A beautiful fall morning with temperatures in the mid-60’s setup an excellent morning for any running event.  After navigating around the closed and partially closed streets of downtown Indianapolis (several events were occurring in the area) to avoid having to pay for parking we enjoyed an otherwise flawless event.

This was my first Tuxbro managed event and I was very pleased with the whole thing.  The event was the Turn Up the Volume to BLAST Ovarian Cancer with all proceeds benefiting Ovar’Coming Together a local Ovarian Cancer awareness organization. Over $18,000 was raised by participants in the 4 mile run, 3 mile walk and 1 mile walk.

All three events began and ended at Victory Field which is a great venue for a race and for sports fans in general.  We were not allowed on the field but could walk through the seats and be right next to it.

The 4 mile course began with an out and back down West St before heading towards Circle Center, then turning to go past the RCA Dome.  The rest of the course was through the industrial area just west of downtown making a big square.  The 3 mile walk was the same course minus the first little out and back and the 1 mile walk was the first little out and back only.  The entire event was staged so that no group interfered with another and the 1 milers were still finishing when I finished.  The run was the only scored event and racing chips were used!

Overall the course was flat with a couple of small grades that wouldn’t be noticeable in a car, these were mostly going under the railroads and then coming back up onto the road near Victory Field.  The course had 2 water stops, although the second one was setup but the volunteers were just leaning against the wall.  I’ve been told that at events like this it is the job of the sponsor (Ovar’Coming) to train the volunteers.  No worries since I didn’t want water at the end because I was being chased down and didn’t want to slow up.

I was very pleased with my overall race. I had no expectations coming into it since I had just had a season PR at the Thursday night races.  I wanted to come out and push a little bit so I was excited to have ran a 25:44 (6:26) with mile splits being 6:12, 6:18, 6:38, and 6:34.  This placed me 12th overall and 3rd in my age group! Fellow Anderson runner Mitch Novy won the event in 21:18 (5:19) much to his surprise.  He received a gift certificate to the Athletic Annex.

The overall festival type event was designed to raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer and to honor survivors of the 5th deadliest form of cancer in women.