Hampton Beach or Bust! Week of 9/10-16

Wow! What a week?!?! This is my favorite time of the year to run in New England, and nothing gets me more excited than the arrival of the Reach the Beach Relay. Not only is it a great excuse to take a day off from work, but it marks the beginning of the fall running season. Let me put in a quick recap of the week leading up to the relay, and then I'll get on with the relay report.

Mon: AM - 30 min pool run; PM - 7.0 miles @ 7:59, easy run on a very hilly course, relay prep
Tue: AM - 5 miles @ 7:57, easy run, stride felt smooth
PM - 9.4 miles including 2 x (1200, 800, 1200) @ 5:36, intervals felt good, surprised I could hold the pace
Wed: Noon - 8.6 miles @ 7:25, slightly faster run, but felt very comfortable; PM - short game of pick-up basketball
Thu: off, travel day
Fri: AM - 1st leg 7.7 miles, PM - 2nd leg 8.2 miles
Sat: AM - 3rd leg 8.6 miles, PM - total 3m w/u and c/d for legs
Sun: rest
Total: 59 miles

I squeezed a good chunk of miles at the beginning of the week so I could get close to 60 this week. It was a good solid running week leading up to the relay, so I knew I was in good shape.

RELAY REPORT
For the uninitiated, Reach the Beach (RTB), is a 200 mile relay race through the mountains of New Hampshire comprised of 36 legs spread between 12 runners. It traditionally starts at a ski resort (this year it was Cannon Mountain), and finishes at Hampton Beach. You can find a longer description of the relay here. This is my 2nd year doing the relay, and with 11 out of 12 runners returning (the 12th being a runner's boyfriend), we were all comfortable with each other. I still can't put my finger on why I get so juiced about this relay, but part of it maybe that running for me is normally such a solitary endeavor that my craving for a team activity has finally been quenched. If you have not considered doing one, there is nothing like it! One of the coolest running experiences for me is running down a highway with nothing but moonlight and the steady beat of your safety light to guide your path. Of course, there is nothing quite as painful, but at the same time gratifying, as gutting out your last leg on three hours of sleep.

The relay course went through some major changes this year, so when it came time to select my leg, I had nothing to go on except distance. So, I picked Leg 3 because it had the most cumulative mileage at 24.5 miles. Little did I know that I ended up with the "hero" leg. If you read on, you'll find out why.

1st Leg: Leg 3, 7.8 miles - 10:15AM, Friday
The beauty of this leg lay in its simplicity.... grab the baton and head straight uphill. Prior to the course change, the "hero" leg was the opening leg of the relay. The first runner would charge straight up one of the ski runs at Bretton Woods, and then turn around and run straight back down. The website described it as, "the toughest 5K you will ever run." With the exception of the most fit runners, no one made it through the leg without doing some walking. The new "hero" leg was not quite as steep, but it more than made up for it in length. Over the course of almost 8 miles, I was facing a continuous climb of more than 1700 ft along the famed Kancamangus Highway.
I picked up the baton from Ramses (leg 2 runner) and settled into what felt like marathon pace effort. The first 20 minutes were pretty comfortable. I keyed on runners that were ahead of me and slowly started to reel them in. This distraction kept me going for about 30 minutes, at which point maintaining the pace started to become more challenging. At one point, I passed a masters runner and gave him some words of encouragement. He fired back with a challenge, "Are you trying to show me up?" I still don't know why he got so fired up, but he proceeded to keep pace with me for about 200m, at which point he declared, "I can't keep this up." While we're on the subject of strange comments, another guy I passed yelled out, "Don't hurt yourself." There was great crowd support from the other teams along the entire leg.
50 minutes into the leg and the lactic acid was really starting to kick in. I thought I was averaging about a 7:30 mile, which worked out to an ETA of around 57 minutes. By 55 minutes, I was craning my neck around each turn hoping Josh would be standing there ready to rescue me. Is it getting steeper? Is there a headwind? Is the lack of oxygen making me loopy? The exchange zone finally came into view over a long straightaway, and I was so happy to hand off the baton. Bar none the hardest 8 mile run I have ever done. Here's a pic of me from the leg; it must have been early on in the leg because I'm still smiling.
Leg split - 1:01:09 (7:47/mile)

2nd Leg: Leg 15, 8.2 miles - 7:15PM, Friday
I don't know what it is about this relay, but I find myself more nervous before legs than most races I enter, even though its not "technically" a race. Maybe its because I build suspense into each leg by seeing how many runners I can pass. My second leg had the added incentive of possibly putting us into 1st place on the road. When Aaron (see pic), our 1st runner, got the baton from Van 2, we estimated that we were between 13th-15th place. When he handed off to Ramses, we were in 8th place. Ramses ran an equally blazing leg, passing another 5 runners. Meanwhile, I was waiting nervously in parking lot watching two runners go by and trying to estimate how much of a time gap I would have to make up. I was rearing to go when Ramses rounded the bend. This leg had a net elevation drop, so I knew I could fly. I caught the 2nd place runner about halfway through the leg. The leg itself was beautiful, taking us along Squam Lake, which seemed to disperse the moonlight and emit a soft glow. It gradually went from twilight when I started to almost pitch black. Like I said before, there is nothing cooler than running the night time leg. I kept pushing the tempo, but was never able to reel in the last runner. That task was left to Josh, who displayed some admirable trash-talking on his leg. After being passed by the same runner on his 1st leg, he ardently pursued her on this leg, kept paced with her up a steep incline, and then proceeded to overtake her while having the presence of mind to say, "Hills are where are shine." Here' s my semi-artistic rendition (or just poor photography) of our team in 1st place.
Leg split - 54:17 (6:37/mile)


3rd Leg: Leg 27, 8.6 miles - 7:15AM, Saturday
After a restless night of sleep in Bear Brook Lake Park, we dragged our weary bodies into the minivan and set off on our final leg. Light showers had set in towards the end of the night, and it was a full on downpour by the time it came to run my final leg. Fortunately, light had also returned, making the leg a bit more bearable. Regardless of when you do your last leg, it's always a gut check. Aaron handed off the baton and promptly declared, "I'm done with Reach the Beach. That leg just wasn't fun." He was of course smiling as he said this, showing again that you never know what to expect from a guy that spent most of the relay driving the minivan with a Darth Vader mask shouting out choice phrases like, "sexy time with Darth Vader." As for me, my mind was revved up for the last leg, but my body just wanted to go back to sleep. It's oddly reminiscent of sitting down for the last final exam of the semester after pulling an all-nighter. I set off at marathon pace effort again, and found that my body was shocked into playing along by mile 2. The rest of the leg was relatively comfortable except for a short, steep hill at mile 5. The Gogo Girls, headed by the indefatigable Audrey (see right), kindly provided mileage marks so I knew how much further I had to go. After making a left turn, the final stretch of the leg is a long downhill. So I picked it up a notch. Unfortunately, my own van was waylaid behind some slow vans, so I was left waiting at the exchange zone for a minute or two. I felt surprisingly good at the end of my leg and was looking forward to a hearty breakfast of real food. Here's the final exchange from our van... note, we're still smiling!
Leg split - 56:08 (6:29/mile)


Another relay draws to a close. I always get a little nostalgic at the end. I guess it's not totally unexpected after sharing such an intense experience for 30 some odd hours with 11 other people who are equally passionate about running. We got to the beach faster than we did last year, despite losing our fastest woman.
Chasing Amy - 29:16:07 (8:31/mile), 61/154 Mixed Open Category

In total, I put in close 59 miles this week. After three high mileage weeks, I'm heading into a cutback week, which perfectly coincides with my vacation week. It should be interesting trying to fit in runs with all the traveling. Ryan somehow manages to do that and work, so I have no excuses.

Game plan for week of 9/17-23:
Mon - still on the plane, maybe core work
Tue - AM: 7-8 miles
Wed - rest
Thu - AM: 7-8 miles
Fri - rest
Sat - AM: 15-16 miles
Sun - AM: 5-6 miles
Total: 34-37 miles