Icebreaker Indoor Half Marathon - Race Report

 Immediately after getting home from Ashland and the Whistle Stop Marathon back in October, I knew I needed an break; an off season of sorts, even though I wanted no such thing.  I took a brief break with no training, no planning, or anything else.  It was a break, a forced break, but a break none-the-less.  After my break it was right back to planning, strategizing, and training.  I'll be completely honest, I once again, became selfish, foolish, and unrealistic with the life that I live.  I had all the grandiose plans.  They all started with a full marathon in January, which was to be run on an indoor 445 meter track.  It was run at the Petit National Ice Center, which is the official Olympic Speed Skating Facility and called the Ice Breaker Marathon.  I immediately registered to save some bucks on an early registration.  But, after only a week break, I started training for this indoor marathon, just to find my calf acting up again.  I knew I needed a true break to allow my calf to better heal.  I emailed the race director asking for a transfer into the half marathon event held on the Saturday before the marathon.  It was approved and I was good to go.  Since then, I had posted a blog article about my goals and resolutions for 2015.  I'll be completely honest - I have given up on all my goals and resolutions.  Maybe "given up" is a bit too strong.  Maybe, redirected better fits.  So, lets go that route, I have redirected my goals and resolutions for 2015.  My goals and resolutions were ambitious, sure, they were also unrealistic.  Unrealistic in that my goals were simply unattainable considering were I am currently at in my life.  I have 3 beautiful daughters who are currently 10 months, 3 and 4.  So without going too much into my reasoning and my personal life, simply put, I have redirected my goals to focus more on my family and my kids and bettering my marriage with my wife, Sarah.  Yes, I still plan on racing and training, but will take life as it comes and race when it works with my work schedule and my family schedule.  So as the weekend of the Ice Breaker Half Marathon approached, we changed our original plans for the weekend.  Originally we planned on spending the weekend in Milwaukee with the girls and taking them to the Milwaukee Children's Museum after the race on Saturday.  But our vehicle had some major unexpected repairs and we felt that spending a weekend away from home probably wasn't the best decision.  So, we opted to stay home to save a few bucks. 

Training for This Race

My training has never been more inconsistent than it was for the race.  Originally, I had started my training with the idea that I was running a full marathon.  Then, like I said, my calf started tightening up as it did earlier in 2014 and I had to take some time off from running to make sure it properly healed.  Once I felt recovered, I started training for a half marathon.  My training went OK with some minor breaks, because its never truly easy training throughout the holidays especially with a household of 3 kids.  Once the holidays passed, I was getting back into a rhythm, I had to take a full week off due to an outpatient surgery in early January.  So, the final 2 weeks leading up to the race, I ran a total of 3 times for a total of 13 miles - definitely NOT ideal. 

Prerace

As I mentioned before, Sarah and I decided to not spend the weekend down in Milwaukee.  So, the day of the race, I woke up at 3:45am with the plan of driving down to Milwaukee for the race and then driving back afterward.  I actually got a pretty decent night's sleep, as I went to bed around 8:30pm.  My drive was nice with very little traffic.  I drank my travel mug of coffee and didn't plan on eating anything before the race.  I did pack a couple Hammer Gels in case I felt too hungry to eat before the start of the race.  After getting to the Petit, I checked in a got my race bib.  I got everything all set up and had plenty of time to kill before the 7am race start.  I took advantage of my extra time to get a thorough warm up completed.  I have never run at the Petit and wasn't sure what the track was like and I definitely had no clue what the atmosphere felt like - would it be cold, cool, or comfortable.  I ended up running a mile and a half and did my usual dynamic stretching routine.  After the National Anthem, it was finally time to race. 

Nutrition Plan

I had a wonderful nutritional plan for this event, but honestly completely forgot all about it.  I had planned on taking Hammer Anti-Fatigue Caps, Race Caps Supreme, and Mito Caps an hour before the race, and simply forgot. So, all I took before the race was my mug of coffee and half a water bottle with a Hammer Fizz tablet in it.  During the race I wanted to take advantage of the nutrition tables which were positioned on the corner of the track and was accessible literally whenever you needed it.  So, I created a water bottle full of 2.5 scoops (250 calories) of Hammer Heed and would sip on it throughout the race.  I also packed a small baggie of Hammer Energy Surge to take throughout the race and a dose of Hammer Anti-Fatigue Caps, but once again forgot all about them come race time and they sat in my backpack right next to the pills I was supposed to take an hour before the start of the race....oh well I guess...

Gear/Equipment

New Balance 890v4
Hammer Cool Tee Running Shirt
Hammer Cycling Socks
Garmin 910XT

Miles 0-13.1

The race started on the back half of the track, so our first lap was really a half lap.  So counted the first half lap as a full lap we had to tally 48 laps (total of 47.5 laps) to reach a final distance of 13.1 miles.  I was really unsure how the race would go, if it would be crowded or spread out.  The start of the race was the most crowded the track was the entire day.  As with any other event the start of the race is always the most congested.  But to be honest it thinned out quickly.  It was less than a lap until there was plenty of room to run and it never became an issue.  The general rule of the race was run on the outside of the track and pass on the inside.  It worked out extremely well.  Another key rule was absolutely no personal music devices - that's right - no headphones = no music.  But, they counter this well, by allowing every person to pick one song of choice to be played randomly throughout the race.  My pick was American Witch by Rob Zombie.  Simply put, the race organizers have this race down to a "T," as the number of participants seems to be just about the perfect number of runners to be running.  My goal for the race was to finish with a time between 1:30:00 and 1:24:00.  Yes, its a wide range but figured with my inconsistent training I should still be able to run a  1:30:00 half marathon, considering I have been training to run a 3:00:00 full just 3 months ago.  I figured it out that I would have to run a 1:47-1:55 lap to finish in that time range.  My first 20 laps or so were all in that range.  But then they started to fall short and I was running all my laps in the 2:00 range.  Initially, I had thought that this race would be perfect for pacing.  I thought I would be able to monitor my pace on a much more fine level opposed to pacing myself my miles during any other outdoor event.  Plus this event was completely flat, so I didn't need to worry about being slowed down by hills.  I have also run multiple 20 mile long runs on the track at my local YMCA which is a much smaller track (11 laps = 1 mile).  So I have run for hours to tally 220 laps.  I felt like my mental toughness wouldn't be an issue as I believe I have a good ability to just "zone out" and focus on running.  However, I found that racing on an indoor track is much different that running easy on a track.  I found myself focusing on the pain and discomfort WAY more than I ever do during an outdoor event.  It's like there was nothing else to focus on other than the negative.  Whereas, during a road race, there are literally thousands of things to distract you and take your mind off of the discomfort.  That, without a doubt was the most difficult this with this race.  I ended up finishing with a time of 1:32:19 or about 1:57 per lap.  This put me at 20th place out of 101 runners and 8th of 22 runners the M30-39 age group.  If I would have been close to my goal of 1:24 I could have placed 2nd in my age group and in the top ten, but oh well.  It just wasn't my day.  I'll live to run another day. 

Post Race

After the race, I quickly showered before other runners finished and I would have found myself in a long line waiting to use one of only a few showers available to runners.  After I showered and changed I stuck around to see the results to see if for some reason I was able to place high enough for an award.  As soon, as I realized there was no chance of that, I left to get back home to take the kids to a local indoor play park for the kids, which Sarah and I had planned on doing if I was back early enough.  The post race spread was small but good.  They offered homemade cookies, bagels, bananas, and chocolate milk.  All-in-all it was the event is extremely well run and well organized.  I am glad I did it, but don't think I will be doing it again, as this type of event just isn't for me.  I would much rather use the winter months as a true off season, as I have in the past.  Rather than force myself to continue training and race indoors in the middle of winter.

The Day in Music

How do you not choose Round and Round by Rat?

What's on Tap

At this point I really don't know what's on tap.  I am looking at running a 5k (or 15k) in early February in De Pere, WI, but am not completely sure if I will or not.  After that, there are a few other races I may or may not do.  Like I said earlier, I really want to refocus some of my energy into my family and kids and really work on finding that balance between life, work, family, and fitness.  More than likely I'll do several shorter races throughout the year that require little to no travel and maybe a marathon or two sprinkled in where I can.

Thanks for reading!
Cheers!