Speedway native Mary Hendricks is running the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon not just for herself, but in honor of her 7-month-old nephew, Rush Auer.
INDIANAPOLIS — This year’s OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon is Saturday, May 4, with thousands set to participate. One of those participants is a woman running in her nephew’s honor.
Mary Hendricks runs in Speedway before the month of May takes hold of her hometown.
“It brings such a fun energy to the town. Otherwise, it’s a pretty quiet, chill town. Then, May comes, and everything is just crazy,” Hendricks said.
However, her quiet morning runs calm her loud thoughts.
“Grief can consume you, or you can try and find something, a light in that darkness,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks runs the Indy Mini to cope after the loss of her nephew, Rush.
“That was the one thing that helped motivate me, to keep pushing, to really have something to work towards,” Hendricks said.
Rush had acute respiratory failure, a condition where the body isn’t …