Icebreaker Marathon Sign Up

I signed up today for the 2010 InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon. (I know the logo says 2009, they have not updates it yet). Sign up began on Monday so I wanted to be one of the first in and now I am. It is hard to think of a winter marathon in the heat of the summer. It will be cold in January, and even though I will be running indoors, I will be running around ice the entire marathon.

There are differences this year at the Icebreaker from last year. First of all, they added a half marathon. Actually they added 2 half marathons. WHAT?!?! Yes, since the capacity of the track that the race is run on at the Pettit National Ice Center is so low (120 runners per race), they added 2 half marathons both to take place on Saturday, January 23rd. One starting at 7:00 AM, the next at 9:30AM. In the entry form, they asked for an estimated finishing time so they could put the faster runners in the first race, and the not as fast in the second race.

They have also added a Marathon Relay to take place on Saturday as well at 1:00PM. 120 teams will be allowed to run. If you have ever run a marathon relay, they usually have specific exchange areas, well in this race, since you run 95.3 laps, you pass the exchange zone 95 times. Teams of 4 can exchange whenever they want. And I am not certain on this, but runners can run more than once for their team. You could even exchange every lap if your team wanted to. I am not sure these are the rules, but I heard they may be.

The marathon will take place on Sunday, January 24th at 8:00AM. This race will be the same as last year but they bumped up the entries to 120 so the track should be a little more crowded than last year when 87 (I think) started the race.

So which race did I choose to enter? I chose the Gold Medal Challenge. This is open to only 40 runners who are crazy enough to run the half marathon on Saturday and then run the full marathon on Sunday. Yes, I am that crazy, yet again. This is modeled just like the Disney Goofy Challenge but in this case, I can sleep in my own bed between the races. I don't have to drive 4 hours between races like I did for the Heart of Texas Challenge.

I am pumped and excited for this challenge. My friend Chris is still the race director for this marathon and Paul will be joining me in doing the Gold Medal Challenge but I am not training for this one just yet. I do have 2 other marathons I am aiming for before this one. The Whistle Stop marathon in Ashland, WI in October and The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November. That is if my ankle heals up by then.

I hope all your training is going well and your mid summer slumps are short if at all. Keep Running!