InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon

MILWAUKEE—- January 10, 2012 - Runners from 21 states and the United Kingdom will be converging on the Pettit National Ice Center Jan. 20-22 for the 4th annual Icebreaker Indoor Marathon. The weekend festivities include a 5k race on Friday night, a half marathon and a marathon relay on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. All of the events this year are once again sold out with over 800 runners expected to take to the Pettit Center’s running track. This year’s field includes a select group of 40 runners who will be competing for the Slendertone Gold Medal Challenge (GMC). The Slendertone GMC is for runners who compete in the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. “This year will be our biggest yet event,” said race director Chris Ponteri, who founded the event in 2009. “We added spots to the 5k race, due to high demand, and those additional runners will put us ahead of 2011 in terms of total runners through the weekend.” The Revolution Natural Running 5k will start at 7 pm on Friday and will feature a field of more than 75 runners. The Performance Running Outfitters Half Marathon on Saturday morning will have two heats with 130 runners in each. The first will start at 7am and the second at 9:30am and Sunday’s full marathon will feature 130 runners with the starting gun firing at 8am. The men’s defending marathon champion, Albertus Rohling of West Allis, Wis. has pulled out of the race for medical reasons leaving Matt Jeromin of Roselle, Ill. and Stephen Tietz of Fond du Lac, Wis. as the top returning runners. Tietz, who was the winner of the GMC the past two years, was second in the marathon last year clocking in with a time of 2:52:35. Jeromin was third in the marathon last year with a finish of 2:55:18. First-time Icebreaker Mac McCulley of Volo, Ill. is a strong contender for the GMC title and is also a favorite to win both the half marathon and marathon. On the female side, defending marathon champion Mary Flaws of Waukesha, Wis. is back to defend her title and will also be looking to keep her GMC title for a third consecutive year. Flaws’ winning marathon time last year was 3:15:56, which was her fastest marathon time of 2011. In the half marathon, three of last year’s top five finishers will be back again: Marek Kotrly of Brookfield, Wis. (second in 2011), Tietz (third) and Roman Pyasta of Wauwatosa, Wis. (fifth). For the women, last year’s third-place finisher Heather Haviland of Waukesha, Wis. returns. One of Haviland’s training partners Monica Schoeneck of Muskego, Wis. is also expected to be among the top finishers. The track at the Pettit National Ice Center is 443 meters. Runners will need to complete 95.4 laps for the marathon and 47.7 for the half marathon. The 5k is about 11 laps. Perhaps the most unique event of the weekend is the marathon relay. Teams of 2-4 runners must combine to finish 95.4 laps. Runners can be exchanged at any time; this “tag-team format” makes for a fun and exciting atmosphere. This year over 105 teams will be participating, ranging from professional runners to self-described couch-potatoes. Prizes are given to the top finishing teams in three divisions: men’s, women’s and mixed. The marathon relay has quickly become a favorite event of many runners making for a fun, lively and contagious atmosphere on the Pettit’s track. For more information on the Icebreaker Indoor Marathon or any of this weekend’s events, please contact Race Director Chris Ponteri by phone at 262.758.9226 or by email at [email protected].

The country’s largest indoor marathon is coming to the Utah Olympic Oval in 2012. The Icebreaker Indoor Marathon & Half Marathon will take place on Feb. 9-11 on the running track around the ice oval in Kearns. The Utah event will be similar to the original Icebreaker, which has been held the past three years at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wis. It will feature a marathon, half marathon, marathon relay and 5k race. “We have had such great success with our race in Milwaukee that we have decided to expand the concept to Utah,” said Chris Ponteri, the founder of the Icebreaker and owner of Longrun Athletics. “This is a one-of-a-kind event for distance runners and gives them a great chance to run a long race in the middle of winter without having to travel to a warmer climate.” Ponteri said all of the events in Milwaukee have sold out each year and that the demand is growing for these types of events. The Icebreaker was one of the indoor marathons that were featured in a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. This past January, over 800 runners competed in the four races at the Pettit Center’s indoor track, which also goes around an Olympic-sized skating oval like Utah’s. Ponteri said he expects to have a similar number of runners at the Utah event. The capacity for the marathon will be 130 runners, while the capacity for the half marathon will be 260 and will be done in two heats. The marathon relay will hold 100 teams of 2-4 runners and the 5k race will have a field size limit of 75 runners. The races will all be chip-timed and there will be screens set up to show runners how many laps they have completed. Runners will have to finish approximately 95 laps for the full marathon and marathon relay and 47.5 for the half marathon. The marathon relay will feature a “tag-team” format in which teams can switch runners as often as possible, which makes it an event for anyone who can finish a lap. The tentative schedule for the Utah event is as follows: Thursday, Feb. 9 – 5k race; Friday, Feb. 10 – half marathon (two heats); Saturday, Feb. 11 – marathon (a.m.) and marathon relay (p.m.). Registration will open around August 1 and the link can be found on the event website at www.indoormarathon.com.