Race Report: Icebreaker Indoor Half Marathon

The Icebreaker race series is held on the run/walk track at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 445-meter track runs indoors around the Pettit's giant ice skating/hockey rink complex. The Icebreaker series consists of a 5K race Friday night, a half marathon and marathon relay on Saturday, and a marathon on Sunday. The race also offers a "Gold Medal Challenge" for people who run the half marathon Saturday and the full on Sunday. I participated in the half marathon. 13.1 miles was about 48 laps around the track.

How does it work?

The track has three lanes. Runners use the outside lane and pass in the middle lane. The inside lane is for passing when the other lanes are occupied. This makes for a fair amount of bouncing around between the lanes, but rarely was there any sort of backup or clog. It actually works really well.

The race is chip timed with timers that attach to the runners' ankles. This part was actually really cool: as you pass the timing mat, you could see your name on the screen with your time for the previous lap. They also broadcast how many laps each runner had left on two huge, scrolling screens.

Isn't it, like, boring?

No. Not at all. The race is limited to about 100 people (more than that would be kind of a mess), so while you do spend a fair amount of time bouncing around people, that also gives you a chance to make small talk with the same people over and over, if that's your thing.

Headphones weren't allowed, but when you registered you also got to add a song to the race playlist which would be broadcast during the race. It made for an interesting playlist: there were tons of songs that you'd expect like some Taylor Swift, Walk the Moon, etc., but along with those were a fair amount of dad joke-esque songs about running and circles (You Spin Me Round, Round and Round, Legs, etc.). I requested the Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, although I didn't hear it get played.  Bummer.  But overall, it made for a pretty great playlist. An announcer would announce runners by name as they got to their final five laps, and then again on their last lap.

My BB8 Shirt arrived in my Club InkNBurn box the night before.  Of course I had to wear it.

So, how was my race?

Eh. I'm not a fast runner (Half marathon PR: 2:08), and I only signed up for this one two weeks ago when I realized that I needed a 14 mile run this weekend so this was a training run for me. I ran a 2:08 again, although I worked much harder for this one. I run at the Pettit center just about every week and the one thing I can't get a hang of there is pacing. GPS doesn't work indoors, and for whatever reason the perceived effort of running on the track seems so much more than running outside. And because it isn't a quarter mile track, keeping track of your own mileage by counting laps is challenging. So while I thought I was running pretty steady, I wasn't. I went out too fast, got really fatigued around mile 10, and only managed to tie my PR. This was by no means my A or even B race, so for a training run, it was perfectly fine.

Fellow InkNBurn Ambassador Andrea ran the race too.  I spent my laps envying her blue Run or Die shirt.