Pole Day Photos

Here's some of my photos from Saturday afternoon at the Speedway.

Racing... finally.

With all this rain we've had the last couple days, there hasn't been a lot of racing going on over at the track. Today is Pole Day, which starts around noon and runs until 6pm. The weather is great, and the cool temperatures are even better for racing, so I knew a lot of people would want to get out on the track as early as possible to get some practice in, considering they hadn't really been out at all. I got up this morning around 9am to try and get some work done, and I can definitely confirm that cars are on the track. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the noise was that I was hearing, but I can certainly hear the cars from my apartment window. We may head over there to watch some qualifying, so stay tuned for some photos maybe tomorrow.

500 Festival Mini-Marathon

It's May, which is a pretty huge month here in Indianapolis. They kicked off the 500 Festival this morning with the Mini-Marathon. Everybody in Indy knows the Mini is a pretty big deal. It's a half-marathon, so runners go 13.1 miles, with 2.5 of those miles being a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. According to their website, "the Mini-Marathon is the largest half-marathon in the U.S., and overall, the eighth largest running event in America." So, it's a pretty huge even for Indianapolis, especially for being an event within an event. It's a great way to start the month.

This year, as you can see from the photo, the race ended in a tie. I find it pretty Canadian to declare a tie, but apparently the eighth largest running event in the U.S. can't afford or doesn't have the foresight to get a finish line camera. They don't have a good enough photo or video to determine the winner, so we are left with a tie. Each runner received the full winner's prize of $3,500. Pretty incredible race. In case you were curious, Kenyans Lamech Mokono and Valentine Orare each ran the course in 1:02.53, or about 4:46 a mile.

Pretty Eventful Friday Night

I'm sitting here at home by myself. Katie went to Minneapolis, because her brother Mike is graduating from Med School this weekend. I'm still sick, so I feel like I shouldn't be doing anything. I'm on antibiotics, so I can't even enjoy a beverage. The only thing on TV is NBA playoffs, so I'm currently watching Jazz-Rockets Game 6. I should just go to bed, but that's no fun. I already got one phone call tonight because I was commenting on another blog and they wanted to know what the heck I was doing commenting at midnight on a Friday. Being sick sucks, but being sick when you don't actually feel sick is even worse I think.

Pneumonia

When I started feeling crappy a couple days ago, I didn't know what was wrong with me. In the last couple weeks, I had woken up three times in the middle of the night with the worst chills I have ever felt. It wasn't cold in the apartment; but it felt like it was about 30. I couldn't stop shivering, my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. The first couple times, I just assumed it was a freak thing, but after three times, I decided there was something up. Then, the day after the third chill, I felt terrible. Headache, back ache, shortness of breath, you name it. I had run the night before, and it was a little chilly. I assumed the problems with my breathing was related to that. After walking into my office from the parking lot, I was dying. It felt like I had run about five miles.

Pneumonia sounds like one of those diseases that should have been eliminated a hundred years ago. I can't name anyone that has had it. The only dealings I've had with it are all the times mom told me to put a coat on because it's cold and you'll catch pneumonia. Since it was like 70 for the past couple weeks, so apparently that old wives' tale is just that.

Anyway, I hit up the urgent care center and did some tests, had some x-rays, and got a few prescriptions. So I'm inhaling all kinds of funky stuff including the 'roids. (I'll make sure to do some extra pushups this week.) The doctor called what I have either bronchitis or walking pneumonia, which he called "not the real thing," but said it could progress to the real thing if I didn't take care of it. Hopefully this stuff will. We'll see.

I needed a photo for this post, and even though i know Doc had tuberculosis, it's what pneumonia reminds me of, and Tombstone is awesome.