On March 9, I ran the Pettit Indoor Marathon. This race is held inside the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee. This is where Olympic speed skaters train. In the center of the building, there are two hockey rinks. Around the hockey rinks, there’s a speed skating track. Around that track, there’s a three-lane running track.
This isn’t the first time
I’ve run an indoor marathon. I’ve done
six others, including one called Heatbreaker that was in this same building.
When I ran the
Heatbreaker Marathon in 2014, I drove to Milwaukee. My lower back and legs are less tolerant of
long drives than they were when I was younger.
Also, you never know what road conditions will be like at this time of
year. For those reasons, I flew to
Milwaukee and rented a car.
I flew to Milwaukee Saturday morning,
arriving just in time for lunch. I don’t
recall why I scheduled an early flight.
I didn’t need to check in for the race until Sunday morning.
After picking up my rental car,
I went straight to a Chinese restaurant, where I had lunch. After lunch, it was still too early to check
in at my hotel. There was a brewery near
my hotel that was open, so I stopped in to have a beer flight and watch a
soccer match.
After checking into my room, I
spent most of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel. I charged up my phone, did a workout in the
fitness room, and organized my clothes for the race.
I had dinner at Rocky Rococo,
which has pan-style pizza. It’s a
Wisconsin chain, and I never go to Wisconsin without stopping there. They’re best known for pizza by the slice,
but you can also order a whole pizza. My
hotel room had a kitchenette, so I got a pizza that was enough for two
meals. I ate half for my pre-race
dinner, and saved the other half for after the race.
When I scheduled this race, I
didn’t notice that race day was the same day that we set the clocks ahead. With that in mind, I went to bed an hour
earlier to compensate.
There was a clock on the night
stand, but I didn’t know if it would adjust automatically for Daylight Savings
Time. Some do. Some don’t.
My room had a microwave, so I set the clock on the microwave to reflect
the time change. I often get up during
the night. If I looked at the clock on
the microwave, I would know it was the correct time for Sunday morning.
I slept OK for most of the
night, but I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. After laying awake in bed for the next 45
minutes, I finally got up and started getting ready.
The marathon started at 8:00,
but we could check in any time after 7:00.
My hotel had a free breakfast, but it didn’t start until 7:00. I wanted to leave before then, so I had my leftover
Chinese food for breakfast.
When I got out to my car, the
windows were covered with frost.
Fortunately, there was a scraper in the car. After scraping the frost off the windows, I
started the car and saw that the inside of the windshield was all fogged
up. Before I could see to drive, I had
to warm up the car long enough to get the windows defogged.
The temperature inside the Pettit
National Ice Center was a constant 55 degrees.
Knowing that took all the guesswork out of how to dress. I could run in shorts and a T-shirt, knowing
I wouldn’t get too hot or too cold. I
also didn’t have to worry about rain or wind.
Per-race check-in was in a room
upstairs that overlooks the ice arena.
Thankfully, that room was warmer.
I waited there until it was almost time to line up for the race.
The field was limited to 130
runners. With that many runners going at
different speeds, I expected to constantly pass slower runners, while faster
runners were constantly passing me.
My past experience with indoor
races is that inevitably, you don’t take the shortest path. You may only run a few extra yards in each
lap, but it adds up. I fully expected to
run as much as an extra half mile by the time I was done. With that in mind, I couldn’t expect to be as
fast as I would be in a typical road race.
I often set qualifying for
Boston as a goal. The organizers of the
Boston Marathon have a rule that you can’t qualify for Boston at in indoor
race, even if the course is certified.
In Minnesota, we call that the “Randy Peterson” rule. Randy Peterson is the only runner to get
into Boston with a qualifying time from an indoor marathon. They accepted his qualifying time, but
immediately added a new rule saying you couldn’t qualify at an indoor race.
Since there was no point in
trying to qualify for Boston, I set my sights on breaking four hours. That was a realistic goal for an indoor race,
but it would still take my best effort.
The race is chip timed. We wore timing chips on our ankles, and our
laps were automatically recorded each time we crossed the timing mat at the
finish line. They had a display just
past the finish line that showed our lap counts, and the time of our most
recent lap.
The track is 443 meters per
lap. To complete a marathon, we needed
to run 95 full laps, plus an extra 110 meters.
We did the extra 110 meters at the beginning. Our starting line for that lap was about one
fourth of the way around the track from where we finished each lap. The first time we crossed the timing mat, it
was only a partial lap, but that still counted as a lap. Including that short lap, we needed to do a
total of 96 laps.
If you divide four hours by 96
laps, it works out to 2:30 per lap. The
first lap was short, so it would obviously take less time. If I could average 2:30 for all subsequent
laps, I would break four hours. That was
my plan.
I wore two watches. Because we were indoors, it didn’t make sense
to try to time the race using a GPS watch.
I timed myself using a plain Timex watch. I wore my Garmin watch on my other wrist, so
it could keep track of my step count.
I started kind of fast. My partial lap took less than 30
seconds. My next few laps were in the
2:20s. Before long, I had made up the
time from my partial lap. For the rest
of the race, I was keeping my average lap time under 2:30, but I was
effectively one lap ahead.
I was surprised how cold I
felt. My hands were cold, and I wished
that I was wearing gloves. My hands felt
better after a few laps, but I can’t say that I was ever completely comfortable.
There were a few runners here
who were much faster than everyone else.
There was a protocol for letting the faster runners run in lane
one. If a faster runner was approaching
a slower runner from behind, they would yell, “Track.” The runners ahead of them would then move out
of lane one to let the faster runner pass without having to go around them.
I was initially skeptical of
this system, but it actually worked well.
There were only a few runners who were concerned with always taking the
inside lane. Also, at least half of the
runners stayed in lanes two or three for the entire race.
I started out running in lane
one. The first time a faster runner
needed to pass me, it took me by surprise.
I was still in my second full lap, when I heard someone yell, “track”
twice in rapid succession. I quickly
moved over.
After that, I made a habit of
running in lane two on the straight sections.
I only ran in the inside lane on the turns.
Before entering a turn, I
always looked over my shoulder to see if a faster runner was approaching from
behind. If there was, I would wait until
they passed before moving into lane one for the turn. If nobody was approaching, I could move into
lane one right away.
There were three fast runners
who passed frequently. The fastest
runner was lapping me roughly every other lap.
He was finishing three laps in the same time it took me to run two
laps. Sometimes, he would catch up to me
in a turn, and I would need to move over to let him pass.
This was a cupless race. There were tables where we could leave water
bottles that were labeled with our bib numbers.
The volunteers organized them by bib number. When you wanted to take a drink, you yelled
out your bib number as you ran by. One
of the volunteers would find your bottle and hand it to you the next time you
ran by. You needed to carry the bottle
with you for one lap while you drank.
Then you handed it to one of the volunteers the next time you ran
by. If your bottle needed refilling, you
could just tell the volunteer if you wanted water or Gatorade. They took care of it.
I can’t say enough about how
good this system worked and how good the volunteers were. I never had to slow down or stop.
They also had a table for
runners who wanted to be self-service.
You could put your food, bottles, or other supplies there and handle it
yourself.
I got into a habit of drinking
Gatorade every sixth lap. After drinking,
I was always surprised how quickly it was time to drink again. That’s because taking a drink became a
three-lap process. For example, when I
saw that I finished my 18th lap, I knew it was time to ask for my bottle. The tables were near the end of each lap, so
by the time I came around to request my bottle, I was almost done with my 19th
lap. I would get my bottle the next time
I came by. Now I was almost done with my
20th lap. I would carry the bottle with
me for most of my 21st lap before handing it back to one of the
volunteers. Before I knew it, I was done
with 21 laps. In just three laps, I
would begin this process again.
I had so much to think about
that it kept me focused 100% of the time.
I was always paying attention to my effort and my lap times, keeping
them as close as I could to 2:30 per lap.
I was constantly paying attention to running the shortest path I could,
while getting out of the way of the faster runners. On top of that, I had to pay attention to my
lap count, so I would know when to request my bottle. If you think an indoor race is boring, guess
again. It’s intense.
Believe it or not, I actually
got confused about whether I should be grabbing a bottle from the
volunteers. More than once, I couldn’t
remember if I had just requested a bottle or if I had just returned my bottle.
They had a sound system, and
each runner could pick one song for the playlist. I chose “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers Band,
but I never heard it. They probably
didn’t get to it until after I finished.
Every now and then, I would
hear a light buzz from my Garmin watch.
It did that every time I reached a multiple of my step goal. That happened four times during the race.
For the first hour of the race,
I was so focused that I barely noticed the music. Then I started to pay more attention to
it. I heard something by Eminem, but the
sound quality was kind of muddy, so I couldn’t make out the lyrics. I only know it was Eminem, because he has
such a distinct style.
The first few songs I
recognized were “Whole Lotta Love” and “The Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin and
“You Need to Calm Down” by Taylor Swift.
Over the course of the race, I heard lots of familiar songs, but I also heard
several that I didn’t know.
Besides the display near the
finish line, there were two leader boards at different places around the
track. They each cycled through all the
runners in order of our current position in the standings. I was about a third of the way through the
race before I noticed where I was in the standings. I was in 18th place.
The PA announcer didn’t
generally say what song was next, but there was one exception. At one point, he asked if we were ready for
some thunder. I was expecting to hear
“Thunder” by Imagine Dragons. Instead,
the next song was “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC.
On one of my laps, I felt my
timing chip riding down on my ankle. I
stopped briefly to reposition it, and to tighten the strap. That lap was a little slow, but I picked up
my effort on the next lap to make up the time.
Before long, I wanted to make a
bathroom stop. There were two
port-o-potties right next to the track, but I didn’t want to stop again. I didn’t want to lose more time, and I didn’t
want to get out of my rhythm, so I held it for the entire race.
I wasn’t quite halfway through
the race when I noticed that I had moved into 17th place. At the same time, I also noticed that the
runner in 16th place was 60 years old. I
didn’t know if they had age group awards, but I wondered if I was competing for
one. That gave me the motivation I
needed to keeping pushing the pace as I entered the second half of the race.
Although my target pace was
2:30 per lap, most of my laps were a couple seconds fast. That adds up.
Eventually, I was finishing my laps a minute and a half ahead of
schedule. That’s on top of completely
making up the time from my partial lap.
I don’t know exactly what my
halfway split was, but my best guess is that I was on pace for a time around
3:55.
For the longest time, I was
focused on the leader boards. You could
only see about 20 runners at a time, and it was somewhat random which part of
the list I saw when I went by. I was
curious to know if any of the other runners ahead of me were in my age
group. It took several laps, but I
eventually determined that I was in second place among men over 60. The guy right ahead of me was in first
place. Overall, we were still 16th and
17th.
The leader board also showed
how many laps we had each completed. The
guy ahead of me always had the same lap count as me, but I didn’t know where he
was or what he looked like. He was on
the same lap, but his lead could be as much as a quarter mile.
By now, there were skaters on
the speed skating track. Occasionally
the PA announcer would tell us the name of an Olympic gold medalist who was
coming around the track. Then we were
told that someone else famous had entered the building.
The other famous person wasn’t
a skater, but she was an Olympian. It
was Rachael Gunn, a.k.a. “Raygun,” the break dancer from Australia. I’m not sure why she was here, but I decided
it was time to get my phone out and take a few pictures.
I wasn’t originally planning to
take pictures during the race. I wasn’t
even planning to have my phone with me.
I was planning to take a few photos before the race and then put my
phone in my car. I made a last-minute
decision to keep my phone in my fanny pack, because it was cold outside, and I
didn’t want to make a last-minute trip to my car.
A lot of people don’t like to
run multiple laps, because you always see the same scenery. That’s true, but this race had some unique
sights.
It’s not every day that you get
to watch speed skaters as you’re running.
At first, Raygun was doing some
break dancing for us, but I didn’t have my phone out yet. By the time I tried to take a photo, she wasn’t
doing the same moves. I couldn’t get a
good picture anyway. I had my camera app
in burst mode, but every photo was blurry – all 99 of them.
I was getting tired, but I was
determined to catch up to the runner ahead of me. Taking photos caused me to have a couple of
slower laps, so I tried to really pick up my pace after putting my phone away. Just as I was beginning to bear down, they
played “Under Pressure” by Queen & David Bowie. That was just the music I needed.
The next time I saw the leader
board, I saw that I had moved up to 14th place.
I had passed the guy in my age group who I was chasing. He was in 15th place now.
I continued to pick up my
effort. I was consistently running laps
in 2:26 or 2:27. I kept looking at the
leader boards to see if I was moving up, but my timing was always off. I always saw people who were farther back in
the standings. For the rest of the race,
I never saw the top 20 again.
They announced whenever someone
was getting close to finishing, starting when they had five laps to go. At one point, I heard them say that the
leader was starting his final lap. I was
just entering the first turn. I knew the
leader couldn’t be too far behind me, so I stayed in lane two all the way
around that turn. As it turns out, he
didn’t pass me until I was out of the turn.
Two of the other fast runners passed me just before the leader did.
The leader finished in
2:31:10. The next two runners were
several laps behind him, but after they finished, I wasn’t getting passed as
often. It got much easier to run in lane
one going through the turns.
In a race like this, you’re
never conscious of how many miles you’ve run.
It’s all about laps and time.
When I passed the three-hour mark, I was relieved to know that I had
less than an hour to go.
On one of my laps, I crossed
the timing mat at about the same time as the other guy in my age group who I
had been chasing earlier. When I looked
at the board, I saw both of our lap times.
His lap time was 2:59. Earlier,
we were both running our laps in 2:30 or faster. I still was, but he had slowed down
dramatically. That’s when I knew I had
won my age group. I also knew by now
that I would break four hours. Now, I
was focused on finishing strong.
With 16 laps to go, I felt like
I was getting close. That may sound like
a lot of laps, but they go quickly. I
felt like I was in the home stretch.
I was fighting to pick up the
pace, but my lap times weren’t getting any faster. Most were in the 2:26 to 2:28 range, but I
had a couple as slow as 2:31. I had to
work harder to run the same pace, but I was determined to try to speed up.
My most recent drink of
Gatorade was during my 80th lap. I
decided to wait until after my 88th lap before requesting my bottle for the
last time. It was the usual three-lap
process. By the time I started drinking,
I was beginning my 90th lap. When I
handed my bottle back to the volunteers, I was about to finish my 91st
lap. I had five laps to go.
After crossing the timing mat,
I heard the PA announcer say “David Holmen has five laps to go.” For the next four laps, I tried to pick up my
pace. I kept from slowing down, but I
wasn’t really speeding up, despite the extra effort.
As I started my last lap, I
heard, “David Holmen is on his final lap.”
I was already accelerating. In
front of me, I saw a group of runners who were temporarily taking up all three
lanes. For the first time in the race, I
shouted, “Track!” Then I sped by them in
lane one.
I ran that last lap as hard as
I could. By the time I was out of the
first turn, my breathing was so labored that I was wheezing loudly with each
breath. I didn’t have to yell, “track”
again. Everybody heard me coming.
When I passed the volunteers at
the water tables, they were all cheering loudly. That was by far my fastest lap. I ran it in 2:09.
I finished the race in
3:55:16. My best guess is that I ran
roughly even splits, despite stopping to take pictures in the second half of
the race.
I finished 12th overall. For what it’s worth, I was first among men
over 60, but they didn’t have any age group awards. That’s not unusual for a small race like
this. I fought for it just in case. The important thing is that it kept me
focused.
The same volunteer who gave me
my finisher medal also removed my timing chip.
I’m glad she was on top of that, because I could’ve forgotten to turn it
in. By now, I had forgotten that I was
wearing it.
After gathering up all my
stuff, I finally made a bathroom stop.
Then I went upstairs to have some snacks and talk to other runners.
Although I never heard them
play “Jessica,” I did hear them play “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons. That song started shortly after I got
upstairs.
I was expecting to be cold when
I walked out to my car, but I was surprisingly comfortable. It was a sunny day, and I felt more
comfortable in the sun than I did inside the building.
When I got back to my hotel, I
took a long hot shower. Then I had the
other half of my pizza from Rocky Rococo.
