Slacker ½ Marathon (Relay)

I got off to a pretty rough start, on race morning. We camped out near the race since it was so far from home, just that alone was enough to leave me with a bad night’s sleep, but it was made worse by Tylor getting sick around midnight and then multiple times after that. I ended up getting out of bed before my alarm even went off. Then, the kids had packed the coolers while I was at work on Friday, but didn’t realize that my list was incomplete and non-specific about what to pack, so serving breakfast was a challenge. We got on the road but had to turn back almost right away because I left my sunglasses and no one wanted me to get a headache from running in the sun without them. Once we got to the race and were in line for packet pick up, I realized I left my Garmin and all our Road ID’s at the campsite, as well as both my wallet and Jerry’s which meant we weren’t eating lunch in Georgetown after the race – we’d have to go back to camp for money first.

After we pinned everyone’s bibs and sun-blocked everyone, we had to get on our shuttles. Jerry, Caleb, and Lily bussed to their start line; Ian wasn’t running but went with my mom, dad and Tylor to their start line and once the first group made it to them, they would bus with Ian to the finish; I bussed to the final start line with Nate and Kyndall.

Waiting around was probably the worst part. The race started at 8:15 (15 minutes late), but then we still had to wait for both the other legs of the relay before we could go, of course. Based on previous training and races, and the distances they had to cover, I predicted that the first leg runners would finish around an hour and 15 to 30 minutes, and the second leg between 30 and 45 minutes. I figured we wouldn’t be running the third leg until at least 10am.  It wasn’t a big deal since it wasn’t getting super hot while we waited, but breakfast was a lot earlier, so we packed snacks to make sure we were properly fueled by the time we got to run.

I had received a text from my mom when their leg was about to get going, so we had a nice little warning.  Then a shuttle bus pulled up and dropped of our first leg runners to hang out with us while we waited. Once we got going, leg one and two would shuttle to the finish. It was a little surprise to see them though, since I thought they were going straight to the finish line. It was nice to hear about their run and how the kids did with their 6 mile distance while we waited.

Caleb had been first to finish their leg and sent Tylor off, but my mom was a much faster finisher so she passed him and came in before he did so Kyndall was off first in our leg. It was a while still before Tylor showed up, but then I finally got to take off.

I wasn’t nervous for the running of race, but I was a little nervous for the elevation and the decline, and by the time I got to finally start running, I kinda wasn’t feeling it. I was a little worried that the decline was going to bother my knee and rib, so I started out fast hoping to feel it out and figure out how to deal with it. Starting out fast causes my rib to pop out of place sooner and I can massage it back in by the time I am warmed up and ready to settle into a pace. Nate came flying by me (I was still sprinting down the hill!) a few minutes after I started. At the bottom of the first hill my rib was out of place so I walked to massage in place. After it was back in, I ran/walked the rest of the first mile while I got warmed up. The first mile was pretty flat aside from the initial hill we started on, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect for the rest of the course either. I got to another downhill stretch and started running. It felt pretty good. Not too steep, but steep enough that I could feel the advantage it was giving me. I settled into a comfortable pace. I didn’t want to push too hard because I was worried about my breathing getting off and being at a higher elevation I didn’t want to deal with it. Since I didn’t have my Garmin, I set my run keeper app on my phone instead, which meant I couldn’t easily see it or how fast I was (or wasn’t) going. I felt like I was putting out a 14-15 minute mile effort, but I felt like I got to mile markers 2 & 3 faster than normal so I was pretty curious to see what it was.

As I was coming up on 3.5 miles I saw Kyndall up ahead. She was walking… towards me. As soon as she made eye contact with me, she burst into tears. I stopped running to walk with her and figure out what was wrong. She was feeling fine, but her shoe was rubbing and hurting her foot really bad and she thought maybe she was getting a blister. She was upset, and said it hurt too much to run so she wanted to walk the rest of the way in and wanted me to stay with her. Of course, mama bear instincts and sympathy (my own blister from the half marathon was finally feeling fine) won out and I walked in with her. I tried offering to trade shoes since mine wouldn’t rub the same way on her, I suggested that she tie her own tighter at the bottom so her foot wouldn’t slide as much but since she refused both suggestions, I had her take the shoes off and walk without for a little bit. That helped until we left the paved road and got onto a dirt and gravel road. Jerry and Ian were walking along the course watching for us, figuring we should have been finishing by then. We caught up to them and told them about the foot issue and Jerry offered Kyndall his shoes and Ian’s crocs. She didn’t want either of those, but did agree to put hers back on but without tying them. I told her we weren’t walking across the finish line, so as we came around the corner and saw more of our group waiting we started to run to the finish line. We had to make a left turn and then a quick right turn so I pulled back to avoid tripping over Kyndall and cheered for her on her heels as we ran through the finish line and she took 2^nd place for our 3 relay teams (by seconds!).

I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to finish the race the way I wanted to, but Kyndall needed me so it’s ok. I did look over my times though and definitely got a 5k PR before I got to Kyndall, by about 4 minutes! At the pace I was going, I was on track to finish the 4 miles under 50 minutes – My best 4 mile time prior to this race was 56 minutes! Over all, I clocked my leg at 1:00:00.  I just wish they had timing mats at the transitions so that we could have the splits for our whole team.

“COWABUNGA!!!”: JERRY (6 Miles) POPPA (3 Miles) NATE (4 Miles)

Over all time:   2:22:47     

“THE PIXIES”: LILY (6 Miles) HONEY (3 Miles) KYNDALL (4 Miles)

Over all time:    2:49:02

“THE FIRE BREATHING GUMMY BEARS”: CALEB (6 Miles) TYLOR (3 Miles) LAURA (4 Miles)

Over all time:     2:49:03