Ragnar Relay Race, 203 miles: We did it!

My friend talked me into running in a relay race across the state of Florida. Running is really the only sport I play on a regular basis b/c for 1, it's free, and 2, I can take both kids with me. The relay race gave me good motivation to really do it b/c I have a lot of excuses not to run. This way, I have 11 other faster people counting on me. I need my health to be a priority.

Our results:
We took 37th out of 105 teams overall finishing in 31:06:47.
We took 16th out of 60 teams in the open-mixed division. Yay!!!!

So we had team meetings, team 10K runs, and I even ran that half marathon as preparation. Then dumb daylight savings time came and made it too dark to run in the evenings. I didn't let that excuse keep me from running, I went to my friend's apartment's gym's treadmill at 10pm some nights. I didn't run nearly as much as I should have, but enough to be able to hold my own in our big race.

So, last weekend, I got up when it was still dark, and met up with half of our team. Our team's start time was at 9am. The slow teams started at 7am, then every half hour, teams started until as late as about 3pm on that Friday. (Each team submitted their estimated time using a pace calculator.)

We decorated our car. Our team name was "We're Probably Cheating . . ." The reason for that name is that our team captain and her husband were going to get us their dad's company's energy drinks and energy goo stuff. (Mona Vie). The ironic thing, is that we didn't get any. I've had the energy drink before, and it's pretty good. Lots of fruits! My friend Sarah, is a real triathlete. I'm so glad she joined our team last minute as a stand in for Lindsey (who is the one who talked me into this, but had a good excuse). Here she is with her friend, an ultra runner. Their team only had 6 people! So they each ran 3 half marathons, basically!
Alisa's husband and 2 of her kids came to see her off b/c she was our first runner. She nursed her little tiny baby one last time.
We saw her off with the rest of the 9am start group then got in our car to go ahead of her about a mile so we could get out to cheer her on as she ran by.
There were exchanges set up along the side of the road where one runner would pass the slap bracelet (baton) to the next runner.
At one exchange, Fox news 13 interviewed some of us! Did anybody see us?

I was the 6th runner, so the last one for our van. Here I am with my little pace calculator watch thingy. I ran much faster than normal b/c I could check my pace and could push it! (Much easier w/o pushing a stroller too.)

I handed off the baton to the first runner in the 2nd van, then we went to eat Publix subs. I had stopped to pick a flower for my hair. It was a real quick reach down. I really wanted to pick up all of the litter along side of the road. Then we drove ahead to the next big exchange where we freshened up a little - camping style. We weren't tired yet, but the freshly cut fluffy long grass was tempting so we stretched our legs. And we roasted marsh mallows and made 'smores they had for us.

Then it was time to wait for our 2nd turns of running!Then the 12th runner relayed back to our first runner. We wore mandatory head lamps, reflective vests, and red flashy lights on our backs. We ran right next to oncoming semi trucks! We would drive up a mile, then wait for the runner to pass, then we would go up another mile to pull over again and again. When it was my turn, I only had a 3+ mile run, so the van just drove ahead to the exchange point. I started out with a huge smile on my face and I was loving the coolness of the evening. But then, I almost got lost, and although I was sprinting down hills initially, I got slower b/c I lost some of that confidence when a sign had an arrow that said to turn left when the map of my leg I had studied didn't have any turns. I didn't see any cars at that point, and I had passed some runners (that's called road kill) and didn't see any more red flashy back lights ahead of me. I'm so glad I had looked at the map. I later realized the arrow must have motioned me to go over to the side walk instead of on the narrow shoulder of the road. I still managed to be faster than expected b/c our next runner wasn't waiting at the transition for me. I finally saw him running over there. Everybody in our van had run twice, so it was time to try to sleep. I took a cold shower (A sprinkler head on a hose draped a changing room type curtain thingy) then we drove to the next main transition so we could try to sleep.

That was by far the worst part for me. I couldn't lay down, and some body part kept falling asleep while leaving the rest of me awake. We had the windows cracked and had a good breeze, but then the church lot's sprinklers came on! It got so stuffy in that car that I couldn't even try to sleep at that point. We hadn't had dinner, and had only had snacks, so by the time the next van caught up with us I felt nautious. I ate some food and felt better. I was fine by my last 6+ mile run, but I took it easy. It was so beautiful, running along the side of a lake and through a cute clean town. I passed 2 people, but then like 3 passed me. I didn't have any motivation to run fast, I was enjoying the run. I just wasn't in a hurry. The other team has mentioned how tired they were and told us to run slowly, so that didn't help.

Here's a photo of giving one of our runners some water as she ran by. Here's our last transition. (I was going to run behind the truck, but they signaled for me to run ahead instead.) We really did it, we ended up all the way across the state at Daytona Beach! We drove there after I ran, so we had lots of time to kill.

First, we got our free pizza. Then we waited in line for massages. Maybe that's why I wasn't that sore after (or b/c my fast run turned into just a jog that last stretch.) I got to know our runners in our "Van 1" and they even put up with me and my picture ideas:) I'd consider doing it again, but I'd rather do the one from Miami to Key West so we could make a vacation out of it. We all ran through the finish line together to get our medals. Our team shirts were Clearwater Beach shirts. That's where the race was scheduled to start initially. I'm proud of us!!! Nate, Lindsay, Brandon, Katie, Sarah, Tiffany, Jaynee, Jason, Christina, Alisa, Katie, and Lori.