Half-Marathon Tuesday: OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

In order to give more information on races of many distances, I am going to start having different races on different days of the week. Tuesday will be Half-Marathon Tuesday. I will certainly cover half-marathons on other days of the week as well, but you can always count on finding out some information about half-marathons on Tuesday. In case you are wondering how Half-marathon makes it on Tuesday – a half-marathon is a distance of Thirteen point one miles (13.1) or Twenty-one kilometers (21K). 🙂

Half-Marathon Tuesday: OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

I think it is only fitting that our first Half-Marathon Tuesday post be about the largest half-marathon in the country! This race sees 35,000 entrants each year! This is a great opportunity to be surrounded by a ton of fellow runners the entire length of a course. Think about it – the half-marathon is a distance of 13.1 miles and you have 35,000 people within that distance. This translates to the first few miles being absolutely packed with people! If you like running with people but do not want to run a full marathon – this is your race!

Here are some details about the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon:

• 

  Half-marathon medal

  Registration information here

• To be held on May 3, 2014
• Start time is 7:45AM
• Also a 5K offered – capped at 4,000 and takes place at 7:15AM
• Fee is $75 for the half-marathon and $40 for the 5K
• Cap is 35,000 for the half-marathon and 4,000 for the 5K
• 2014 is the 38th running of the OneAmerica 500 Mini-Marathon
• Here is a video of the course from the ground.

The big allure of this half-marathon is the fact that 2.5 miles of the race are on the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway! That has to be one of the best parts of any course in America. Not only that, but they have some awesome race swag including: special “Top 500” medal for the top 500 runners (past results show that you need to be at or under 90 minutes to be in the top 500), long-sleeve tech shirt, and complimentary qualification or practice day ticket from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the day of your choice.

Getting There

All the US airlines fly to Indianapolis. If you have miles in any of the airlines, you should be all set to get here. I have found that tickets to Indianapolis are normally not that bad. If the cost of the ticket is under $250, you may be better off using Barclay Arrival points to pay for that. If you are flying from the Chicago or Charlotte area, you would be better off using British Airways Avios to fly on American Airlines for 9,000 Avios round-trip. With so many airlines service Indianapolis, you should not have a problem locating award space on at least a couple of the different airlines.

Staying There

When it comes to hotels, there are a ton of hotels in the city, but many of them are already booked up. There are no SPG hotels available (on points or otherwise), there is one Hyatt available, there are a couple of Hiltons available, and just a few IHG hotels available. This is the reason it is good to spread your points around to have a better chance of redeeming for races like this. Good news, all the Club Carlson hotels are showing availability if you still have a bunch of those left after the devaluation!

Summary

How about it? I think this looks like a fantastic race! When I realized I would be in the US during this time, I was so close to registering – until I remember it is the day of my sister-in-law’s wedding. 🙂 Somehow, I do not think I would make the best son-in-law if I allowed myself to be taken by this race! If you want to run a great half-marathon, though, you should seriously consider this. You would have plenty of company. Also, if you are an Indy Car racing fan, you have to run this!