The Pettit Indoor Marathon weekend has become a staple in the Milwaukee racing scene. With a Half Relay on Friday, two heats of a Half Marathon and the Full Marathon Relay on Saturday, followed by the Full Marathon on Sunday.

Runners can pick up their bib and shirt on any day before, or the day of their race. Most runners grab their bib before the race starts. Packet-pickup is in the Hall of Fame room, which is upstairs overlooking the track. It's a nice area to wait before and after the race with food and bathrooms. Although admittedly it gets a little crammed once all the runners are there.

The Pettit is an official Olympic Training Center, so parking is super easy. The arena is right off of I-94, which makes it extremely accessible as well.

With packet-pickup, runners receive their bib, shirt, and timing chip. The timing chip is an ankle chip that you'll strap onto your ankle. This is what times you, and not your bib. It feels kind of weird at first, but honestly I never noticed it during the race.

I LOVED the shirt this year. Half Marathoners got a light blue long sleeve with the race logo on the front. Very low key, and very clean. Full Marathoners got a black long sleeve with the same design. I've only done an event at the Pettit twice, but this was a better shirt than last time I thought.

To get 13.1, the start line is on the far end of the track, which means you'll start and finish at a different point. So while the race is 47.5 laps, your countdown will be from 48.

The track is only three lanes, which can make the start a little congested, but it's not really that bad. The slowest runners are supposed to run on the outside lane, most runners on the second, and the first for passing and for the leaders. It sounds slightly confusing, but as long as you don't cut anyone off, it's fine.

Aid stations are basically whatever you want. There are two tables, one where volunteers will refill and give you your bottle (you mark it with your number) and another self serve one. Some runners, like myself, just had a water bottle, but others had nutrition on their self serve table as well. I liked this, but not as much as I thought I would, just because I had to think about when I wanted to grab water, instead of that being dictated by set Aid Stations.

Lap counting can be done in a few ways. There is a screen you can see when you cross the finish line that will show how many laps you've completed and your lap time. Then there is a big screen which will show how many laps you have to go. You can ask volunteers as well. I just lapped my watch every time.

After you finish, you can pull off the track pretty quick. Volunteers will give you your medal (which I really liked!), a water bottle, and take your ankle chip from you.

All in all, the Pettit is an awesome event, and definitely a unique one! I'm glad I did it, but I don't know if I need to run 47.5 laps again any time soon. Of course, I said that after I did the 5k in 2017, so I'll probably be back.

10/10 recommend trying this one out.