<h2>Indianapolis Monumental Marathon <br> and Half-Marathon</h2>

Above: The northbound runners approaching Monument Circle from the south quadrant, a small pocket of them splashed by sunlight peeking through an alley off Meridian Street. On the north fringe of the sunlit pocket, one runner's carries a banner showing his finish-time goal for the marathon: 3 minutes, 30 seconds.


Our photo meetup group took on the second annual Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and Half-Marathon as a photo outing Saturday. Much of the course was routed along streets in Downtown Indianapolis, although the marathon route did extend as far north as Broad Ripple and snaked through the Butler University campus, the Indianapolis Art Museum and other areas on the Westside.

These images are from that shoot.

For a look at many more images from the event, follow this link to my online gallery:

Monumental Marathon and Half-Marathon Gallery

Above: A touching pre-race moment when a participant in one of the foot races shared a well-wishing embrace with a female participant in the wheelchair competition. This occurred shortly before the wheelchair competitors were sent off from the start line.

Above: Catching up a little while later with the wheelchair participant shown in the previous image. This is along Meridian Street south of the Circle.
Above: Volunteers at the Monument Circle water stop prepare cups for the participants. The serving pitcher catches some neat color from a slim beam of sunlight poking through from the left.

Above: A threesome who synchronized their event gear, including matching T-shirts with their first names emblazoned on the front.

Above: An elderly man appearing to be already laboring as he makes his way around Monument Circle early in the event.

Above: Near the end of the course, as runners westbound on Market Street turned north at Capitol Avenue, a small amount of sun splashed onto the participants for a fleeting moment before they slipped back into shade from the tall buildings along Capitol.

Above: Back at the Monument Circle water stop, a two-fisted drinker (there were many of these) loses a good amount of his new beverage to both the runner's jarring motion and the difficultly in trying to pitch the first cup into the trash box while bringing the new cup to his mouth.Above: A wicked wind had materialized by the time runners reached the finish line on Robert D. Orr Plaza just west of the State Capitol, so organizers distributed these protective wraps to the runners as they made their way through the post-race nourishment line of bananas, apples, cookies and beverages. You can tell the velocity of the win by the way those wraps are flapping around pretty wildly.

Above: Five-time Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini-Marathon winner Gary Romesser, 58, chats with an acquaintance and well-wisher beyond the finish line. Gary ran the half-marathon portion of this event.