ZYY Race Report

Two weeks ago today I finished the very awesome Zoom! Yah! Yah! Marathon. It's taken me a couple of weeks to report since I went immediately after the run on a trip to Cancun. But that will be the theme of an entirely different post in this blog.

Zoom! Yah! Yah! is an indoor marathon held on the suspended track of St Olaf College, just a little over an hour south of the Twin Cities. The race is limited to 45 participants and requires a lottery to be selected to participate.

The picture below shows the track that runners need to run 150 times for just a tad over the intended 26.2 miles (and that is if you get to run all on the inside track, an impossibility if you plan on passing anybody). The continuous turns are known to have brought some extra stress to the runners ankles, but knowing that in advance there are ways to take the turns to minimize the effect.

Also to minimize the potential for injuries, runners change direction every 30 minutes. When that tie comes, the organizers place a cone on the track and participants run around the cone.

To this point, to the readers of this blog (and anybody who hears about this race) this may appear like a very boring race. Au contraire mon ami, this turned out to be one of my favorite races. Here is why... Given the limited number of runners, the fact that every runner has their name on a tag on their back and that, thanks to the changes in directions every 30 minutes, it doesn't take you very long to know every runner. So you are constantly getting support or giving it to the runners.

It is also obvious that with this track, there are no hills and the weather is nearly perfect (a tad warm in my opinion, but definitely bearable). This is also advertised as the marathon with the most water stops (150), but it fact it has up to 600. Each corner of the track has a set of tables where runners are permitted to setup their very own refueling stations with anything they may need. I just used one of them. Used to carrying my own gatorade bottle, it was pretty awesome to be running for 4 hours and never be more than 90 seconds away from a bottle of water, a bottle of gatorade, GU, body glide, nipple guards, an orange and even chapstick. You missed in on the last lap? never mind, take in on the next one 90 seconds later.

150 is a high number, but they go really fast. More so given what I think is the best feature of this race: the lap counters. Each runner is assigned a lap counter. Somebody who not only keeps track of each and every one of your laps (and records all 150 splits), but will also provide support in the form of cheers (often very loud ones) and keeps you going when you need it most. These volunteers don't come from heaven (although it felt that way at times), but are students of the St Olaf College who are also enrolled in the Track and Field program.

Mine, pictured at the right was Kristen. Kristen, a 5:40 miler, was pretty awesome during the entire race. She dutifully kept track of every lap writing the time on the finisher certificate. She also reminded me to take GU and let me know every few laps if I was running ahead or behind of my planned time.

In the meantime, she also managed to take a few shots with my camera to be able to add pictures to this post. More so, Kristen, petite as she was, had the biggest lungs of all the lap counters. She shouted at the top of her lungs on every single one of my laps to get me going.

Prior to the race, in talking with another one of the runners who had completed this race before, he mentioned that you do better at this race than you do in others in part because of the lap counters. You don't want to slow down not to disappoint them.

Before the start, when we were discussing the details of the race, Kristen told me she would have to leave around 10:30 AM (4 hours after the start) to go to work. Her coach would take over her duties since I was expecting to finish about 20 minutes after that time. When I had 18 laps left, I was aching to take a little walk. Just a lap. Knowing that I was going to be a little faster than planned, I suspected that Kristen would stretch her time at the track to see me finish. What really kept me going without taking a walking step was not wanting to make Kristen too late for work.

The result was a finish time of 4:03:45 (Kristen was hardly late by a few minutes). Thanks, Kristen! You really made the race! I hope one day I get to return the favor.

The picture on the left was taken by Kristen as I finished the last few steps of my last lap. At this point, every lap counter (all 45 or however many remained after some runners finished), chant your name in unison as you run the final lap. The very awesome medal shows a runner with the head spinning due to the many, many laps run in circles. In addition to the medal, runners get a T-shirt with every finisher name and their time on the back. That should be coming in the mail soon.

To top it all, Kevin Helliker, a Pulitzer Price winner writer of the Wall Street Journal was at the race to write an article about indoor marathon running. Whoddathunk it that my one and only (and very unexpected) appearance in the Wall Street Journal would have been due to me running a marathon! The article includes some shots and a short video. You can see me very briefly in the video (Starting in second 6, you see me with a white sleeveless shirt and red shorts taking a corner, also at 1:50 you can see a close up on my legs in the red shorts running in front of the camera. I know, not much, but what did the Wall Street Journal say about you?)

Kudos go to Dick and Dennis for organizing a terrific race and for being on top of everything, including providing excellent response when one of the runners collapsed during the race and had to be airlifted to the Twin Cities (he is doing fine now).

Scott and Tim, if you are reading this, we GOTTA do this next year. You are going to love it.