Volunteers Needed

If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering to help at the Indoor Marathon, please email Jaime Lee at runjaimerun@hotmail.com. Volunteers will receive a nice gift and are promised to have a great time!

Update on Boston Marathon Qualifying

I received an email tonight from the Boston Marathon race director, who indicated that he is still waiting to hear from the USATF-New England race referee about our request to have the Indoor Marathon considered a Boston Marathon qualifier. He said right now their policies state that times from indoor marathons are not allowed. Stay tuned.....

Incidentally, last year's Indoor Marathon winner, Bryan Schneider, ran a 2:37 at our race and then did a 2:36 on the rugged Boston course a few months later. Conclusion: you don't get much of a time advantage, if any, running indoors. Even though the weather conditions aren't perfect outdoors like they are at the Pettit Center, there is some benefit to elevation changes and running in straight lines rather than turning 14 times every mile. I am not suggesting that running at the Pettit Center is as difficult as Boston (I have run at both places and there is no comparison - Boston is by far the more difficult course); but it's not as easy some think.

I would be interested to see a comparison of what finishers of last year's Indoor Marathon did in subsequent marathons. All it would take is some research on MarathonGuide.com. Any takers?

Join the Indoor Marathon Facebook Group

We have created a Facebook group for the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon. Here is the link. Feel free to post your comments.

Olympians @ Pettit Center

I have been at the Pettit Center the past two days watching the Olympic Speedskating Trials. Very cool!!!! Former Gold medalists Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick were there, as were several other past Olympians. We watched Chad set the Pettit record in the 1,500 meters yesterday and then Shani come within .02 of breaking it. Today Shani dominated in the 10,000 meters. The event drew huge crowds and was great entertainment for all. Let's hope the 2010 Icebreaker Indoor Marathon is just as much fun!

Marathon Is Full

The InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon has officially reached its capacity of 80 runners. There are still 15 spots available through the Gold Medal Challenge so if you want to run the marathon and have not registered, you must sign up that way (and no, you cannot give your half-marathon entry to another runner!). Questions, email the race director at cponteri@runinstep.com.

Indoor Marathon In the News

Tom Held of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a nice blog post on the Indoor Marathon yesterday. It can be found by clicking here.

Marathon Relay

The Marathon Relay is for teams of 2-4 runners. The length of each relay leg is up to the team captain and can be decided on race-day. The entry fee is $30 per runner. Each runner must be registered individually. When you go to the Active.com registration page, choose Marathon Relay and fill in your registration information. You will need to know the name of your team and captain. If the team captain wants to register and pay for all the runners, he/she should register each runner individually, and then choose the option at checkout where you can register another participant before paying. That way you can pay for all registrants at once. Otherwise, just have each runner register and pay on their own. I hope I haven't made this sound too confusing because actually it's pretty simple and straightforward once you get to the registration page. As always, email me at cponteri@runinstep.com with questions.

Hotel Info

For you out-of-towners (or in-towners who want to get away for the night), we have reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton Brookfield on January 23 and 24. Rooms are only $69 per night. Reservations can be made by calling 800-325-3535 and mention the "Pettit Indoor Marathon Rate". The rate is only good for reservations made by January 15. The hotel is less than a 10-minute drive down the freeway from the Pettit National Ice Center.