, I basically hit that point right at my camper. 

I was sweaty and sore from doing more road miles than I’m used to.  However, I got the run in.  It was good to get out there.  I added miles without getting totally lost, so I can’t complain. 


I’m probably not going to run again until Saturday.  I have no mileage plan for that.  I’m hoping to run at Shades State Park.  It is supposed to be a cool place.  It is an hour away and I think a $9 entry fee, so we’ll see what I decide.

5.99 miles - 56:31 (9:26 pace) 59 feet of elevation gain

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