In ideal, cool dry conditions?
On a flat, windless course?
While listening to music?
With other friendly runners?
With frequent cheering spectators?
Where you can see the top runners competing?
Having your favorite drinks/foods served on the course?
Not having to look for or wait long to use a porta-potty?
Even if it may not be a PR?
On a flat, windless course?
While listening to music?
With other friendly runners?
With frequent cheering spectators?
Where you can see the top runners competing?
Having your favorite drinks/foods served on the course?
Not having to look for or wait long to use a porta-potty?
Even if it may not be a PR?
If you're like me and answered "yes" to all or most of the above, the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon should be on your To Run list!
I know, I know, running a hundred (really, 95.4) laps around an indoor track sounds so BORING, but I have yet to find anyone who's run an indoor marathon who thinks it is, including me. And it's not because we're crazy! It's totally different than speed work you might do on a track or running laps on your own. The closest thing I can think of to describe my race experience would be to say it was like a Go Cart ride!
Don't believe me?
Well, here I am waiting at the start. Some of the kids have been on this ride before, which is often the case with any good fun-rides, right? Me, I've run 52 marathons, including one merry-go-round (150 laps at the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon last year). But this ride is bigger, both in number of runners as well as the track size, and the building which houses the track is quite special, as you'll see. Pardon my giddy look!
The gun went off at 8am and about a hundred of us jumped on and spread out along the track (which was a thin sheet of rubber over concrete so not very forgiving but better than nothing). The inside lane was for fasties or those wanting to pass. The outside lane was for those going a slower pace. After that, all similarities with track running as most folks know it ended.
For one thing, this track was inside the Pettit National Ice Center, which is an official U.S. Olympic training site for speed skating. It was actually 442.8767m long, not your traditional running track length because there was a 400m speed skating oval INSIDE of it. And inside of that ice oval, there were two international-sized (100' x 200') ice rinks for hockey, figure skating and short track speed skating. For moi, who had been ice skating maybe only 2 or 3 times as a kid and had only seen ice in the form of ice cubes in her ice baths recently, this was an AMAZING facility!
Right photo from a Journal Sentinel article about the race.The first lap, I just admired the gigantic uber slick and shiny ice surface. Ooh, near zero coefficient of friction, I bet could slide my butt around even without skates! I looked at the big banners and colorful flags that were hung all throughout the building. With the Winter Olympics coming up, there was also talk that some world-class speed skaters might be on the ice later, which made being there even more exciting.
And the indoor temps? OMG, a blissful 55 degs F, which actually felt closer to 50 because of the dry air, just perfect for running, but I had to be very careful about going too fast early on (first race since my calf injury last month!). Without a Garmin -- we're indoors, remember? -- I figured I'd just capture splits every 4 laps (1.1 miles). Completing them in 10-10:30 minutes would be about a 9-9:30 min/mi pace, which is what I wanted. Simple, no?
Actually, NO, it wasn't, because the laps were going by too fast! I kept getting distracted so that I'd miss looking at my watch when I was supposed to. The best I could do was capture splits every 8 laps instead:
1st 8 in 20:00 - OK, but no faster.
2nd 8 in 19:51 - I said NO faster!!
3rd 8 in 20:34 - Good.
And poof, 24 laps gone in 1:00:25, 6.6 mi @ 9:09 pace.
Here's a YouTube video created by Fit Milwaukee that will give you an idea what was going on. It's really of the marathon relay event held the day before (they had 2 teams in it) but the marathon was similar with the exception that everyone was running at the same time so no runners on the sidelines for the most part (fast forward to 1:05 to see people running):
So while you could be Speedy Gonzales churning out lightening fast laps on the inside lane, you could also be like me who was cruising on the outside lane, occasionally playing bumper runners and switching to the inside lane, chatting with folks, checking out what was written on their shirts, reading banners & signs, high five-ing little kids' hands hanging out from the bleachers, singing/humming along with good songs they were playing (but why did they play Theme from Rocky so early???), thanking wonderful volunteers, the list goes on and on ...
But boredom or dizziness? Nonsense! Unless perhaps you were a SPECTATOR :-)
Me: 1060, orange bottle next lap (translation: please give bib #1060 her sports bottle with the orange drink on the next lap)
Volunteer: Got it!
And next time around, a volunteer would be looking for me and ready to hand me my bottle. Next lap around I gave it back. Awesome service!!
And how did all those bottles, gels and whatever get on the tables, you ask? Well, before the race, we runners marked and staged our stuff on tables with specific bib number ranges. That way, during the race we knew to ask volunteers near our table as we went by. They also had extra sports drink, water and gels on hand to make sure we never ran out fluids or fuel. Thank you!!!!
Now back to the ride.
0.4 laps from where we started was where the finish line was located and also a large projection screen which turned out to be showing everyone's name, number of laps completed and the last lap split. From a photo I saw of last year's race, I thought it was a count-down screen showing how many laps the top runners had left. With all else going on, I didn't bother reading it until about halfway through my race. So after 2 hours, I glanced up to see how the fasties were doing and holy moly! MY name was listed there with 48 laps done. Quick, hit the lap button NOW!
24.4* laps in 1:04:13, 6.7 mi @ 9:35 pace (incl. porta potty stop).
*fractional lap to account for the distance from the start line to where the screen was
So, obviously, I'd failed miserably at keeping track of any more 8-lap splits the last hour. Hey, have you tried tracking laps around a Go Cart course? But now that I knew lap counts and lap splits were on the screen, things should be easy, right?
Well, not always. The names were constantly scrolling downwards as people were crossing a mat behind you so if you happened to be running in front of others nearby, your name would get pushed down from the top and you had to be quick to find it as you ran by. There actually was a guy standing there holding a sign that said "Ask me for your lap count," but I never did. I just found it more fun to keep playing Find Shirley's Line :-)
Photo of the female winner from a Journal Sentinel article about the race.In the second half, I noticed a few skaters were on the ice and added watching them to my list of many things to do. There was one guy who looked pretty fast but my guess is that he was not headed to Vancouver. No matter, the real excitement was unfolding on the running track. The leader for 21 miles had to drop out due to a previous ankle injury that began bothering him. Julie Spencer, a tiny woman who made me look big, was the leader by more than a lap for a while. Then Matt Sveum, who'd lost the lead pack earlier, closed the gap and ran past her in the final laps to win the race in 2:51:07. Julie finished second in 2:52:38, a new women's course record. Frickin' incredible to see these folks fly by again and again averaging a 6:30-ish pace!!!
Thereafter, other fasties would periodically jump off the track as they finished their race. After 3 1/2 hours, the ride began taking on a different character. The mid-packers became the new "fast" runners and with fewer people on the track, it got easier to pass people and to run on the inside track (which we all know is a little shorter than the outside track) when no one faster was around. By now, folks have also been running together for a while so friends had been made and we were encouraging and helping each other. Announcements of those who had reached 90 laps, were on their last lap, or had just completed 96 (meaning they were done), were becoming more frequent and they pumped you up too, finishing or not. This party was still getting started!
Meanwhile, I was closing in fast on lap number 80, where I'd decided I would pick up my pace to an 8:30 (2:20 lap time) if I'd not heard any complaints from my calfs earlier. Not a peep! For a short while, I enjoyed passing some who had passed me earlier in the race, even though I knew they were going to be done before me. Before long I was at lap 92, where with 4 laps to go I figured it was safe to let go of the brakes. For the first time during the race, I made sure to FOCUS and COUNT my remaining laps:
1 down - WEEEE, I'm flying!
2 down - Look Ma, no hands -- I mean, sweat!!
3 down - WOOHOO, let's floor this motha!!!
4 down - Wha -- it's time to get off the track?
Final race time: 3:58:42 (9:06 pace), 3/8 F40-49, 7/27 Females.
13.3 mi (48.4 laps) @ 9:22 pace.
12.9 mi (47 laps) @ 8:51 pace. Last 1.1 mi (4 laps) @ 8:09 pace.
Token bib and medal photo.
Me and a couple faster friends from the race, Marathon Maniacs #1083 & 1084.
Nice race schwag (socks and pink fluid bottle given as the AG award).Thanks for coming along with me on my ride!
Above is one of my favorite pics of Dave taken on our honeymoon in Jamaica back in 1994. He went kneeboarding, swam a mile roundtrip to a nearby island and got resort certified to go diving while I, who could barely swim to save my life, spent most of my time on the beach sunbathing and fighting off babes eyeing him (note the 2 in back -- grrr).
