The folks at Monumental Marathon put out a great guide this week. Since I’m already going taper crazy (similar to stir crazy), I’ve been putting together our trip details, too.
This is our third consecutive year going to the race, and we also went up there last summer for the Indy Women’s Half (now in the fall but last year it was in June). It’s nice going somewhere that’s semi-familiar.
But, in case you missed my recent holiday post, let me reiterate: I’m a planner. Especially concerning stressful situations. The more nervous I am, the more lists I make — really, the same list, just multiple times.
Cue Evernote. Dear blog friends, you don’t even know the bounds of my love for Evernote. Other people do — I even gave a presentation on it for our district’s technology conference and talked about it at the Kentucky School Public Relations conference last fall.
So of course my trip plans are always in Evernote.
First, I forward all my confirmations to Evernote using the handy email address they provide. Race entry, restaurant, hotel — those emails are all stored in Evernote.
Then I create a note just for the trip. I could do a notebook, but that’s unnecessary for an overnight trip like this. (We did use an Evernote notebook when planning our honeymoon to Jamaica.)
In that note I include:
- Link to confirmation email note
- Expo time and address
- Link to hotel confirmation
- Hotel address
- Link to dinner reservation confirmation
- Dinner reservation time and address
- Link to race map PDF (also saved in Evernote)
- A custom Google Map — link and screenshot — that includes pins for the expo, hotel, restaurant, start line and finish line.
Our go-to hotel is the La Quinta Downtown. Is it the fanciest hotel? Nope. But it is close by without being too close, no traffic issues, about a half-mile from the start, clean and friendly. They have a noon checkout time, too, so there’s time to come back and shower. (It may be that we asked for a later checkout at least one year, and if we did, they let us.) They have onsite parking that doesn’t cost extra and a fine continental breakfast if you’re in to that kind of thing.
For dinner, we’re going to Rock Bottom Brewery. We went there after the race in 2013. They’ve got a wide variety on their menu and it’s all the “normal” food you would want — tacos, burgers, steaks, pizza, mac & cheese … I looked at going back to an Italian place we liked that year, too … but I think it closed. We’re not a “must have pasta the night before” kind of people.
Kudos to the race organizers for sharing that you might want to tuck some cash in your pocket for a few vendors that will be at the finish — I missed out on coffee last year because I didn’t know and didn’t have anything with me!
Their email also included links to reserve parking spaces for the expo and race morning, which is a nice touch.
Also — and I haven’t seen this before so I think it’s cool — they’ve got an organized shakeout 2-miler on Sunday morning from a cafe. And then an “after party” Sunday at Athletic Annex. (There’s a post-race beer-oriented party, too.) I like the touches to make it a full weekend, even though we live close enough that we’ll head back Saturday.
Okay. That’s all for now. I need to go back to checking the weather.
TGRUNFIT 