Month: August 2021

Whether you’re training for the 2022 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon or earning miles for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Challenge and Gasoline 250 Mile Challenges, being active outdoors can improve overall health and wellness. Before the summer sizzles out, you can soak up the sun knowing you’re improving your mind and body.

Benefits of Exercising Outdoors

1. Lowers blood pressure

Regular sun exposure can help lower your blood pressure. Nitric acid present in the skin helps lower blood pressure by widening blood vessels in response to the sun’s rays.

2. Relieves stress, anxiety, and depression

Being outdoors can lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that’s a marker for stress.

3. Improves mood

Sunlight can also increase serotonin levels, helping to raise your energy and keep your mood calm, positive, and focused.

4. Improves focus

Studies show that spending time outdoors can help restore focus and concentration.

5. Can reduce inflammation

Researchers have found that people who spend time in nature have shown reduced inflammation and hypertension levels.

6. Good for eyesight

Going outside can improve the health of your eyes by alleviating pain or poor vision from staring at computers and smartphones.

7. Improves sleep

Spending time outdoors can help to regulate body temperature and the sleep-wake cycle.

8. Boosts immunity

Sunlight increases Vitamin D levels, which can help boost your immune system. Sunlight also energizes T-cells in your immune system to help fight infections.

9. Elevates Vitamin D

The skin’s exposure to sunshine enables the body to make vitamin D, which can have protective effects against a multitude of health issues.

10. Helps us heal quicker

Research supports that individuals who spend time outdoors recover from illness or injury quicker and relieves pain naturally.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics are in full swing and history is already being made! The Olympic Games are a time like no other, a time where the world and its greatest athletes come together to celebrate and compete. More than 200 nations will be competing in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Indy Mini has also seen some historic Olympic moments. Did you know some of the world’s greatest athletes have attended the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon? Check out these five Olympic running legends who have attended or participated in the Greatest Spectacle in Running!

Meb Keflezighi– Greatest American distance runner in the history of the sport, the only athlete in history to win the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon, and an Olympic medal

Alexi Pappas– Alexis is a Greek-American runner, filmmaker, actor, and writer. She represented Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics and set the national record in the 10,000 meters.

Andrew Peterson– Andrew is a local resident of the Indianapolis area and a Special Olympics Gold Medalist. He was the second Special Olympics athlete to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Andrew is also a 500 Festival Running Ambassador!

Frank Shorter– Frank is the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic Marathon. He was running’s biggest star in the 1970s and 80s and the winner of the first-ever Mini-Marathon in 1977

Bill Rodgers– Bill is an Olympian and winner of the 1978 Mini-Marathon. He is also a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon.

Celebrate the Tokyo Olympics this summer and commit to your own finish-line victory by registering for the 2022 Indy Mini! Want even more Olympics excitement? You can earn your own medals with the all-new #IndyVirtualChallenge Olympic badges! Click here to learn how to earn your spot on the podium.