This weekend served as a good reminder that sometimes even the best-laid plans do fall apart from time to time.
My wife and I planned to be in Indianapolis this Saturday, a trip we’ve made together a few times and one that I have made on the first Saturday of May several times over the last two decades with other family members and friends.
Chances are some of you reading this column today were in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday for the same event I had hoped to participate in.
Saturday was the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, a half-marathon that attracts people from all over the United States.
Almost 20 residents from Bluffton and Ossian ran, jogged or walked the 13.1-mile race last weekend, the first in-person half-marathon since 2019.
Organizers canceled the in-person race in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.
Last Saturday, however, some 20,000 runners, joggers and walkers set out a little before 8 a.m. to complete the race as the temperature was in the 50s with morning winds of 15 mph.
My plan was to be among them Saturday with hopes of completing the half-marathon a minute or so faster than my last one in 2019, when I finished the race just under 1 hour and 50 minutes. To give you some context, I came in 2,161st place that year.
But you know what they say about those best-laid plans.
I didn’t count on getting a breakthrough case of COVID-19 earlier this year. While the worst of the symptoms — a throbbing headache, chills, sore throat and a recurrent fever — passed after two days, the body aches, fatigue, chest congestion and shortness of breath lasted longer. In fact, it took more than a month to fully recover.
Initially, I thought I could make up that lost training time as I started to run again in early spring.
It didn’t take long, however, to discover that long-distance running wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. It’s getting much better, but running this year’s race in Indianapolis wasn’t in the cards.
Instead, I settled for a shorter jog on the trails in northeast Indiana at the same time as the first runners took off from downtown Indianapolis to complete their 13.1-mile race.
My 3.5-mile run Saturday morning took about 30 minutes; the half-marathon’s first-place winner finished in 1 hour, 3 minutes and 25 seconds, just seven seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
Next year, I hope that I’ll be a little more than half-way done with the 13.1-mile race about the time the winner crosses the finish line to beat my previous time and collect a metal for finishing in 2,000-something place.
If you’re looking for something to do May 6, 2023, consider registering for the race. It’s always the best way to start the day as summer knocks at the door.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
