The 9th annual Indianapolis Monumental Marathon was held on Saturday, November 5th, 2016. This is the 4th time that I ran the Monumental Marathon and it has become a must run event for me every year.
The exponis held Thursday and Friday before Saturday's race. The expo was held in the convention center. I am guessing there was probably about 20-30 vendors in attendance. You could also purchase race merchandise. Picking up your race packet with your number and shirt, is quick at easy. You are emailed a link ahead of time to look up your number. You take your number to the right table, show them your picture ID and that’s it. You can pick up a friends packet as well with a copy of their ID.
Gear check is located about a block away from the starting line but right beside the finish area. Corrals were set up as well. The first 4 corrals were set up for those who submitted a time for a preferred starting spot. The rest of the runners lined up according to goal pace. Somehow I didn't get a corral assignment but was able to sneak in.
Other than a minor change of running half way around Monument Circle (in the past you only ran a quarter of the circle) the course was the same. The course is a great tour of what Indy has to offer. You run by all the monuments (Indy has more monuments than any other city in the country other than Washington DC). You also run by Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and through other neighborhoods. My favorite stretch of the race is between miles 15-17 running on Meridian Ave. it is a beautiful stretch of large homes, including the governors mansion (no sign of Govenor Pence, I guess he was a little busy that day), as well as the beautiful fall colors.
The finish line is right by the capital building and is lined with fan support. The finishers medals, as always, are nice and feature one of the cities monuments.
Finishline food consisted of banana, water, cookies, chips, granola bars, chocolate milk, and seems like more. Should offer a bag to carry all of this in. Also, once again each runner got a finishers hat. In past years, the hat was more useful due to cooler weather at the finish, but this year, temps were in the 50s.

This has become a very large and popular race. This year the half and full marathon sold out. There were 19,000 participants between the 3 race distances. If you want to run the 2017 race, register on January 1 firbtheir best deal