Icebreaker Weekend

This weekend is the 5th Annual Icebreaker Indoor Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Relay and 5K. Time to get this party started! All races are sold out so this should be another great year.

Tonight I am headed to the Pettit Center for a quick 3 mile run before packet assembly for all the runners. I am also going to be testing the sound system for the music that will be playing during the race. When signing up, runners can request a song to be played during their race and this year I was in charge of getting the music organized. Sounds easy, right? Nope. I have to not only get all the songs, but also make sure they are appropriate for all audiences (no curse words or inappropriate subjects), make sure runners will like the song (it is not a snoozer) and also try to get the song placed in the race so they can hear it before they are done based off the estimated finish time they have submitted. Not everyone will get their song played, the half marathon race is not nearly long enough to play all the songs requested but I try to get as many as I can. If you don’t like the music, blame the other runners who requested it (LOL). Hopefully it is good.

Friday evening is the 5K. There are about 90 runners in the 5K and is full. My 11 year old daughter will be running the 5K though I don’t think she will run as fast as last year. She hasn’t run much since the end of the Cross Country season and is out of shape. But she hopes to have fun and run as fast as she can.

Saturday is the busy day. 7:00AM is the first heat of the half marathon followed at 9:30AM but the second heat of the half marathon. 1:00PM is the most exciting race in my opinion, the marathon relay. 100 teams of up to 4 runners will race. The difference with this marathon relay from others is that teams may exchange as many times as they like to. This adds to some VERY interesting strategies. And the winning times are VERY fast too. Last year’s winning time was 2:12, a 5:04 mile pace! Most teams are they to have fun and I always love the team names too. Maybe I will have to post my favorite team names later.

Sunday at 8:00AM is the full marathon. I am running the full again this year. What a way to get out of working it, huh! With all the ‘running’ around I will be doing on Friday and Saturday, I have no expectations at a fast time at all. But this is a great race to run, VERY fun.

If you are coming to the Icebreaker, stop by and say Hi. I’ll be there the whole time.

Keep on Running!!!