Last Saturday, I was able to run on an indoor marathon relay team. That's right-an INDOOR marathon relay.
The event was part of the Instep Icebreaker Marathon in Milwaukee. On Saturday, they held a half-marathon and the relay and then on Sunday the marathon took place. All of these events happened on the two-lane indoor, 440+ meter track at the Petit Center.
With almost 70 teams competing in the relay, the track got a little congested at times and I know my teammates and I probably had more contact with our fellow runners then either of us would have liked but it was still a really fun time.
It was definitely a unique event. Each team consisted of four runners. Each runner could run as many laps as they wanted and there was no set order. You could handoff to a teammate whenever you wanted.
However, with no set legs, strategy was a huge part of the race. Luckily my teammates are as smart as they are fast. And we decided upon running two 5k-plus legs each. The strategy worked out well and gave us some flexibility at the end of the race when things got close.
Bryan Schneider basically put us in the lead from the get go with a really strong opening 5K leg. From there we were able to hold onto first place for the whole race. Joe Marks and I kept our team in contention and then our anchor, Paul Riley, (a 2:32 marathoner) turned out like 5:10 miles to put it away for us. We finished in 2:20.20. Defeintely the fastest marathon I have ever been a part of!
The second place team was made up of very strong runners although their strategy of handing off every three laps probably cost them in the end. Each runner had to wear a chip so the scorer knew how many laps each team had to run. While the chip made timing easy, the handing off of the chip made transitions pretty tough. Try ripping off a small Velcro strap with a timing chip on it after running all out!
Like I said, the marathon relay was a great event and we would like to thank Chris Ponteri, the race director for making it a great experience. And, of course, thanks to David for signing us up! Congrats to all the finishers!