I'm wearing my standard red racing shirt.
I ran the Great River Relay for the third year in a row. This year was the 4th year of the race. The start was changed to Winona from LaCrosse and the finish was at Boom Island, Minneapolis. The route is up the Wisconsin side of the river to Stillwater and then down the MN side and over to St. Paul and up the river to Minneapolis.
You can search for other blogs that give very detailed accounts of the race. I don't feel like typing very much today so mine will be relatively short.
There were 216 teams that finished. Most were 12-person teams but several were ultra teams of 6 runners. Based on the team's estimated average pace, starting times were assigned from 7am to 4pm. I was on a 3pm team as were 9 other teams. 5 teams started at 4pm. There were no 2pm teams so you may see how this is going.... We started with other teams that were mostly faster than we were. A couple of teams were slower. The fast runners got ahead of us quickly and all the other teams had at least a 2 hour head start. The effect of this is that we were essentially running alone. It wasn't until the next morning when we were starting to catch earlier teams. I run faster when I'm chasing someone and it was my third leg when I finally saw a runner in front of me. I got so excited that I started running faster (sub-7:00 pace) and blew by the gal like she was standing still. A half a mile later I was done for the race. 18.9 miles total.
We finished 21/216 teams with a 7:41 average pace vs our 7:45 pace prediction. We were right on target! Way to go team!
I managed to charge my Garmin before I left for the race and recorded my runs: Leg 2, Leg 14, and Leg 26.
I had a great time with my friends and although I slept for only 5 minutes total, I managed to stay awake until 8pm Saturday night and can't wait to run it again next year.
Next year I'll be running slower as I want to run it as an ultra team. Last year at the race I told my friends to never let me run it as an ultra. Well, I've changed my mind. FYI - this year the 6 ultra runners each ran these totals: 35.7, 31.4, 40.3, 32.3, 27.8, 25.5.
NONE of my running friends have switched over to thinking of running this as an ultra but I have a year to work on them. :-) Even if I convince a few of them, I'm sure to have openings on my team. Keep me in mind if you are interested in running with me next year.
--Mark
3 comments:
Mark - it was good to meet you, and your team members in Van 2. Nice finish to the relay! Sorry I missed you all coming in, but family called.
Good luck with recruiting for an Ultra! I am sure you will find a few good folks.
This is so cool. Thanks for sharing! Makes me want to do it next year!!!
Your team did so well! That is great that you had such a good time that you want to do it as an ultra next year. I'm sure you will be able to convince some people!
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