Indy was Monumental: Elite stories

I was fortunate to receive an elite entry into the CNO Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.  From my experience, it is very clear this race knows how to host elite athletes and I was pleased with all aspects of the race (and we all know I am not easy to please, hah!).

I received very detailed information about elite perks by email during race week, including specific maps of an elite parking area, the meeting where the elite meeting would be held near the expo, and the elite warm up area.  I also received information on logistics regarding bottles and race weekend timelines.

On Friday evening I attended the elite meeting and bottle drop, where picking up my race packet was super easy (we didn't have to go to the main expo at all if we didn't want to, which I appreciated even though I still went for a few minutes).  The elite field was huge - 62 women and 60 men in the marathon alone (plus half marathoners and 5Kers)!

The elite coordinator explained how to locate our bottles during the race very specifically, and they'd even set up an example table of what the fluid stations would look like.  The elite tables were placed in the middle of the road, with women's bottles on the left side and men's on the right.  We didn't have to move to the side of the course to get our bottles (they then moved the tables off the course when 3 hour pacer came by to clear the course).  We were all assigned a specific bottle table and position.  Mine was table 7, bottle 3, which meant my bottle was always on the 7th table, which was marked with a huge "7" sign, third position.  Each table had 6 bottles with a lot of space between, and it was extremely easy to find my bottle every time.

My little bottles work perfectly for me!

At the meeting, they also gave us information about the OTQ pace groups, which were provided for both the men's and women's marathons and for the women's half marathon (the men's half field had 12 men seeded at the qualifying time and they thought having more people in there running that fast of a pace would be a hindrance...or maybe they just couldn't find anyone who could run that fast!).  Another thing I enjoyed about the meeting was meeting up with several friends, many of whom I'd connected with on social media or through mutual friends in my 2:45 pursuit but hadn't met face-to-face.

The race gave us an large indoor warm up area right by the start/finish, which was really great on the cold morning we ended up with.  We had indoor bathrooms and enough room to jog around and do drills in the halls of the large government building we were in.  We also were allowed to leave bags and anything we wanted after the race in the room set up for us.  They had some pre-race food and drinks available, although I don't think anyone touched it until after the race.

15 minutes before the start they walked us all out to the line, where we were able to continue moving and warming up out on the first few blocks of course.  They had several volunteers with garbage bags who took our warm-up clothes at the last minute, which I really appreciated!  They then took our gear back to the elite room and spread it all out so you could find it after the race; the main thing I learned from this is that everyone had black warm up pants, hah.

After the finish, we were able to go right back into the warm building and use the bathroom, change, eat, etc.  It was also a great opportunity to check in with how our friends in the field did in the race, with everyone being in the central location!

The race offered hotel accommodations for the really fast elites (I think it took 2:37 for a female marathoner), prize money for the top 5 finishers, and performance bonuses for anyone who achieved the OTQ standard.  It was very clear that the coordinators knew what they were doing, and I would certainly go back to this race and recommend it for anyone looking for a fast marathon!

Late addition:  This is a great podcast about another elite's experience at the race.