I’ve been coming to NP Indy for just about two years since I moved to Indianapolis, and to me (and my husband who joined shortly thereafter) NP is home. Casey and Shaw learned my name and welcomed me into the fold and the hugs kept me hooked. So when I got pregnant, I was worried about how it would go. I also wanted to stay in shape to be healthy for labor.
The new race day is back with a vengeance! This puppy is no joke (even for puppies like Hamiltonand Penny). We’re talking 26 minutes on the clock, running laps around the block. During those laps you’re stopping on the platforms (after slapping gold doors) to knock out 20 sit-ups, 20 push-ups, 20 mountain climbers, and 10 burpees.
We’re bringing back the tracker.
The tracker, found here, was popularized years ago and is used by you to track your monthly race day time (formerly) to see your improvement. It fell by the wayside for about a year, but it’s been resurrected. With the new race day being a set time rather than a set number of reps and laps to complete, the tracker will now be used to track race day distance covered/reps completed rather than time.
Log your new race day numbers in the tracker as follows: Whole number (integer if you ran the block in reverse) for each full lap completed, decimal for each rep completed on an incomplete lap. Examples:
In July, Jenny completed 3 full laps and 16 reps of sit-ups. Jenny’s July race day number is 3.16 …[3 full laps + .16 sit-ups]
In June, Rashard completed 4 full laps and 7 reps of burpees (so close; you’ll get 5 next month, Rashard!). Rashard’s June race day number is 4.67 …[4 full laps + .20 sit-ups, .20 push-ups, .20 mountain climbers, and .7 burpees]
Everyone in Indy celebrates Race Day in the month of May out at the track. We celebrate each and every month at the War Memorial. Next month (in fact next week) we’re combining the two. Short and to the point, here’s the breakdown of what the month of June holds for NP Indy:
Race Day ain’t no joke
6/01: Friday @ 6a, our standard (which is to say fantastic) workout behind the Statehouse (Bicentennial Plaza).
“With the end of one month comes the beginning of another.” -Aristotle
End of the month means Race Day here in Indy, and what a Race Day it was! Pastor James brought a flock of newbies (thanks, James!), Tom and Macko killed it as our paint crew, JB played the role of picture master, and the weather was perfect. We even had a newbie commit to Race Day (and breakfast club afterwards) after learning of NP just LAST NIGHT! Spring fever really draws a crowd. Great work all around, and congrats to all who set new PRs.
Friday we’re teaming up with Cooper’s Fun Run for a 5k along the canal. Come out for a fun-filled, energetic 5k with friends, coffee, and sweet cafe treats. Any donation you make goes towards Wheeler Mission. Meet at Quill’s Coffee inside the 9onCanal apartment complex at 5:45a for a 6a run. More on the event here.
Please let us know if you’re willing and able to volunteer for the Special Olympics Indiana Unified Fitness Day exercise event our friend Nastya Helmich is hosting near Greenwood. She’s looking for 8-16 NP volunteers, so we’d love to #justshowup to support her cause. Check out (download) her flyer and get back to us by this Friday: Unified-Fitness-Day
Now a shift towards a valuable perspective on yet another benefit of NP. We know NP brings people together to kickstart their days, gets people fit, and builds community within communities. Stewart Whitcomb has yet another take on the reach of these aspects and the overall impact of this movement. Stew, an NP Indy tribe member essentially since our inception, has seen our ups and downs and has thankfully been a constant throughout. He’s a good friend, a smart architect (some say too smart), a loving father, and a guy who originally got on board with NP Indy as a way to get himself in shape. That last part may seem trite compared to the rest in that list, but Stew makes the point that getting and staying active and in shape is perhaps as important as the rest; Without an active mind and able body, the friendship, work, and dad roles all risk getting watered down, becoming less-than-fulfilling (for all involved), and/or shortened. Better than my synopsis, here’s Stew in his own words:
In honor of some new additions to the November Project family, I finally got some thoughts “on paper” about parenting, fitness, kids and the November Project movement. (Sorry guys, it’s a two-pager Blog!)
Over the years, I’ve heard some talk of parent’s time committed to fitness as taking time for yourself over your family and children, or called a privilege or indulgence. So, some of you maybe worried that some of our active members have a chronic or new case of “PAR*ENT*ING” which will keep them from some workouts and the tribe.
Hopefully we can all appreciate a fit parent would have improved their confidence, reflexes, strength, and stress relief through exercise. This helps physically keep up with the mini-humans for less spills, scrapes and bumps. However, a community like November Project is really what is good for a family.
For those without “PAR*ENT*ING”, let me add some perspective on the condition, and why the associate mini-humans are a bid deal. “Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ” – Elizabeth Stone. Except, children don’t ever go around for an easy walk. The literal embodiment of your future hopes and plans, all your current worries and obligations, and a reflection of your own past; yeah … pretty much your everything goes bounding around in a tiny undeveloped body through this big scary world, oblivious to consequences or danger and the parent’s projected emotional (but helmets are only for special occasions like bikes and football).
The little scamps just go and roll off anything without rails, crawl headfirst under tables, and try to eat mulch and dirt. Then grow-up (a bit) to walk, climb, run, jump, play and dance. All of this activity is for very good reason; they have a world to explore and body to learn. Not only new and interesting places for playing, sleeping, eating, and pooping (those last two in separate places), but also to learn how the world works. They have to work out basic things we can’t even un-comprehend to relate, like object-permanence and gravity (Not the Newtonian math part, but actual application of balance and how a liquid works). In most families they start with plushies and food; yes projectile food happens. Their physical bodies are developing and growing requiring constant adjustments to balance and coordination too.
It is marvelous to watch and guide each and every step they start to learn by watching actions, body language (with no miming or vocabulary), and then start to try those actions and responses themselves. Their attention to emotion and queues from adults is how being a part of the NP tribe makes a big difference. Learning to find your positive vibe in the early dark hours of the morning helps with those temper tantrums, stubborn eaters, celebrating achievements and good choices. Finding your way to a dark and early workout help with midnight dirty diapers, sick-up-nights and nightmares. Communicating outside of your comfort zone dials in your listening skills and distances your preconceptions so you can understand the baby talk (turns out, alot like most social media posts, probably an interruption without context, request, or an update on food).
Yoga breath, silent workouts, and air-squats can help with bedtime too, but I can’t explain all the techniques in short. I was surprise at how socially intensive those earlier years were, before talking even started. As a new parent I’ had come to appreciate the workouts, socials and committing to the culture of the tribe, because it continues to challenge my patience, comfort zone and empathy, which boils down to communication skills that carries over to raising children.
A few short years later, those uncoordinated toddlers quickly grow into full-blown recess-time track-stars and team sport competitors. School and teams adds playmates and pretend play, which brings up fair-play, social skills, and emotional intelligence children need for social interaction. Generally those take more years to learn (and come with their own kind of danger, bumps and bruises). But in those same years, children rely on physical play and interaction as their primary way to learn about other humans. This is often the same point when a parent will be getting along in their middle years. Suddenly, “the floor is lava!” is as a good day while throwing things at each other is the start of a bad one (even if all throws miss, shortly after “a talking-to” they’ll have the idea of throwing things straight-up to dodge!? And, why are helmets not for all the time?) Again, stress management, speed and readiness to react and protect are obviously important. Factor in the lack of sleep plus macaroni-and-cheese and french fries contaminating the house nutrition…, now keeping up in fitness and energy is a challenge that requires community support.
Stew’s daughter Evelyn directing traffic at a rainy workout. #weatherproof family
The tribe continues to help me stay fit and positive so I can better parent and connect with my children. The unpredictability of NP workouts helps me play along with the ‘creative rules’ of my young children, hop over the floor-lava, while being the ‘responsible one’ and find more opportunities share examples of fair play. In summary (Yea it was that long, and you read all that. Good job) if you are planning to have children, have children but haven’t made a workout in a while, or are a regular November Project Parent, I recommend you #Justshowup commit to made it work, reach out to other parents (and kids) in your tribe, and lean on your tribe to help with that PAR*ENT*ING.
To the rest of the membership, don’t worry friends, that new case of “PAR*ENT*ING” may keep them from some workouts, but they’re just recruiting the complicated way.
Guest blog by Stew W.
P.s. I have great appreciation for Brogan, Bojan, Laura, Jason, Casey, and all the tribes co-leaders that keep this crazy movement going week to week, and arc our culture back to an active, healthy community of humans.
Everyone in Indy caught it this morning! The VD vibe.
This VD vibe, the morning heat, it all came as a result of us partnering up and getting down to business, if you know what I mean. The weather played a part too, with the warming that is, if you know what I mean. The Valentine’s Day workout paired with the warming trend was a the perfect match. This match brought in traverballers from afar (well, Milwaukee) and newbies from anear! It also brought sore buns, thighs, calves, arms, and shoulders (thanks, Bey).
Workout
Partner up! While one partner is getting down to this sick beat they call burpees, the other waits. Translation: one partner does 1 burpee, the other rests, then they switch. One partner does 2 burpees while the other rests, then they switch. Repeat that pattern until both get to the 5 burpee mark for a total of 15 burpees done by each. Next, knock out 14 partner sit-ups. Finally-ish, 14 hoistees for the couple. After those three sets, one partner dashes off to do a heart-shaped up-n-around while the other sticks around and creates a heart-felt valentine for a kid at Riley Children’s Hospital. Running partner returns, they embrace, then they repeat the cycle switching roles on that last part.
like an actual human heart, not the heart shape . . . sort of
Notes
Of course we wait until it’s nice and decently warm to have a morning where we keep you around for few announcements.
All we’ve got to tell you this week is that Friday’s workout will get us back into the #npdoesparks swing with a 6am sharp workout at HighlandPark (<–that’s two separate links re Highland). Park in the neighboring lot or streetside. We’ll be hilltop admiring the cityscape from the NW corner of the park.
Buffs are in. #justshowup
Thanks for the picture magic, Tom and Jaden! You guys are absolutely stellar!
Happy Valentine’s Day, National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day, National Ferris Wheel Day, and (my favorite–check yes) National Organ Donor Day! Happy Wednesday too.
We’re four. That’s awesome!!! We never hesitate to let people know that midwestern, landlocked Indianapolis came on as one of the first ten NP tribes. (Woohoo!) We came onboard before NY, before NY Part Deux, before Chicago (hey neighbor!), before LA…. We’re proud, but channeling our midwestern roots, we’re humble and caring, so when something disruptive, something impactful happens to our NP family, we care. Like any older sibling, that’s especially true when it affects a younger (albeit only a couple months younger) sibling. Our friends in the City of Angels lost a strong part of their tribe recently when a wonderful tribesmate named Sean died. Sean fought brain cancer and its pervasive strains for 17 long months. This morning, we honored Sean by celebrating his life and the principles he stood for; equality, community, empowerment, support. NP worldwide stands for these same principles, so from Indy to LA we send our best; all for one cause, all for one movement, and at times like these, all for one person and the lives he’s touched.
________________________”f*** them, be you” -Sean_________________________
Workout
Iced-out. An odd mix of ice-covered everything, a fog-snow front, and ice-crystal pellets couldn’t stop this #weatherproof bunch. Sure we took the speed down a couple notches, but a couple bruised backsides was well worth the fun… says a guy who isn’t currently icing his tailbone.
Slightly amended workout went like this: 4 burpees on the N platform, WALK the stairs to the sidewalk, travel in some fitness-related way to the W landing and knock out 4 leg-lifts, to the SOUTHSIIIIDE for 4 tricep dips, to the E landing for 4 push-ups, back to the N and step the reps up to 8 for each spot then 12 then 16, etc. Sally squats to cap it off and burn it out!
Notes
First and foremost, thank you to all those who volunteer their time to help make this NP_IND community what it is! We’ve got lots of plugged in people who take the time to make us a priority, so we’re VERY thankful. Especially influential is Jaden Brown, our photographer-in-chief. In addition to taking weekly pictures while his fingers freeze off, Jaden (JB) helps us out with posting, with social media, with hype, and with event planning. He’s our behind the scenes leader helping Shaw and I constantly. On race days you might find JB and Sarah Myer doing their own 5am race day workout (even on the ridiculously cold mornings) so they can donate their normal workout time to lending us a helping hand. Thanks.
Tomorrow night we’re repping NP at Indianapolis Monthly’s Best of Indy awards event. We’re the Best Outdoor Workout in Indy (but you already knew that), and we’re proud as hell!
Friday we’re at the White River State Park (WRSP) amphitheater (“The Lawn”) where their summer concerts happen. Meet us up on stage; live performance starts at 6am sharp! It’s guaranteed to be a strong workout and a great time! I mentioned this morning that you should avoid parking in the WRSP lot as we didn’t get the most welcome reception from the parking attendant there last time. I spoke with one of their media management staffers who said parking there is fine as he’ll be there to let the attendant know and try to get some solid promo footage for the Park. Finding a spot along Washington Street by the Statehouse is another option; it’s a five min jog from there, so plan accordingly.
Next Wed is race day! Woohoo! Hooray! We’ll tag if we get one of those random out-of-season experiences Indiana throws our way every once in awhile (aka if it’s above about 50 degrees). Don’t bet on it.
PR Day (aka Race Day), a real mother. PR Day during the holidays, a totally wretched thing. PR Day during the holidays in zero degree weather, ugh.
Screw it; Let’s do it!!! Props to those that just showed in these temps–lack thereof–this morning. You guys absolutely rock, even if the only record broken this morning was Indy’s lowest Race Day temp. And props to those that showed up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this morning for their first workout! What a way to kick it all off.
Maybe you’d rather be on the island of Dominica than here in Indy with these temps, but I’d like to make the argument that we’ve got it pretty good here in our Midwestern home. This year’s been a good, make that GREAT, year for Indy.
***RECAP OF OUR 2017 HIGHLIGHTS***
Andrew set a literal world record by becoming only the second ever Special Olympian to BQ. He was the first to do this in 35 years, and he’ll be competing in the 2019 Boston Marathon. He was recognized by many–including essentially all of the local news sources, the Pacers, and Runner’s World magazine. Most importantly, we’ve learned a lot and have seen the Tribe help his confidence SOAR!
In that same vein, many tribesmates set personal bests and accomplished incredible personal feats this year with lots linking up and training together to slay their first marathons and half marathons. Gotta love that community collaboration!
We got to hear the impact of this movement through more brave, tear-jerking, and empowering stories including those told by Tim Howard and Teresa Hazel. We don’t claim to be the source of anyone’s inspiration, but we love knowing that we provide the consistent means to help personal and interpersonal inspiration flourish!
We knocked the month of November out of the park by working out in the park, Victory Field baseball park to be exact. (Thanks for leaving Chicago at 1:45AM to make it down, NP_CHI!) We got the hookup with the Pacers too for our killer Bankers Life Fieldhouse workout. On the one hand, it was indoors (an NP no-no). On the other hand, it was on the court in Bankers Life Fieldhouse and was our LARGEST SINGLE WORKOUT EVER!!!
Speaking of record-breaking workouts, how about that Wednesday tattoo verbal workout recording 150 people #justshowup-ing! Can you smell the fresh ink? Sniff Shaw over the course of the next couple months. You know this group means a lot to him with a verbal like that!!
A lesser known record breaking workout happened on some Friday during this year (aside from the BLF Pacers workout that is). We definitely set our Friday outdoor workout record, I’m just not sure when that occurred. I guess the best thing to do in 2018 is to host an outdoor Friday workout that is incredibly memorable and definitely destroys the previous Friday numbers record!
Speaking of Fridays, we hosted our first NP yoga shesh! Thanks again, Jillian McAfee!
We’ve stepped up our community collab game by forming–through impacters and networkers like Blake Roebuck and Sarah Myer–lasting partnerships to varying degrees with lululemon, BlueMile, White River State Park (except that parking lot ticket guy), Cooper’s Fun Run/Back On My Feet, Special Olympics Indiana, and RUN(317), among others. This will continue to be a huge help in growing our Tribe and this movement as we keep this thing going and growing into the future.
We also said goodbye to some really great old friends and hello to some really great new friends. Emotional roller coaster!
NP Globally, we really upped our worldwide stature by becoming a non-profit entity and by bringing on tribes from exotic places like Malaysia …and Buffalo, NY and Grand Rapids, MI. Woohoo! (If I’m remembering correctly, some big Euro tribes like London and Amsterdam came on this year. Maybe Hong Kong, Richmond, VA, and the two Texas tribes were this year two?? Time flies when you’re doing anything nowadays.) At any rate, 45 tribes now; WOW that’s cool. Look for other cool, inspiring, expansive moves to be made by corporate NP in 2018!
Our first major Michigan Street freeze out didn’t slow our roll, it got us eager to go! People were absolutely flying through this Dilly workout, and for good reason; slackers and spiced honey mead wine almsgivers (there were few) were thrown into the Pit of Misery. Here in Indy, the Pit of Misery is less like the Moon Door and more like a triple Race Day.
Rach brought the mead…and Maegen knows it.
Workout
Grab some Dilly-mates and split your team up with half running up the east stairs, half up the west. Run to the N gold door, cross paths with your Dilly-mates, and shout DILLY DILLY in their face(s). If headed towards the upper SE corner, drop some walking push-ups. If headed towards the SW one, conquer some flutter kicks. Lunge across the upper S platform and do whichever of those exercises you didn’t do. Bring it around town back down the opposite staircase you went up on, hit the street, drop some box jumps, then head back up the stairs you came down to do the workout in reverse. Repeat, repeat, repeat, DILLYing each and every time you catch sight of a partner.
Notes
For Friday’s workout, we’re meeting at the fountain one block north of the Wednesday War Memorial spot. Be there at 6a for a fun, tough, new workout! It’ll be cold, so layer up! [Side note: If cold keeps you away, forget that last part and don’t check the weather for at least the next two weeks… but still layer up.]
Come out and show Andrew some support this Friday evening (Dec 8) as he’s honored center-court at halftime of the Pacers Cavs game! We’re ready to show our NP pride and celebrate how proud we are of Andrew’s achievement!!! The dude is killin’ it. Contact Kim Macko or Timmy Howard to get in on a group rate of ~$20-35 Kim’s got set up! Game starts at 7p, so let’s grab some pre-game supper and drinks at the Slippery Noodle at 5p or whenever you can make it; once inside, listen for the SMyer yellaugh to guide you to us.
The Laker family has once again kindly offered to host us all (families/kids welcome) at their house for our annual holiday season NP get-together. It’s always a fun, festive time! Please bring a dish/drink; sign up here so we don’t repeat dishes [Side note: KGergs and Beth request that if you’re bringing guac, please leave it off the list so there are intentionally repeats (“that shit’s sooo good”)].
As we mentioned last week, there are plenty in need this holiday season, so please take a half hour to go through old warm clothes and think about donating them. If it’s easiest this way, just bring anything you have to a workout, and we’ll take it from there. Thanks, guys!
Shout-out to our picture magic dudes, JB and Tom; thanks gents!
Finally, aside from the camaraderie, friendship, fitness, fun, community, and huggerifically good time that NP is known to provide, we can add (as we always knew) “fiscally responsible option” to the list. NP has been featured in bunches of media locally, nationally, and internationally; the latest feature was in Money Magazine where NP was touted as a smart move on the money-saving and exercise fronts.
Love was in the air this morning: Tom’s love for the paint crew and his young age, Howard’s love for Tom, Tom’s love for Howard; that pretty much wraps it up.
| When it comes to race days, sometimes the love of NP is a little tougher to come by–I mean, that’s a lot of burpees and stairs–so we highlight love wherever we can find it. In all seriousness, that love of showing support for each other was highly apparent this morning with all the hugs, smiles, high-fives, course guides, PR pride, and positive attitudes. You guys make NP what it is by following our lead in trying to bring your best every morning. Today, it definitely showed! Howard and Tom rekindled their bromance while the rest of us rekindled our love for the smack-down we lay on race days when the mood is bright and the weather is right!
MAJOR props to all those who left with a new PR this morning and all who helped them along the way!
Workout
The workout went like this:
…Race Day.
Aaaaaccccttttuuuaaalllllllyyyy, more like THIS:
Notes
Friday’s workout is 6a at the Circle, north spoke. We’ll light that weekend-earning fire under your ass under the lights of the monument turned Christmas tree. #justshowup
Come out and show Andrew some support next Friday evening (Dec 8) as he’s honored center-court at halftime of the Pacers Cavs game! We’re super pumped and super proud of him and his achievement! If we gather enough support, we’ve got a group rate waiting for us. Sign up here.
We’re also super proud of this, so worth reiterating that NP Indy made Indianapolis Monthly magazine’s “Best of Indy” list as the Best Outdoor Workout in town. Woo-hoo!!!! Big thanks to our network of support!
The Laker family has once again kindly offered to host us all (families/kids welcome) at their house for our annual holiday season NP shindig. It’s always a fun, festive time! Be on the lookout for a post about signing up to bring a dish (so we avoid 11 green bean casseroles).
Thank you paint crew, thank you photo magic squad, and thank you to the newbies who chose Race Day (whether purposefully or not) as their first day. Speaking of newbies, please help support efforts to improve the lives of our homeless neighbors by donating clothes to guest speaker Greg Stowers’ Indy branch of the #HashtagLunchbag initiative. They’re collecting at the MLK Community Center at 40 W 40th St, and we’ll be collecting donations at workouts as well. Thanks guys!
This morning, on NP’s sixth birthday and following WS game 6, we recreated November Project’s birth. Like any birth, it was wet, nasty, and sloppy, heart-warming, beautiful, and unifying. Aside from our hearts, there was nothing warm about it; Shaw’s lips were so frozen that he couldn’t even complete a sentence. Unlike most births, this reenactment featured pumpkins, costumes, and dignitaries (looking at you, Judge Rob, played here by Stew W., and Barrack Obama(?))
Great work showing what being #weatherproof is all about. For those of you that had no intention of being weatherproof this morning and were caught off-guard by Indiana’s three seasons in three hours BS, here’s a handy guide to layering brought to us by our friends up in NP Edmonton; that will hopefully encourage you that, when properly outfitted, suffering through a little nasty weather is well worth the full, energetic day (and badass mentality) that follows…once you’ve warmed back up anyway.
Workout
It went a little something like this: pumpkin push-ups, medicine ball style; lunges with pumpkin shoulder presses; pumpkin tricep dips; pass-the-pumpkin-between-partners sit-ups. Get rinsed by the ever-changing precipitation and repeat. Those that dressed up and brought pumpkins, great job! Those that dressed down and didn’t bring pumpkins or smashed them while doing the pu[nt]pkin pass […and kick contest], not as great a job; still, you #justshowup’ed and proved a little (lot of) wind, rain, sleet, snow, and freezing weather won’t stop you!
Notes/Announcements
For this Friday’s workout, we will be graced with the presence of local leader and yoga extraordinaire Jillian McAfee of Invoke Yoga! Jillian is donating her time and skills to us, so show up and give her the respect and thanks she deserves; thanks, Jillian!!! ps: It’ll be warmer and much drier than today; still, dress warm (layers!). pss: Maybe there will be a lulu prize or two.
Big thanks to Tom Hale (Dracula) for weathering the weather and taking pictures this morning!
Aside from yoga this Friday, our BIG NOVEMBER will see us working out in Banker’s Life Fieldhouse ON THE COURT next Friday the 10th, Victory Field on Friday the 17th, and (hopefully) a Lucas Oil Stadium Peyton Manning Plaza (not quite inside the place, but hey) workout the last Friday of this month. We’ve also been invited to hold a November Project Open Mic Night at Kurt and Julia’s Square Cat Vinyl shop/coffee house/drankin’ bar where we’ll invite NP’ers to share their vocal, instrumental, dance, etc talents on a stage reserved just for us!!! This is happening Thursday Nov 16th, and we are PUMPED! We know of some singers and instrumentalists, but give us a heads up if you or any friend are interested in taking the stage. Please, please, please get the word out about all these November happenings so we can make this month as great as it’s set up to be!
For those that can’t or are choosing not to make this Friday’s workout, consider this alternative, the Cooper’s Fun Run meeting at Monument Circle. Look for some of our Back On My Feet friends to be in attendance!
MONUMENTAL MARATHON stuff:
Our very own Andrew Peterson is making HUGE waves in this marathon. Andrew is attempting (and undoubtedly succeeding) in not only qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but qualifying as only the second ever Special Olympian EVER to do so. Let, me type that again. Second EVER. Wow. Hence the news camera this morning and the baller story that’s hitting the newsstands this week. Let’s go Andrew!!! And MAJOR THANKS to Andrew’s volunteer pacer, Justin Dyszelski of NP Madison!!!!!
Others coming in from other tribes like Chicago, please join us for the pre-race and post race festivities listed here.
Sun King Brewery is hosting us @3p for a post-race chill out, …post-race (11/04); Please join + invite all!
Finally, Marathon morning logistics:
ALL: Race starts with an opening ceremony at 7:30am at the corner of Washington and Capitol streets. All runners take off in waves starting at 8am. Good luck! We’ll get you hyped up with a BOUNCE @7:20 sharp on the south steps of the Statehouse (same place we bounced for the Mini): In this map link, btwn “George Washington Statue” and “Indiana House of Representatives.”
CHEERERS: We’ll go from the bounce up to our spot at the Broadway United Methodist Church, which is (fortunately for us) right where the full and half split). I’ll bring coffee, Anne and the lulu cru-lu are bringing donuts.
A few short years later, those uncoordinated toddlers quickly grow into full-blown recess-time track-stars and team sport competitors. School and teams adds playmates and pretend play, which brings up fair-play, social skills, and emotional intelligence children need for social interaction. Generally those take more years to learn (and come with their own kind of danger, bumps and bruises). But in those same years, children rely on physical play and interaction as their primary way to learn about other humans. This is often the same point when a parent will be getting along in their middle years. Suddenly, “the floor is lava!” is as a good day while throwing things at each other is the start of a bad one (even if all throws miss, shortly after “a talking-to” they’ll have the idea of throwing things straight-up to dodge!? And, why are helmets not for all the time?) Again, stress management, speed and readiness to react and protect are obviously important. Factor in the lack of sleep plus macaroni-and-cheese and french fries contaminating the house nutrition…, now keeping up in fitness and energy is a challenge that requires community support.
