Zoom! Ya! Ya!

Completing an indoor marathon was not on my bucket list. But if it were, I can now say that it is crossed off! On Sunday, I participated in one of the coolest and neatest running events I’ve ever done, the Zoom! Ya! Ya! Indoor Marathon in Northfield, Minnesota. Indoor marathon. Really? Assuming you haven’t nodded off yet, perhaps you have a few questions about a. why I would do something like this and b. why I would travel all the way to Minnesota to run 150 laps of a 282-meter indoor track and c. what’s with that NAME anyway?

The race was held at St. Olaf College, a beautiful D3 school about 35 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Our former assistant coach and great friend to our program, Erica Maker, is now the head women’s XC/assistant women’s track coach at St. Olaf, her alma mater. Soon after getting the job at her old school, she texted me about this race, figuring it would be right up my alley given my curious penchant for loop races (alert blog followers may remember that each summer I participate in an 8-hour ultramarathon on a 0.35-mile dirt track in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, pretty much the only “race” I do each year). All of us in our program certainly miss Erica, and it was great to see her husband Mike and wonderful son Jack – the Makers are great and dear friends to us. Erica is doing good things out there with the Oles and we are happy for her as she continues her coaching career.

As for the race name? Well, this will take some explaining. Apparently, the traditional cheer for all St. Olaf athletic teams is “Um Ya Ya” (sounds like OOM Ya Ya ... don’t ask me why or what that means). Race director Dick Daymont, an awesome guy who is the husband the now-retired St. Olaf women's XC/track coach Chris Daymont, explained that his co-race founder wanted to complete a race that started with the letter Z – so they came up with “Zoom! Ya! Ya!” Works for me!

Dick puts on a great event. He’s so enthusiastic about it; it’s his “baby” – an event he created and puts lots of energy into for the months leading up to the race and certainly on the weekend of the event. Members of Erica’s team act as lap counters – each runner gets their own official lap counter, and my finisher’s certificate (see above) includes each lap split. For a numbers geek like me, this of course is pure heaven. My individual lap counter, a senior named Katie, was so enthusiastic and awesome throughout the long morning. She cheered for me every single lap and provided me updates on which lap I was on whenever I asked.

I worked out a jog/walk formula that I tweaked throughout the morning. Because my “training” consists of only three runs a week in the 6-mile range and easy walking the rest of the time, I need to take great caution with an event like this, conserving my energy early on to avoid the very real possibility of bonking later. While my time was uncompetitive and relatively slow, I was proud to run “negative splits” – second half faster than my first half – and get through a marathon relatively unscathed on essentially no marathon specific training.

But mostly, it was great to do another loop race, support Erica’s team and see the Makers. And during my short stay in Minnesota, it was remarkably NOT cold! Again, assuming you haven’t nodded off or completely lost interest, below are my every 10-lap splits (I figured it would be brutally boring to post every lap split, but you can see them above if interested?!).

10 laps = 17:32 (17:32)

20 laps = 36:42 (19:10)

30 laps = 55:32 (18:50)

40 laps = 1:14:41 (19:09)

50 laps = 1:35:38 (18:57)

60 laps = 1:54:11 (18:33)

70 laps = 2:14:49 (20:38)

75 laps = 2:24:13 (half marathon)

80 laps = 2:33:47 (18:58)

90 laps = 2:51:54 (18:07)

100 laps = 3:09:59 (18:05)

110 laps = 3:27:14 (17:15)

120 laps = 3:45:22 (18:08)

130 laps = 4:02:46 (17:24)

140 laps = 4:19:50 (17:04)

150 laps = 4:36:05 (16:15)

First 13.1 miles = 2:24:13

Second 13.1 miles = 2:11:52