Montreal Indoor Marathon Madness

“The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can’t dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon.” – Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder.

Imagine a two lane, blue, rubberized indoor track, 154m and not quite an oval, about 11 laps to the mile; now imagine running around it 274 times. That is what about 60 runners did on January 28th and 29th in Montreal at L’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)’s track hidden within their Sport Center just between Rene Levesque and St. Catherine. The event was the Kronobar Montreal Indoor Marathon. Runners who signed up for the indoor madness got the choice of a full marathon of 274 laps or the half-marathgon with half the number of laps.

With wind blowing and sheets of ice gripping most Montreal, Q.C. sidewalks it seemed like a no-brainer to be running inside this past weekend. A slow 16-mile run on Saturday after arriving in Montreal and after ducking into Boutique Endurance (great running shop) on St. Denis and doing a quick tour of downtown and Old Montreal I was ready for some safer running. With my shoes, shorts and singlet I showed up Sunday morning and was ready to see what this indoor marathon was about.

The Mind behind the Marathon
Race director Steve Moisan is a man with three degrees, two kids and boundless energy; even a wet basement race morning did not slow him down or dampen his entheusiasm. I took a second to ask him at the end what it was all about.

“Sometimes there are days that re different than others. The kind of day that you will remember for your entire life. Today was that day. With all the runners, Quebec televison and Canadian Runnig – everybody together in the middle of something crazy, fun, friendly and emotional. Sharing this moment with everyone was what made it worthwhile and really a pleasure for me.”
Steve is also a member of Marathon Maniacs– the name says it all- worth checking out.

Some of the Runners
“I have been a runner for about maybe six years now…” “I chose to run the indoor marathon because it was a great opportunity to add a unique experience. The event was enjoyable from beginning to end with the participants, the support crew and volunteers providing encouragements along the way. – Olivier Gratton (who was an inspiration to everyone, keeping a solid steady pace for 7hrs and even stopping to help another runner)

Olivia Cheah- a young female runner from Montreal who decided to do her first ever half marathon by running 137 laps around the UQUAM track and was pretty happy at the end.

Ron Michaliuk, a lean bald 50-year old runner who I ran with the last few laps of his half marathon and who told me this is what he decided to do on his 50th birthday.

Luc Levesque- one of the runners I had a hard time lapping and who I found out lives mere minutes a way from me said, “It was a great experience, a nice mental challenge and it helped boost my motivation level throughout January. I think that all the runners who were there are a special breed, the kind of breed that are willing to try something new or go beyond themselves in a place that they never been beforeI now feel that I can take on any running challenge after that.”

The last runner I will mention was a ball of energy, a spitfire on the track, smiling, gritting teeth and never stopping. Sylvie Boisvert, a 49-year old elementary school educator from Quebe City who has been running for 35 years said she did it for fun and to help the race director and even took a camera to videotape part of the run. Sylvie ran the marathon on both days, has run marathons, duathlons and ultramarthons and has even been a Canadian champion and record holder in distances and races well beyond the 26-mile mark.

Conclusion

I ran relaxed and passed through the half-marathon in 1:30 and feeling my training shoes start to rub and the corners and laps taking their toll, spent a few more laps talking to a few runners, then hit the sidelines and cheered and high-fived.
The race was a crazy, unique race experience that was even chip timed thanks to QuidChrono who times a number of races in Quebec.  I’d encourage everyone to watch out for another one or two next year, Steve is looking to expand his crazy indoor marathon madness. Running is more about the people and the experience sometimes, rather than the time on the clock, though we all were paying attention to our watches.

Montreal Indoor Marathon results click here.
To see more photos from the event click here.

World Records for the Indoor marathon (from what I could find)
MEN 2:27:21
WOMEN 3:16:24

List of Indoor marathons and another resource on Facebook.

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See you on the roads or in the blogosphere.