This is my first time and it's a bit crazy.
Today the team will discuss the route plans. We have settled on a batting order though we still need to sort out a driver and what cars to put at which stations.
Today's questions:
- What to bring in the support vehicles? (Some water, a change of shoes if running, a cell phone with numbers for all team-members, a clear execution plan, a GPS navigator pre-programmed with all the transfer stations, cash for snacks. Be sure someone is driving and someone else is making sure you stick to the action plan - the driving part can take a enough concentration to leave the execution plan starved for attention.)
- Is it best to have one support vehicle or can you swap cars when you get to a new station? (One support vehicle that goes from start to finish. Our Kayaker brought her own car and the two people that were doing only one leg-each brought their own car too.
- Do all team-members need to be at the starting line or can they be staggered out on the course? (Team members can be staggered though you'll want to get a team photo at some point. Either the start or the finish are good places.)
- Do all team-members need to be at the finish line? (No, though it's a more fun if they are.)
Here's a map of the route. I'd like to put more details in but then that might give away some of the Runagades advantage!
OK, the race is done. It's now 8pm - 11 hours after the race started and I'm ready for bed. I spent a bunch of last night awake and fussy over the race details. The race went like this.
The team all met at the start at 8:45. This was about 10 minutes too late as we had to rush to get the team photo (I'll post it later).
Varoujan ran the 1st leg. Leo, Val, Gerry, and I met him at the 1st station. He ran faster than expected and arrived in 34 minutes.
Gerry rode the 2nd leg. Leo drove to the 3rd transition station. Bill and Val drove to the 2nd transition station. Varoujan drove home. (This was a busy time). Gerry finished faster than expected and arrived in about 45 minutes. We were now 17 minutes ahead of schedule.
Valarie paddled the 3rd leg. Gerry and Bill drove to the 2nd transition station. Valarie passed 24 people during her paddling adventure and finished 5 minutes ahead. We were doing great.
Leo rode the 4th leg. Gerry, Bill, and Val reloaded Val's boat and checked the schedule for the next move. Unfortunately, Bill mis-read the schedule and forgot to drop Gerry at transition station 4. Instead, Gerry and Bill had a long drive through the country, meandering from station to station and having a nice conversation while Leo was working his heart out getting through to station 4. At some point, Gerry started getting suspicious about our schedule. We rechecked the schedule and saw the error in our ways. A few phone calls to Val and from Leo (who was now waiting patiently at station 4) and we were back on track. A total time loss of about 7 minutes was incurred. Leo rode a fantastic pace and finished 5 minutes ahead of schedule. With the 7 minute loss and the current 22 + 5 minute lead, we had a net lead of 20 minutes. Overall, doing quite well - despite the excessive country touring.
Gerry ran the 5th leg. Leo rode to his car then drove home to clean up. Bill and Val drove to the 5th transition station. We lined the cars up for a quick departure and waited for Gerry. We have every intent of not losing any more of our lead. Gerry finished his leg about 6 minutes sooner than expected and gave us a nice buffer in our lead.
Val paddled the 6th leg. Gerry and Bill drove separately to station 6. Bill warmed up by talking on his cell phone and doing a short jog around the park. We ran into some folks from the previous stations and shot the breeze about who is ahead and why. Mostly suggesting that we were ahead of them and they the other way around. The reality was they were only slightly ahead and our escapades through the countryside defined the size of that margin. Sigh. Val paddled at her expected pace and we kept our lead over the schedule.
Bill ran the 7th leg. Gerry and Val drove separately to the finish. Leo called Bill mid-way through Bill's run and agreed to meet at the finish in few minutes. Since I am, in fact, Bill, I will embellish a bit here. I started out with the intent to shave some minutes off my expected time and had my mind made up to do just that. The 1st two miles were strong at a 7m/mile pace. Then came the hill. The mile(ish) long hill. The pace dropped to about 8:30m/mile. The good news about the hill is that is did, in fact, go down on the other side. Pace improved to about 6m/mile for a while and I made up some time. Then came the kid. OK, maybe he was a 20 something but he was definitely not pushing 40 and definitely faster than me. He may even have been wearing a jet-pack. As I was pushing 7m/mile average and he was gaining on me, he must have been doing less than 7m/mile. Good observation, no? Anywho, I put on the steam. I decided not to let him have this win too easily. I got the pace back down near 6m/mile and held it for about 400 yards. I felt I had a good chance of breaking his stride. Then came the hamstring issue. Slowly at 1st, then with a bit more presence and volume. I ignored it, as any good racer would, and kept the heat on. The kid slowed and dropped back. I took a deep breath. Later he tried to pass me again. I told him he should show more respect for his elders. He laughed and said "keep up the good work" as he passed me. He finished 9 seconds before me and that was not too bad.
The after-race party was fun. Leo brought some beers and we all ate the burgers and potato salad and chips. Yum.
Nice race, I think I'll do it again.
My training.
9-06-09 - Regular running schedule shifted from 5 runs and 3 and one run at 6 to 4 0r 5 runs at 5 and 1 or 2 runs at 6 or more. Targeting a pair of 40 mile weeks leading up to Bay State.
9-13-09 - Ran 18 miles today in preparation for the Bay State Marathon in Lowell, October 18th. Took it easy for the 1st 6. Sped up for the next 6. Somewhere in the middle for the last 6. Overall pace was 8:30 and when I hit 18 miles I was quite through thank you very much. Still a good run - too bad about the blisters. Total mileage this week: 35
