Saturday, October 21, 2006 I race walked the Indianapolis Marathon. It was a lovely day; however, I almost did not get to do the race. I was called and emailed by Delta Airlines with messages that my flight had changed. When I arrived at the airport, they were boarding the airplane as they had made a sceond change to an earlier time without informing me. I was able to make the flight. My flight out of Atlanta was also delayed and I arrive in Indianapolis around 8:00 PM. My luggage did not arrive with me. By the time the paperwork for the lost luggage was registered. Stores were no longer open, so I could not buy shoes or clothes needed for the race. Delta said the would bring the luggage to my motel when they found it.

Luckily for me, it arrive at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning. This gave me 30 minutes to get dressed, hop in the rental car, and drive to the race. Needless to say I was not as mentally prepared as I would have liked to be. I made it to the race on time and finished in over 5 hours, which was a reasonable time.

The temperature at the start of the race was 45 and it rose to almost 60 by the end of the race. This is a good temperature for a marathon.

The leaves were changing on the trees along the course and the sun was shining brightly. This made the course beautiful. I have included a picture of some of the trees along the route and will separately post other pictures taken in Indianapolis that day.