Here's my race report - absolutely more fun than 12 moms should be allowed to have!! As a runner, I was so impressed and inspired by the other teams. Makes me want to try even harder...
The race was fun, exhausting, inspiring, exhausting, challenging, exhausting, and oh - did I mention exhausting?
It's hard to believe we even did it - the entire time it was kind of surreal. My team is a bunch of moms - the youngest was 38, I think the oldest was 50ish. Most of the women I had never met before we signed up for the race together. It started with two women who then had friends, who had friends, etc. until we had a team of 12 and along the way we swapped out about 4 women due to various challenges. By the end of the two days, I felt like I had a whole new set of best friends.
Most of the women had been running for years and years and a few had been very athletic in the past, fitness competitions, personal trainers, adventure racing etc. But now that we are all moms, and older, things have changed of course. The fact that we accomplished this run was just short of a miracle.
For me as a new runner, I felt completely inspired and amazed by all the taems and especially my team.
There were about 230 teams and just under 200 finished the race.
My team finished third from last. I don't think anyone cared (I hope not anyway - we really went in just wanting to finish). Once the race started, things got very challenging and our mindset shifted from 'go fast' to 'just finish'. I could write pages and pages about the race, but I'll try to just give you the timeline and highlights.
Thursday morning - packed up for the race (lots of things were needed, clothes, food, maps, night running supplies, first aid, etc.)
Thursday noon - we all met at our team captain's house to load the vans (we drove 2 vans to the race, 6 runners in a van). And our kids all decorated the vans - they did a great job painting the windows with all kinds of fun and inspirational tidbits.
Thursday afternoon - drive up to Madison (about 3 hours), check in to hotel, race check in, go out for pasta dinner.
Friday morning - 6:30 am Van 1 runner 1 starts the race.
Saturday evening - 7:30 pm Van 2 runner 6 finishes the race (YEP That's a long time!!!!)
So how it works logistically is we have two vans with 6 runners a piece. Van 1 (my van) would rotate through its 6 runners, then we handoff to Van 2. My van started at 6:30 - we had maps with us and directions to each hand off point. So we cheer on runner 1 to start, then the other 5 of us jump in our van and drive to the transfer area and runner two gets ready to take over when runner 1 arrives. Each transfer area has a marked spot with a race official - as one runner comes in, they take off a 'slap bracelet' and the next runner puts it on - that's the 'official' handoff rather than passing a baton. Once my van had all 6 runners complete their runs, our runner 6 hands off to runner 1 in Van 2 and then we drive 6 transfer areas ahead and weight for van 2 to come in (about 6 hours later).
While we wait for van 2 - we are able to rest, eat, kind of sleep, sometimes wash up, etc.
My van (van 1) ran from 6:30 to about noon on Friday. My first run was around 10 am. The morning started off very humid and cool (around 60 degrees). As the morning went on, it was getting warmer and still very humid. By the time I ran, it was around 65 degrees and very overcast, but as soon as I finished, the sun came out and it got hot vast. While van 2 was running (from noon to about 6 pm), temperatures reached 90 degrees and humidity stayed high. Heat index was over 100 degrees and the runners were suffering! Everyone's times slowed down significantly.
Then around 6 pm, Van 2 handed off to my van and we started running again. When I ran a second time, it was around 10 pm and still 85 degrees and very humid. Our last runner in van 1 finished around midnight and then we headed to the next transfer station which was a Lutheran Church. The church youth group opened the church for us and provided food (kringle!) drinks and a floor to sleep on. There were hundreds of runners sprawled all over their sanctuary in sleeping bags. From about 1-4:30 we tried to sleep but actually got very little sleep between people coming and going and the snoring in the room, etc. Then we got up, brushed our teeth and started our third round of running.
Around 5:30 am, Van 2 arrived and we started running again. By this time, it was very foggy and humid, but the temps were back down to about 60 degrees with overcast skies so not bad for running weather. My third run was around 9 am and our van was done running around 1 pm. Just as our last runner came into the transfer area, we were all notified that they had stopped the race temporarily. A large weather front was coming through the area with thunder and lightening and it wasn't safe to run. After about 1 hour, they started up the race again and our Van 2 started their final set of legs.
While van 2 was doing their final run, my van was able to shower and drive to a real restaurant for a meal (Chili's) and then we headed back to the course to find our van2 runners and cheer them on. We spent the rest of the race leapfrogging ahead of each runner and then getting out to cheer them on when they came by. The weather for the rest of the run was cold and rainy (around 60) but they didn't stop the race and we finished at Montrose Harbor around 7 pm.
So you can imagine - a lot of time in the car driving around trying to find the next stop, no sleep, erratic eating, then hard runs every so often - it was really crazy!
But along the way, we shared so many stories and laughs - really a blast! We were so loopy at the end we would laugh at almost anything - super fun!
After we finished, we had some pizza at the finish line and then drove home, unloaded the van, and went home. Yesterday I was sore and tired but still smiling about all the fun memories I have.
Sorry for the long post! If you made it this far I'll tell you are team name...Smokin Hot Asphalt. LOL!
