Top 11 Things to Love About Indoors

Let's face it, there are not a lot of things to like about the indoor track season. I'd bet a decent amount of money that if asked any runner his/her favorite season of running they would say outdoors or XC. Never indoors. Heck summer training is more appealing to some people than indoor track.

But indoor is not all bad, in some respects, it's probably underrated. So here are my own personal (biased) top 11 reasons to love indoor track.

11. It's the start of track!
Look whether you like XC or not, after a long summer and fall of doing long tempos and big miles, isn't it nice to get out there and run fast? Certain guys are XC guys, others are track guys and those track guys are pumped to get on the track and get the speed going, but the XC guys got something new and exciting to prove out there as well. Anytime you start a new season, there are new butterflies and new goals to hit and I think that's the most exciting part of running.

10. Off Events
Think of all the events you run indoors that you almost never run outdoors: 60m, 300m, 500m, 600m, 1000m, 1200m, and 3000m ... just to name a few. I can chase a bunch of new PRs, new events and soft school records. Where would Cas Loxsom be without the 600m? That thing is perfect for his skill set, same really with the 1k for guys like Robby, Nick Symmonds and Ben Malone. And let's face it outdoors who doesn't wish there was a 3k to balance out the 15 and the 5k? Gotta love it.

9. TFCAofGP Huge Medals
A little PA HS knowledge coming here. If you have never run a TFCAofGP meet, I feel sorry for you because you are missing out on getting a huge medal for running 2:05 in a down week at Glenn Mills. Take it from a man who did just that. Those things are frickin enormous!

8. Centennial Conference Indoor Championships
So for those of you not in the Centennial Conference of NCAA athletics, this won't apply. But running at the end of the indoor conference meet is the most unbelievable experience I've had in recent memory. Everybody is cheering and lining the track to the point where the noise practically pushes you around the track by itself. Much better than outdoors, an all-day meet with everyone confined inside makes all the difference for me.

7. Different Tracks
During XC you can never compare course to course with 100% accuracy. It's guess work, guess work that I happen to love, but guess work none the less. The thing that people always told me was that in track every track is essentially the same so you can compare marks from all over the world with near perfect accuracy. But indoor track ain't work like that. And we know that because we have different standards for undersized, oversized, banked, flat, etc. Heck I've seen tracks that are like 234.7m per lap. I run on a 160m track on the reg. It adds a complicating factor to the races and I find that kinda cool.

6. No Class System, all PA
In PA HS, at the state meet there is no PIAA stuff that keeps AA, A, AAA Independent League and all that jazz seperated. There is no debate. A state champ is literally a STATE champ. I think that is extremely awesome. Now you can say what you want about small schools not getting a chance to be involved, especially for relays, but I have always been a fan of crowning state champions and having it mean something. That's what we, thankfully, get indoors.

5. You get real close to your teammates
There is not a lot of space indoors. You end up snuggling up to some people you may not really be that close with. It can be good, it can be bad. Just make sure you don't smell too bad if you are sitting next to anyone important ...

4. No Wind
Sometimes running in the wind and running outside really blows. Haha get it? blows? Any who there isn't wind indoors as you may have guessed.

3. Millrose Games
This is the coolest meet of all of indoors. They bring in top competitors from the world, chase American records and sometimes world records as well. They invite high schoolers for one of the coolest miles of the year. I'm hoping to go this year, certainly an event on my bucket list.

2. Penn State's Indoor Track
I think it's the fastest track in the world that is 200m long. Plus it's where the PA state championships are held. I think it's my favorite track I've ever run on, kinda a shame I won't get to run it again.

1. DMR
Perhaps the greatest event in track and field. Underutilized and maybe under appreciated. It is a great combination of different events, the only time you see the 1200m run, which I find really cool and it's a distance runner's paradise. The only time you see it run competitively is indoors and the Penn Relays. Although the world relay championships are coming outdoors .... I don't think the DMR is on the agenda.