On Thursday night we headed to Ella's house since it would be closer to the starting line then if we were to drive from school. We got to Ella's house and carbo-loaded. I also got to meet the other people on our team. I knew a few of them but there were a lot of new faces. They were all Ella's friends from riding. We went over the basic information about the race and then went to bed. I was planning on taking on a total of 19.7 miles spread over 3 runs (or legs). My legs were the following: 6.3 miles, 4 miles and 9.4 miles. I was a little nervous for the 9.4 mile leg since I hadn't run more then 7 miles since the Mores Women's Half. Still I decided to take it slow and easy. We headed to bed, I was in the first van which meant waking up at 4am to get to the starting line at 6:30am. At 4:15am we woke up to Witty the dog with a shoe hanging out of his mouth. I hadn't gotten the best sleep on the floor and in someone else's house, but the adrenaline kicked in. When we woke up we learned that one of the people in our van was really sick and had been throwing up all night. We decided not to panic and just go to the start and see how she felt then. Not good. Half way to the start line we informed Ella what had happened. Who was going to take her legs? Was the whole race over? It was then that I decided stand up and take one for the team. I offered to take her first leg, which came immediately after mine. That leg was 6.2 miles, bringing my total first leg to 12.5 miles and 26 miles all together… Eeek! And I thought the 9.4 miles was daunting. I knew that it was right. I was the only one in our van who had run a half marathon before, or run more then 8 miles. I figured that if I took her first leg it would give us a little more time to figure out what to do with her other 2 legs.
We got to the starting line and cheered our first runner on as she started the relay. I decided to pick up some leg compression sleeves since I lost my other ones and knew that with the extra miles my legs would thank me. Our first runner did a great job, and then our second runner went off. At this point I was getting a little nervous, 12.5 miles, yikes. What did I sign myself up for. I knew I would be doing Jeff Galloway's run/walk program, but still 26 miles in less than 30 hours, thats a lot of miles.
I got myself ready and off I went. The first few miles took some time getting used to. Also every time another runner saw me running/walking they would ask if I was alright. I know they were being nice and checking in on me, but I found myself being grumpy and annoyed. I run/walk. I run for 2 minutes and walk for 30 seconds. Its the way I do it. It has gotten me pretty far in running and left me with no injuries. I have run without walk breaks many times in the past and go slower and get more injuries. This way works for me, but when people call me not a true runner, I am hurt. I guess these people asking "are you alright" just brought up those feelings of not being a true runner, which really hurt. Anyways, I am getting off track. After the first 3 miles, I got the hang of things. This wasn't going to be bad at all. In fact I had negative splits.
At the exchange (where I would have stopped if I hadn't taken on an extra leg) I waited to see my team just to check in. While waiting there, a volunteer asked me who I was waiting for. I explained I was actually going to run the next leg as well but just wanted to check in with them. In her microphone she told everyone that I was doing a double leg and they all cheered for me. It was pretty cool! I finally checked in with my team and got some water. Then off I went. In this next leg every time someone asked me if I was ok, I explained that this is how I run and this was my second leg and how far I was actually running. Their response was much different. The second leg wasn't too bad until we hit a massive down hill and then constant constant constant up hills. WTF! I would have taken on a hillier leg.. my luck. I allowed myself to walk more then I usually do, since I knew I would have 4 more miles later that night and 9.4 miles early the next morning. But those hills were NASTY! At one downhill I was tweeting and running (not smart) about how brutal this leg was. A van came past me honking their horn, I was startled and rolled my ankle. I then tweeted about the rolled ankle :)
Finally I made it to the exchange and off the next runner went. Man I was beat. I iced my legs and ankles and hydrated. The weather was very deceptive. It was very breezy, but the humidity was nasty. Standing around waiting it seemed cold, but once you started running it was HOT! Luckily after the next runner finished our van had time for a break while our other van went off and ran their legs. We went to the big exchange and looked around, but there wasn't too much to see. We decided to go find lunch. We found one of the sketchiest restaurants ever, we just couldn't help but laugh the whole time. Bonding? We then went to the next exchange and slept/rested. I think I got in a good 20 minute nap. It was fun to see all the other vans all decorated up. The team spirit and excitement is pretty incredible at these race. It was also getting dark at this point which meant walking around in reflective vests and head lamps.. talk about looking hard core. GOOD NEWS was that the runner I had cover for was feeling much better and was going to cover the rest of her legs. At this next exchange we greeted our other vans runner and off one of our runners went. We made sure to grab a group photo before we went to the next exchange and they went off to their dinner reservations… pfff.
It started to get dark, and by the time I was off to run my 4 miles it was pitch black. These 4 miles felt like they took forever. I felt like I was running extremely fast, but looking down at my Garmin I was going really slow. Nevertheless I had my music on (a very weird mixture) and enjoyed this leg since it was my shortest. I finally finished and headed to the van. We had two more runners, it was getting late at this point. When our runners finished up we headed to the camp site. Others decided to sleep in tents, I slept in the car. I was so exhausted that I fell right to sleep at midnight. At 3:30am I heard "shit they are ahead of schedule, time to get up". Oh no! We all hustled to get up. Despite being the third one to run, my other runners had shorter legs this AM, meaning my 9.4 miles was coming up fast. Off our runner went, then exchange, then off I went at 5:45am.
4 miles: 50 min (12:30 min/mile)
Since it was still "night" hours (6:30pm-6am) I had to run in my reflective gear. I told my van to try to meet up with me along the course since I had no idea how my body would be doing. The first 2 miles were rough, my legs were in shock. However, everything started to loosen up and it wasn't too bad. I got into a good pace. I saw my teammates and told them I was actually doing great. I saw them 2 miles later and gave them my reflective vest and headlamp. I was still doing great. Then I got a text message from them saying they wouldn't meet up with me anymore because I was about to head onto the bike trail. I thought I would be ok since I had been doing fine. However at mile 7 mile, my body shut down. My legs were cramping, something I had never experienced before.. Ouch! I just took it slowly. Despite the last 2.4 miles being brutal they weren't as bad as the day before (during 12.5 miles). On this run there was no one mile left sign, so I texted my van when I thought I was a half mile away. Whoops, I was only .25 miles away. When I got to the exchange they weren't there. I was upset. I was looking forward to having them cheer me on during my final leg. Finally saw them and off the next runner went. When I noticed that my total for the 2 days was only 25.9 I ran around the parking lot to get it to 26 miles. Best feeling ever was BEING DONE! I couldn't believe it.
Once our van finished we headed to my house on the Cape to take showers, then went out to brunch and came back and took naps. Man I was exhausted. Finally around 2pm we headed to PTOWN for the finish. We waited for Ella (who was running the final leg) and ran her in. We got our medals and decided to look around the finish and grab some food. The views were pretty awesome, but I was ready to go back home and sleep. We took a photo and then drove back home.
Overall the energy and spirit was awesome. Despite being sleep deprived and extremely soar it was AN AMAZING experience, one I would really consider doing again.
 |
| Witty the dog! |
We got to the starting line and cheered our first runner on as she started the relay. I decided to pick up some leg compression sleeves since I lost my other ones and knew that with the extra miles my legs would thank me. Our first runner did a great job, and then our second runner went off. At this point I was getting a little nervous, 12.5 miles, yikes. What did I sign myself up for. I knew I would be doing Jeff Galloway's run/walk program, but still 26 miles in less than 30 hours, thats a lot of miles.
I got myself ready and off I went. The first few miles took some time getting used to. Also every time another runner saw me running/walking they would ask if I was alright. I know they were being nice and checking in on me, but I found myself being grumpy and annoyed. I run/walk. I run for 2 minutes and walk for 30 seconds. Its the way I do it. It has gotten me pretty far in running and left me with no injuries. I have run without walk breaks many times in the past and go slower and get more injuries. This way works for me, but when people call me not a true runner, I am hurt. I guess these people asking "are you alright" just brought up those feelings of not being a true runner, which really hurt. Anyways, I am getting off track. After the first 3 miles, I got the hang of things. This wasn't going to be bad at all. In fact I had negative splits.
At the exchange (where I would have stopped if I hadn't taken on an extra leg) I waited to see my team just to check in. While waiting there, a volunteer asked me who I was waiting for. I explained I was actually going to run the next leg as well but just wanted to check in with them. In her microphone she told everyone that I was doing a double leg and they all cheered for me. It was pretty cool! I finally checked in with my team and got some water. Then off I went. In this next leg every time someone asked me if I was ok, I explained that this is how I run and this was my second leg and how far I was actually running. Their response was much different. The second leg wasn't too bad until we hit a massive down hill and then constant constant constant up hills. WTF! I would have taken on a hillier leg.. my luck. I allowed myself to walk more then I usually do, since I knew I would have 4 more miles later that night and 9.4 miles early the next morning. But those hills were NASTY! At one downhill I was tweeting and running (not smart) about how brutal this leg was. A van came past me honking their horn, I was startled and rolled my ankle. I then tweeted about the rolled ankle :)
6.3 miles- 1:15:00 (11:54 min/mile)
6.2 miles- 1:16:43 (12:22 min/mile)
Finally I made it to the exchange and off the next runner went. Man I was beat. I iced my legs and ankles and hydrated. The weather was very deceptive. It was very breezy, but the humidity was nasty. Standing around waiting it seemed cold, but once you started running it was HOT! Luckily after the next runner finished our van had time for a break while our other van went off and ran their legs. We went to the big exchange and looked around, but there wasn't too much to see. We decided to go find lunch. We found one of the sketchiest restaurants ever, we just couldn't help but laugh the whole time. Bonding? We then went to the next exchange and slept/rested. I think I got in a good 20 minute nap. It was fun to see all the other vans all decorated up. The team spirit and excitement is pretty incredible at these race. It was also getting dark at this point which meant walking around in reflective vests and head lamps.. talk about looking hard core. GOOD NEWS was that the runner I had cover for was feeling much better and was going to cover the rest of her legs. At this next exchange we greeted our other vans runner and off one of our runners went. We made sure to grab a group photo before we went to the next exchange and they went off to their dinner reservations… pfff.
It started to get dark, and by the time I was off to run my 4 miles it was pitch black. These 4 miles felt like they took forever. I felt like I was running extremely fast, but looking down at my Garmin I was going really slow. Nevertheless I had my music on (a very weird mixture) and enjoyed this leg since it was my shortest. I finally finished and headed to the van. We had two more runners, it was getting late at this point. When our runners finished up we headed to the camp site. Others decided to sleep in tents, I slept in the car. I was so exhausted that I fell right to sleep at midnight. At 3:30am I heard "shit they are ahead of schedule, time to get up". Oh no! We all hustled to get up. Despite being the third one to run, my other runners had shorter legs this AM, meaning my 9.4 miles was coming up fast. Off our runner went, then exchange, then off I went at 5:45am.
Since it was still "night" hours (6:30pm-6am) I had to run in my reflective gear. I told my van to try to meet up with me along the course since I had no idea how my body would be doing. The first 2 miles were rough, my legs were in shock. However, everything started to loosen up and it wasn't too bad. I got into a good pace. I saw my teammates and told them I was actually doing great. I saw them 2 miles later and gave them my reflective vest and headlamp. I was still doing great. Then I got a text message from them saying they wouldn't meet up with me anymore because I was about to head onto the bike trail. I thought I would be ok since I had been doing fine. However at mile 7 mile, my body shut down. My legs were cramping, something I had never experienced before.. Ouch! I just took it slowly. Despite the last 2.4 miles being brutal they weren't as bad as the day before (during 12.5 miles). On this run there was no one mile left sign, so I texted my van when I thought I was a half mile away. Whoops, I was only .25 miles away. When I got to the exchange they weren't there. I was upset. I was looking forward to having them cheer me on during my final leg. Finally saw them and off the next runner went. When I noticed that my total for the 2 days was only 25.9 I ran around the parking lot to get it to 26 miles. Best feeling ever was BEING DONE! I couldn't believe it.
9.5 miles- 1:55:00 (12:07 min/mile)
Once our van finished we headed to my house on the Cape to take showers, then went out to brunch and came back and took naps. Man I was exhausted. Finally around 2pm we headed to PTOWN for the finish. We waited for Ella (who was running the final leg) and ran her in. We got our medals and decided to look around the finish and grab some food. The views were pretty awesome, but I was ready to go back home and sleep. We took a photo and then drove back home.
Running Ella into the finish!
Overall the energy and spirit was awesome. Despite being sleep deprived and extremely soar it was AN AMAZING experience, one I would really consider doing again.
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| Ella even gave me the slap wrist ban that had traveled 192 miles, for completing the most miles . |
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