Imagine if you will: It’s Friday, and you’ve just finished lunch. You step outside; the sun is shining, and a gentle breeze tousles your hair. You don’t want to go back to the office, so you decide to play hooky and while away the rest of the afternoon at the track. It’s a May tradition as true as Mother’s Day.
Since I ran the inaugural Indiana University Mini-Marathon on my 25th birthday in 2006, I have been slightly obsessed with half-marathons, and road races of all distances. I have now run three Indy Minis, as well as innumerable 5-milers and 5Ks, including the 2007 Indy Mini Day’s 5K, that just three and a half months after I was in a fairly serious car wreck.
As you might have heard, another big May race, the Kentucky Derby, is coming up this Saturday. For the first time ever, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Churchill Downs have partnered to offer a special “Horsepower vs. Horsepower” (get it?) ticket promotion to race fans and revelers hearty enough to attempt trips to the Derby and the 500 in the same year.
To kick off the 500 Festival, Indy is throwing a party. The Rev Your Engines concert on Monument Circle tonight features headliners the Plain White T’s (9 p.m., Sat., free), the pop-rock crooners whose recent hits are by now as familiar and well-worn as, well, your favorite white T-shirt. Their heartstring-tugging ballads “Hey There Delilah,” “1, 2, 3, 4,” and “Rhythm of Love” have each gone platinum.
