While many of you were having a good time at the Bellingham Gathering, I was busy running a 12 person, 185 mile replay race from Blaine to Langley. Here's the report --
The Ragnar Relay - 2009
My race preparations started a week ago on Thurs when I found out that the CONFIRMED reservation I made for a rental van with Enterprise rentals was useless as they overbooked and had no vans. :x I spent 2 hours Thurs AM calling all over the state trying to find a van or large SUV and everything was fully booked at every rental agency. Fortunately, my in-laws were in town and drove out from Illinois in their van. It was a bit small, but it would do and they were willing to lend it to me. Crisis averted.
We had a team of 12 people - 7 from the Seattle area who were friends of mine (or friends of friends) and 5 from the DC area who I met on a web forum for the race. Van #1 contained the 5 from the DC area + one friend of mine and Van #2 was my van. Our team started at Blaine at 2PM with a projected exchange between Van 1 and Van 2 a little after 6PM. We were supposed to leave my house at 3:00PM for a 1.5 hour trip but actually left at 3:20 as one pair of my runners was a little delayed. Traffic on the way up was AWFUL and I spent about 1.5 hours worrying that we wouldn't make the exchange as we were averaging 30MPH in traffic jams for about 45 mins. Traffic finally cleared and we got to the exchange in plenty of time.
Sometime along the way, we got a text message from one of our race volunteers who was working an early exchange that read "Van one lost one of your runners for awhile but she was found - ran an extra 2 miles or so". So that added 20 mins to the initially projected times. That's OK - only the wussie teams run JUST 185 miles, the tough ones throw in a couple of bonus miles
.
The first two runners in my van consisted of two former Univ. of Wash. swimmers. The guy running leg 1 for our van has done a triathalon or two and is the friend of a guy who works in my lab at UW. I think neither of them really trained as much as they should (but then again neither did I due to injury). More importantly and unbeknown to me, neither really timed themselves prior to giving me their estimated pace (6:30/mile and 6:45/mile respectively). Our #1 goes out and ran a 4.2 mile leg at about a 7:30 pace and our #2 guy runs a 3.3 mile leg at about an 8:07 pace. I run my first leg (6.2 miles) at an 8:04 pace. I was projecting 8:00 pace but given my own inability to train hard for most of June and July thought I might be as slow as 8:30 so I was happy with the 8:04. More importantly, since the guy in my lab is 25 and a former PAC 10 swimmer, AND ran a slower pace than this 48 year old recently fat guy, I got to give him a hard time for the next several hours! Our 4 runner ran her first leg of 3.1 miles at a 7:50 pace which was faster than her projection. Our 5th runner (the professional triathlete) ran her leg of 6.8 miles at a blistering pace of around 6:30. She's awesome - ripped 6 pack abs, ripped deltoids - heck ripped everything. You can see some photos of her and read about her at her website. Our 6th runner ran her first leg (7miles) at about a 7:45 pace. So our first legs were over and it was around 11PM.
We drove to the next major exchange (exchange 18 ) and tried to get some sleep. A few in my van got in 1-2 hours of sleep but I got none with intermittent interruptions of race reports from Van 1 and overly optimistic reports of when they would arrive at the exchange. As a result, I had our team ready to run at least 1 hour earlier than needed and then it was hurry up and wait time. About 10 mins before our first runner was set to go (around 3AM), the forecasted perfectly clear skies let out with a downpour and there was a little lightning (not too close). So Hunter took off in the rain and we were all punch drunk laughing about it. He ran an 8.7 mile leg at a pace of around 7:11 and blew chunks a few times along the way. Perhaps that's why the sweatshirt he was wearing in the van said "Hurley" on it. Then, Kurt was up for his 7.8 mile leg. He finished at a pace that was a little over 8mins/mile after being egged on mid race by me running along side pointing at my gut and saying "You're ripped, you can't be beaten by a fat old guy". My 2nd leg was my easiest - fairly flat 2.7 miles. I pretty much stunk this one up running it at a pace of about 8:33/mile. Early on in this leg, a golf ball sized knot formed in my right calf - it took 3 days to work that out. The rest in our group ran quite well and we finished this set of legs around 6:30AM. Off to exchange 30.
This exchange was at a middle school in Coupeville and they had some hot food (eggs, pancakes, bacon) and juice for $5. Many of the major exchanges had food, showers and sometimes sleeping pads usually for a fee that was a fund raiser for the school. I was in serious need of some protein so I wolfed down some overcooked eggs and pancakes, checked on the progress of the other van and laid down for another attempt at sleep. This time I was a bit smarter as when I asked the other van for their projected arrival time, I didn't believe the first time they gave me and made them recalculate it. The correct time was about 1.5 hours later than their first estimate on the phone, so I would have about 2.5 hours of possible rest time. Pitched my sleeping pad on the ground, covered my eyes and laid there for 1.5 sleepless hours.
The last exchange from van #1- van #2 happened sometime between 10 and 11AM. By now it was clear and sunny and getting hotter but not too bad. It only got up into the mid 70's where we were at (Whidbey Island - which we ran onto via bridge in our previous legs). Hunter and Kurt ran well and it was my turn. My last leg was a killer. 6.8 miles with two hills of about 250' at 1/3 and 2/3 of the way in with a couple of small ups and downs in between. The knot was still firm in my calf even though I worked on it with a massage stick for about 40 mins. I pretty much dogged this leg. I misjudged the the pacing and finished at about a 9:30/mile pace. I would have been even slower but the last mile I probably ran at a sub 7min pace as it was mostly downhill and I was flying. I definitely didn't work hard enough earlier in the leg as I had way too much left in the tank at the finish. I also shouldn't have stopped a couple of times along the way to pace a few slower runners up some hills but I kinda' like doing that. Our last 3 runners did quite well with Courtenay finishing her last 3.7 mile leg at a 6:22/mile pace, and the other two women (Laura and Marlyn) running about 8min/mile and 8:30/mile legs.
We were dead tired at the end and didn't hang around the finish for very long. The DC half of the team was sweet and brought a small gift for everyone on our team - a shot glass with Washington DC on it. I wasn't that thoughtful and was not prepared to reciprocate (next time). We had a 2 hour trip home and hit my house around 5PM. Unloaded the van, showered, ate some pasta, drank one glass of wine and passed out for about 6 hours.
Overall, we came in 17th out of 160 or so teams and we were 8th in our mixed, open division. With a little more preparation, I think we could have taken 30-40 mins off our time (which was about 25.5 hours) just by not making some mistakes. I'll definitely do it again, but this time I'll have someone else to drive - someone who isn't running. I got no rest the entire race as I drove between all exchanges except the ones to which I was running. I was definitely under trained for this race as I erred on the side of not re-injuring myself but overall, I'm reasonably happy with how I did. I was only able to run about 60 miles between June and the first 3.5 weeks in July and managed to throw in just a little biking to help keep the cardio from deteriorating too far. I didn't re-injure anything which is a HUGE plus.
Running a race like Ragnar gave me an incredible feeling of accomplishment. Running 6.8 miles on no sleep for 30+ hours after running 6.2 and 2.7 miles earlier is HARD - but I did it! Now I feel like I can do anything. It's very energizing (after the initial exhaustion wore off).
So now it's time to start planning for next year's race and training for the remaining races this year. On Wed or Thurs last week I signed up for the Seattle Marathon (Nov. 2009 - my first full), and the Surf City Marathon (Feb 2010 - my 2nd full). I'm also signed up for a 6 person Octoberfest marathon relay for the first weekend in October.
The Ragnar Relay - 2009
My race preparations started a week ago on Thurs when I found out that the CONFIRMED reservation I made for a rental van with Enterprise rentals was useless as they overbooked and had no vans. :x I spent 2 hours Thurs AM calling all over the state trying to find a van or large SUV and everything was fully booked at every rental agency. Fortunately, my in-laws were in town and drove out from Illinois in their van. It was a bit small, but it would do and they were willing to lend it to me. Crisis averted.
We had a team of 12 people - 7 from the Seattle area who were friends of mine (or friends of friends) and 5 from the DC area who I met on a web forum for the race. Van #1 contained the 5 from the DC area + one friend of mine and Van #2 was my van. Our team started at Blaine at 2PM with a projected exchange between Van 1 and Van 2 a little after 6PM. We were supposed to leave my house at 3:00PM for a 1.5 hour trip but actually left at 3:20 as one pair of my runners was a little delayed. Traffic on the way up was AWFUL and I spent about 1.5 hours worrying that we wouldn't make the exchange as we were averaging 30MPH in traffic jams for about 45 mins. Traffic finally cleared and we got to the exchange in plenty of time.
Sometime along the way, we got a text message from one of our race volunteers who was working an early exchange that read "Van one lost one of your runners for awhile but she was found - ran an extra 2 miles or so". So that added 20 mins to the initially projected times. That's OK - only the wussie teams run JUST 185 miles, the tough ones throw in a couple of bonus miles
. The first two runners in my van consisted of two former Univ. of Wash. swimmers. The guy running leg 1 for our van has done a triathalon or two and is the friend of a guy who works in my lab at UW. I think neither of them really trained as much as they should (but then again neither did I due to injury). More importantly and unbeknown to me, neither really timed themselves prior to giving me their estimated pace (6:30/mile and 6:45/mile respectively). Our #1 goes out and ran a 4.2 mile leg at about a 7:30 pace and our #2 guy runs a 3.3 mile leg at about an 8:07 pace. I run my first leg (6.2 miles) at an 8:04 pace. I was projecting 8:00 pace but given my own inability to train hard for most of June and July thought I might be as slow as 8:30 so I was happy with the 8:04. More importantly, since the guy in my lab is 25 and a former PAC 10 swimmer, AND ran a slower pace than this 48 year old recently fat guy, I got to give him a hard time for the next several hours! Our 4 runner ran her first leg of 3.1 miles at a 7:50 pace which was faster than her projection. Our 5th runner (the professional triathlete) ran her leg of 6.8 miles at a blistering pace of around 6:30. She's awesome - ripped 6 pack abs, ripped deltoids - heck ripped everything. You can see some photos of her and read about her at her website. Our 6th runner ran her first leg (7miles) at about a 7:45 pace. So our first legs were over and it was around 11PM.
We drove to the next major exchange (exchange 18 ) and tried to get some sleep. A few in my van got in 1-2 hours of sleep but I got none with intermittent interruptions of race reports from Van 1 and overly optimistic reports of when they would arrive at the exchange. As a result, I had our team ready to run at least 1 hour earlier than needed and then it was hurry up and wait time. About 10 mins before our first runner was set to go (around 3AM), the forecasted perfectly clear skies let out with a downpour and there was a little lightning (not too close). So Hunter took off in the rain and we were all punch drunk laughing about it. He ran an 8.7 mile leg at a pace of around 7:11 and blew chunks a few times along the way. Perhaps that's why the sweatshirt he was wearing in the van said "Hurley" on it. Then, Kurt was up for his 7.8 mile leg. He finished at a pace that was a little over 8mins/mile after being egged on mid race by me running along side pointing at my gut and saying "You're ripped, you can't be beaten by a fat old guy". My 2nd leg was my easiest - fairly flat 2.7 miles. I pretty much stunk this one up running it at a pace of about 8:33/mile. Early on in this leg, a golf ball sized knot formed in my right calf - it took 3 days to work that out. The rest in our group ran quite well and we finished this set of legs around 6:30AM. Off to exchange 30.
This exchange was at a middle school in Coupeville and they had some hot food (eggs, pancakes, bacon) and juice for $5. Many of the major exchanges had food, showers and sometimes sleeping pads usually for a fee that was a fund raiser for the school. I was in serious need of some protein so I wolfed down some overcooked eggs and pancakes, checked on the progress of the other van and laid down for another attempt at sleep. This time I was a bit smarter as when I asked the other van for their projected arrival time, I didn't believe the first time they gave me and made them recalculate it. The correct time was about 1.5 hours later than their first estimate on the phone, so I would have about 2.5 hours of possible rest time. Pitched my sleeping pad on the ground, covered my eyes and laid there for 1.5 sleepless hours.
The last exchange from van #1- van #2 happened sometime between 10 and 11AM. By now it was clear and sunny and getting hotter but not too bad. It only got up into the mid 70's where we were at (Whidbey Island - which we ran onto via bridge in our previous legs). Hunter and Kurt ran well and it was my turn. My last leg was a killer. 6.8 miles with two hills of about 250' at 1/3 and 2/3 of the way in with a couple of small ups and downs in between. The knot was still firm in my calf even though I worked on it with a massage stick for about 40 mins. I pretty much dogged this leg. I misjudged the the pacing and finished at about a 9:30/mile pace. I would have been even slower but the last mile I probably ran at a sub 7min pace as it was mostly downhill and I was flying. I definitely didn't work hard enough earlier in the leg as I had way too much left in the tank at the finish. I also shouldn't have stopped a couple of times along the way to pace a few slower runners up some hills but I kinda' like doing that. Our last 3 runners did quite well with Courtenay finishing her last 3.7 mile leg at a 6:22/mile pace, and the other two women (Laura and Marlyn) running about 8min/mile and 8:30/mile legs.
We were dead tired at the end and didn't hang around the finish for very long. The DC half of the team was sweet and brought a small gift for everyone on our team - a shot glass with Washington DC on it. I wasn't that thoughtful and was not prepared to reciprocate (next time). We had a 2 hour trip home and hit my house around 5PM. Unloaded the van, showered, ate some pasta, drank one glass of wine and passed out for about 6 hours.
Overall, we came in 17th out of 160 or so teams and we were 8th in our mixed, open division. With a little more preparation, I think we could have taken 30-40 mins off our time (which was about 25.5 hours) just by not making some mistakes. I'll definitely do it again, but this time I'll have someone else to drive - someone who isn't running. I got no rest the entire race as I drove between all exchanges except the ones to which I was running. I was definitely under trained for this race as I erred on the side of not re-injuring myself but overall, I'm reasonably happy with how I did. I was only able to run about 60 miles between June and the first 3.5 weeks in July and managed to throw in just a little biking to help keep the cardio from deteriorating too far. I didn't re-injure anything which is a HUGE plus.
Running a race like Ragnar gave me an incredible feeling of accomplishment. Running 6.8 miles on no sleep for 30+ hours after running 6.2 and 2.7 miles earlier is HARD - but I did it! Now I feel like I can do anything. It's very energizing (after the initial exhaustion wore off).
So now it's time to start planning for next year's race and training for the remaining races this year. On Wed or Thurs last week I signed up for the Seattle Marathon (Nov. 2009 - my first full), and the Surf City Marathon (Feb 2010 - my 2nd full). I'm also signed up for a 6 person Octoberfest marathon relay for the first weekend in October.