Reach the Beach!

First off, I highly recommend a relay race with friends. 

Its a great bonding activity, you never know what is going to happen. 

It can be a lot of work to organize, especially if it is a 24 hour race but it is definitely worth it!

There are all kinds of relays now but Reach the Beach and Hood to Coast are a couple of the original 24+ hour relays.  My running crew is talking about maybe doing one in Florida put on by Ragnar Relays, although I also found one that goes from Key Largo to Key West.... its a little shorter too and we could have a smaller team.  

Any how back to Reach the Beach.  

THURSDAY

We headed up to northern NH.  Luckily one of our crew has a good hook up, so we had a free place to stay.  I hit the hay relatively early, as I knew I wouldn't get much sleep Friday night. 

FRIDAY

I was up before 7am, showering and packing up. We had to be at the start close to 8am to get registered.  I was our team captain so I had to do all of our check-in, I also was our first runner too! 

My first run was about 8 miles so I had to fuel up for my run.

BREAKFAST

-poppyseed bagel w/ PB

We of course had to take a few team pictures........

And decorate our vans...

Although this year was a bit sad compared to past years.  We just didn't have much time to decorate or the motivation. 

But at least we had me & Tito.  ;-)

And then we were off!

Beautiful scenery along the way of course. 

This was one of the transition areas. 

If you don't remember my explanation.  There are 12 of us on a team, you can have less too but no more than 12.  If you have 6 or less you are considered an "ultra" team. 

We each ran 3 legs, the legs are split up by the race directors, you have specific transition areas.  Once you pick an order you have to stay in that order.  I was our 1st runner so I ran legs 1, 13 and 25.  

The total mileage of the race is just over 200 miles.  Each runner has a combined total of miles ranging from about 14 to just over 22.  I was the lucky person with just over 22 miles.  :)

While it may sound great that most of the first few legs have a lot of downhill.... you quads pay the price.  The start of the race, you are full of energy...... you are excited.... you are.... well stupid..... you go out too fast and later on when you have to run up hill during your later legs.... it. really. hurts. 

But despite all this talk, I was able to recruit a newbie from my blog.....

Mrs. Our Life is Delicious donated her husband to the cause.  :)  

Or well he donated himself I guess. 

Yay Artie!!!  He even sported his "No Meat Athlete" shirt. 

A little action shot.... Artie jetting off on his first leg after the hand off. 

Soon it started to get dark..... and that meant dressing up in such fashionable items as

-reflective vest

-2 blinky lights... one front, one back

-head lamp

This is my sexy night runner pose.

I swear it did get dark on my run.

This was a leg or two  later when it was really dark out. 

My teammate Tom was getting ready to head out on his run.  It was one heck of a hilly run too... he started going straight up a hill that lasted at least 1/3 of a mile, went down for a bit and then right back up.  

So I have to admit, my eating was not all that spectacular.  For lunch I had a turkey, swiss, baby spinach and mustard sandwich.  It was camera shy.  Also had some trailmix and a chocolate chip cookie 

But after my 2nd run of the day, I got snacky and we had lots of snacks. 

Twizzlers......... evil.

Cheez-Its....... even more evil. 

But when you are living in a mess like this...... it kinda fits I guess. 

My van was lucky and we finished up our 2nd leg by midnight.  We headed to the next team transition area for some sleep.  Most of us slept in the van.... on seats, on the floor, outside in a tent... where ever we could find a place. 

SATURDAY

At 4:50am we got a call from the other van.  Their last runner was on course for her 7 mile run and I was on deck. 

I started my run just around 6am. 

 It was dark, but soon I could see a beautiful sunrise in the works.....

My team stopped by to give me some support..... 

It was my longest run, about 9.5 miles and the first half was pretty much all uphill.

This is at about the top of the hill section, right before I hit the downhill.

As you can see I was happy to see them and the downhill!!!

Me finishing up my final run and passing off our reflective slap bracelet "batton" to Mia

So my team thought it was odd that in my purchase of food for the van I got baby spinach.  I figured.... who wants just a meat & cheese sandwich, spinach is an easy addition and its like lettuce but even better for you. 

Well it became a running joke. 

At one point we showered one of our teammates with spinach during his run.

Here we are posing with our mascot vegetable....

Pretty much the answer to any problem involved....... baby spinach.... and sometimes hummus or baba ghanoush (which we didn't have any of but its fun to say).

Then we finally REACHED the beach!

This is the crew after we ran through the finish line together and got our medals. 

Our Stats

Overall Time: 28:48:42

Average Pace: 8:20/ mile

Runners: 6 guys, 6 girls.... ranging in age from 29-47

Overall an absolute blast!  :)

Let me know if you have any questions, its hard to fit it all in.  But hopefully that gives you an idea of how it all went.  

Britt

Getting ready to Reach the Beach!!!!

Its crunch time, I'm scrambling to get things ready for Reach the Beach.  We don't leave till 6pm, but there are little things I kind of put off..... 

Like printing out the handbooks that we are required to have two of.

But then I realized it was way too many pages to do at home.... so I just spent almost an hour cursing at the Kinkos and Staples sites.... they were NOT cooperating!

So my day in food.....

BREAKFAST

was running late again, so I packed up my mix-ins for my at work oats

Mix-ins: blueberries, dried cranberries, walnuts, ground flax

With my oats & a little skim milk.
Yum.

Headed home for lunch and to walk the pooch.

LUNCH

-flat out & marinara sauce, broiled with roasted brussel sprouts & turnips, plus some tomato, roasted potato and feta
It was messy but good.

At work I snacked on some Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Chips

After work I got my butt to Kettlebell!!  (since I messed up my alarm AGAIN)

Repeated the all of the following 5 times, 

1 minute rest between each round, each exercise a minute unless otherwise noted

Round 1

-hand to hand sumo deadlift

-figure 8's

Round 2

-Get up sit ups

-Russian twist

Round 3

-Heavy press 1/1, 2/2, 3/3

-1 arm rows

Awesome workout!  I love it when there is lots of variety!

Then I ran around working on some 5K race promotion, after that it was home to walk Reggie and make dinner. 

DINNER

Chicken Parmesan 

-preheated over to 400

-dipped chicken breast in an egg, coated w/ breadcrumbs

-sprayed pan w/ canola oil

-baked for 20 minutes

-added marinara sauce and some parmesan cheese

-baked for 10 minutes more

-boiled up some pasta

(yes I like sauce)    

Time to get some packing done.... need to dig out the sleeping back and warm clothes.  

There is a FROST ADVISORY tonight where we will be running Friday night/ early Saturday morning.... eeks.  

So timeline tomorrow....

6am short run

8am work

noon leave work & finish packing

2pm leave to get huge passenger van from rental place

4pm pick up manuals & grocery shop

6pm pick up van 6 of the crew & head north

8pm dinner, check into our accomodations

My goal is to be IN BED before 11!!!

My mileage for the race....

1st leg 7.95 miles  (9:20am)

2nd leg 3.91 miles  (approx. 8:35 pm)

3rd leg 9.42 miles  (approx. 7:10 am)

Total mileage =  21.28miles

the good: no real late night or early morning running

the bad: my last leg is my longest & the hilliest

I'm going to attempt to blog on the road... not sure how successful I will be!

Have a great night!

Britt

A FULL team!

My Reach the Beach team is finally complete!

Thank you Artie!! (and thank you E for donating your hubby!)

Now to see where we are at with leg assignments, unfortunately I think I need to be a good captain and take leg 1.

Its kind of a crappy one....
-most total distance
-your longest run is your last run and has the most vertical gain
-if someone drops out due to injury, you are the that needs to fill in after the other van bumps everyone up a space

But at least I should be done first. :)

This morning I slept in.... ahh so nice.... till 6:30. Walked Reggie, made my breakfast and packed my lunch.

BREAKFAST
-1/4 cup oats
-little less than 1/4 cup Hodgson Mills Multi Grain Cereal
-3/4 cup water
-1/4 milk
- 1 T almond butter
-toppings: walnuts, flax, dried cranberries and blueberries


LUNCH
And my lovely lunch will be this gorgeous salad
-spinach, green beans, red pepper, broccoli, broccosprouts, carrots, feta, dried cranberries and walnuts

Also some of that yummy CSA cantaloupe w/ plain greek yogurt.

Looking forward to my lunch time run!

Its another gorgeous day here, I cannot wait for the weekend!! I should have great weather for my long run this weekend, all 18 miles of it. I think I may head to the beach and run along the ocean, it definitely helps the miles pass by.

I'm semi tempted to go back to yoga again today. Yes I become easily addicted.

I'm also curious to try out my old high school art teachers class though, I noticed she teaches a Hatha class on Thursdays. It might be a bit of a time crunch though.... so we will see. She was a great teacher though, I took photography with her as I'm not very artistically inclined as far as drawing/painting. If I cannot make it I may just dowload something from online.

Do you do yoga? How often do you do it? What benefits have you found from it?

Have a fabulous day!

Britt

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