Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Race Director.... Team Captain.....

How many hats can one person wear?

Oy!
As you may know I'm race director of a new 5K in my town in October. Hoping to get at least 300 runners. :)
In addition to that......

I'm currently scrambling to get my Reach the Beach Team together! Crazy me agreed to be the team captain. It appeared we were good to go with our roster of 12, but now we are back down to 11. Eeks! Um anyone want to run a two day relay race with a crazy crew of runners??!!
Reach the Beach is one of those things that involves crazy planning, but is so much fun while also being exhausting!
The basics....
Total Distance: about 200 Miles
Time: depends on how fast you are, last year it took us almost 30 hours... had a few injuries
Where: Northern Mountains of NH to the Ocean at the Southeast corner of the state
What: relay running race with teams of up to 12 runners (there are ultra teams I think as small as 2 runners). Runners rotate through 36 legs, with total mileage for each runner ranging from 13-22 miles. The course starts off with a good amount of hills, as you are in the mountains afterall.

The logistics part can be interesting. We usually rent two large passenger vans, 6 people in each van. One van runs the first 6 legs, the 2nd van waits from them at the transition area and then runs the next 6 legs and so on. These transition areas are where you sleep, eat, cleanup, etc.

The relay goes through the night.... so reflective blinky vests, headlamps and flashlights are required. Definitely a wild experience to be running on a dark road at 2am. Even wilder when its POURING out. Yep, it often seems to rain at this race..... But that just makes it more of an experience.... right?
(have I sold you yet? I know you are dying to do it!)

See how much fun it is....
We decorate our vans.
Team photo at the start.
Wildlife along the way....

Fun blinky vests as the sun starts to go down......

It really is a great experience. Thus why this is our teams (I think) 8th year doing it!
There are quite a few more 24 hour relay races now.... but I believe Reach the Beach and Hood to Coast are the originals. Definitely a fun time. We were discussing possibly doing one in FL, its one of the Ragnar Relay Series that goes from Clearwater to Daytona. Sounds like it might be a tad more flat than NH. ;)
If you have a crew of fun runners I highly recommend a relay. :)
Just be ready for the planning logistics, but its all worth it, I promise!
Britt


4 comments:

  1. You are such a rock star!

    Are you looking for volunteers for the AHD race? I'd love to help! (Well, I'd love to run, but I'm nervous about the 1/2 the next day)

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  2. I'll give a tentative "yes" to running it. I need to get the Saturday off from work, which shouldn't be impossible. I'll let you know by the end of the day hopefully.

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  3. Sweet!! Let me know. Everyone is actively looking so whoever commits first is in!

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  4. Oh and E, I'll definitely take you up on your offer as a volunteer. I'll need some folks I know I can trust helping me out.

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