Press Release - Icebreaker Indoor Marathon - 6/12/11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

       Icebreaker Indoor Marathon & Half Marathon Coming to Utah

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. 

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