#CatchingKanaan
On October 27, the 500 Festival announced this year’s Pacesetter for the Mini-Marathon would be none other than IndyCar superstar, Tony Kanaan. Ironically, the announcement came on the same morning Kanaan’s wife, Lauren, gave birth to their new son, Max.
Welcome to this world Max. We love you very much. Mom and baby are well. Bem vindo meu filho. Já te amamos muito Max. 3 Mosqueteiros pic.twitter.com/zkXPyxVJT4
— Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) October 27, 2016
T.K. welcomed Max to the world and the 500 Festival welcomed you to challenge T.K. – a decorated Indianapolis 500 champion – for Pacesetter pride in the 2017 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.
What the Pacesetter Means
It’s an exciting year for the Pacesetter Program, but that Pacesetter mark means a few things:
- For every person who beats Kanaan’s time, the 500 Festival will donate $1 to a charity, voted on by participants. Basically, beat T.K. and help the community. Simple.
- That guy you’ve seen year after year in the Indy 500 – flashing before your eyes at 200+ mph – is now within reach. If you’ve heard the phrase, “lightning in a bottle”… Well, we took the wheels off of lightning. Now it’s up to you to bottle him. That is, if you can catch him first.
How To Beat Tony’s Time
Last Spring, Kanaan traded in the car keys for running shoes and dashed around our 13.1 mile course. He finished in just 1:43:29. In hopes of donating more money, we took that time and added on five extra minutes for every place above 10th that Kanaan finished in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series. T.K. finished seventh, adding another 15 minutes for a time to beat of 1:58:29 – just 91 ticks from a flat two-hour run.
Last year’s Pacesetter mark was set by the Colts’ Cheerleaders with a time of 2:07. Nearly 6,700 runners timed in before 2:07, netting $6,669 for three different charities.
If you’re up for the Pacesetter challenge, use #CatchingKanaan on social media to share your training, friendly trash talk for Tony, and your official time come race weekend in early May. It’s your turn to be faster than IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan! Don’t miss it!
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