This Saturday I participated in the Park2Park relay. It was AWESOME. So awesome that I am going to have to make this a series of posts. Actually I think I am going to have to do that b/c I have way too many pictures. I took over 150 for the day. Don't worry, I won't post them all, but I will show a lot.
The Park2Park Relay is put on by the Parks Foundation of Hendricks County. In their own words (taken from their online site)..."The Park2Park Relay is a race for ambitious runners looking for a new challenge! Teams of 6 will run approximately 60 miles in a relay style running event that will take runners through communities, across countryside and through challenging park trails. The ultimate reward? Bragging rights! Those who finish this race will have completed a challenge few of your running friends have. You don't need to be an elite runner to compete, from casual runners to serious competitors, all are welcome!"
Doesn't that sound like FUN? Clark did this race last year and made it sound so awesome that it was one of the only weekends I had asked off for a year in advance. So there are 6 runner teams and each runner runs 3 legs of the race. The overall distance each runner runs ranged from just over 9 miles to just over 12 miles (broken into segments ranging from 1.86 miles to 4.65 miles). There were over 44 teams competing this year, and unlike last year, they did staggered start times based on estimated finish times with the goal of getting the teams thru the exchanges and to the finish more together. Of the 44 teams they were broken down into several divisions. For example....corporate, women's, men's, mixed (3 of each), men and women's master (everyone over 40), college, high school, open and ULTRA (yep you read that last one correct there was a division for those truly insane runners who wanted to do a 52.5 mile run all by themselves. My great friend Keith was one of those crazy people who did this along with 5 other crazy runners). Clark was on a team in the corporate division and my team was in the open division.
With the staggered start times, my team was scheduled to start at 7am. I think there were 5-6 teams starting at that same time with us. You are allowed one vehicle per team and Jaime and Ryan were kind of enough to let us trash their mini van for the day. The race started at Sodalis Park in Plainfield. As soon as we all arrived, we took care of the very important detail of decorating our van. Our team name was Road Runners. Nobody was any help picking a name, and I run past a street named Road Runners for a lot of my training runs and for some reason get some inspiration out of it, so I picked it.
Here is a picture of Jaime decorating the van.
Here is a picture of me and Jaime. Best friends and get running partners.
Below are the other Road Runners. First up (from left to right) we have Amy, who I did not know but found thru facebook as someone looking to join a team. We were having a hard time getting people to commit to doing this race and once Amy posted how fast she was, Jaime and I decided we would forget the people who couldn't even decide if they wanted to do it. Amy was in. She was a PERFECT fit for this group. Fun, positive, encouraging, fast and just overall great person and addition to our team. She was also helpful b/c she was the only one on our team who had done this last year. Next up is Jacque. Jacque has been friends with Jaime since Kindergarten. She was hysterical. Jokes all day long. I was very impressed with how calm and collected she was before every run she did. She made it all look very easy. It takes no time to realize she is a very social person who I imagine gets along great with everyone. In the middle was our speedy man Ryan. Ryan is Jaime's husband and therefore someone I have known and adored for years. He is just Mr. Athletic. He can run fast but he can also bike and swim and pretty much do it all. I think he had fun spending his day with a fun group of girls. Then there's Jaime. She makes my blog often so if you follow me at all, you know her. I LOVE her. She is one of my best friends. She and I did our pediatric residency together and going thru that kind of hell bonds people like you could never imagine. Our daughters are in gymnastics together and the best of friends. Jaime and I do most of our long runs together on the Monon. Her friendship is absolutely priceless to me. She is a terrific runner and as passionate about the sport as I am. Finally we have Lisa. Lisa is Jaime's neighbor and great friend/running companion. I had never met Lisa but felt like I knew her b/c I hear so much about her from Jaime. Lisa is a great runner who can kick my butt when it comes to speed. She was tons of fun to hang with during the day. Again she was positive, encouraging, fast and passionate about the sport. I just can't tell you how well this team blended and how great they all were. So proud to have been a part of this amazing team.
Okay here is a picture of just the girls (me included). Ryan was taking the photo! You can see from our bibs that our team number was 130 and then the number in red corresponded to the leg you were.
So I was runner number one. Talk about nerves. My leg was not the hardest by any means but did cover the most distance. In the end I ran just over 12 miles. At least 4 of us had some trail as part of our legs. I specifically had some trail running on each of my 3 legs of the race. I was also nervous b/c I was the only runner who started with other runners at the exact same time. At the very start there was this little loop that they said they allowed the entire team to run together before sending me off into the woods for the first leg.
Here is a picture of me getting ready to start my garmin. You will quickly see from these pictures I never stand up straight. Slumped shoulders....such bad posture...moving on!
Everyone who was starting with us should have overall team times that were about the same. So you can imagine my surprise when they said go and I felt like the other runners took off in a dead sprint. I thought crap... this is gonna kill me. This first picture you see me a little ahead of my teammates who were just doing this little lap for fun to get in the spirit of things.
There I am again getting ready to head into the woods for the little over mile trail part of my first leg. Still smiling at this point. One thing I should have mentioned above is that like the last 2 races Jaime and I have been in together, the weather was going to be unseasonably high. It was hot to start but only got hotter as the day went on. I will write more about that as we continue. So really I was lucky to go first. It was cool to start, and I was the first to be done in the afternoon when from a heat standpoint conditions were getting very bad!!
Here I am about to end my first leg. Still looking strong (and fat but lets forget that part).
I must have just tagged Lisa who was runner 2 and once again am not standing up straight. I ran 4.63 miles according to my garmin. Clearly I was already a sweaty mess. My average pace for my first leg was 7:42/mile (my individual miles were 7:54, 7:49, 7:29, 7:37 and not sure about the last .63 b/c I screwed it up trying to look but already had my overall average written down). I was pleased with this time especially considering how much I was on trail and b/c of the hills.
Here we have a couple of photos of Lisa. She is the second girl on the bridge and about to take the girl in front of her (who was on a team that started earlier than our team). When Lisa passes someone she calls it road kill. She had 2 road kills on her leg.
I know you can barely see Lisa in this photo but I like it b/c she looks like she is flying. Very speedy. When Lisa got done I remember her saying she felt great and it was a beautiful course and one that she had run part of in a previous race I think.
Here you can see Lisa tagging Jacque and who got to run a paved path thru a park. Last year (the first year this relay was done) they had batons, but the runners did not like this, and so this year it was simply a high 5 to switch off. I think this was great b/c most runners used hand held drinks and didn't want to carry anything else. Go Jacque.
Here we have Jacque finishing up her leg at the Plainfield Aquatic/Rec center. This is the water park I was at on Thursday. Great rec center and awesome water park if they would just change some of their stupid rules of who needs to be within an arms length of an adult (if you are on my facebook you know how I feel about this). Jaime is ready and waiting in this photo. Jacque actually ran 2 miles with a guy from another team talking the entire way. I think she pulled away from him in the end. Again so social and has this amazing ability to run really fast and talk non stop while doing it.
Tag...Jaime you are it. Go girl!!
Here is Jaime just finishing up her leg!
The temperatures at this point were getting really hot and yet she was still smiling. That is great for a girl who HATES to run in the heat. Her ideal running temp is in the 40's.
Here comes Amy our runner #5. Did I mention she is super fast and makes it look super easy. She had probably the second hardest leg of the race and never once did she complain. Not about the hills, the trails, the heat. Not one complaint. She also impressed me b/c she doesn't run with a garmin. She runs how she feels (which by the way is faster than me) and yet totally rocked each leg. She also looked great in every running picture I took.
Here is Amy handing off to our wing man Ryan. Ryan was runner #6 who had arguably the hardest runs and most trails. Aside from me (b/c I was usually taking the pictures) I have the fewest photos of him b/c he was the runner right before it got back to me and my nerves were already kicking in. He did great. He is having some issues with his achilles lately but you would have never known that on Saturday. He might have been in pain, but we didn't know b/c he handled it very well.
What is so memorable about Ryan's first leg is that it was the only leg were he had to get tagged by Amy and then jump in our van so we could drive him across Rockville road and drop him at a safe place to start running. Because time was ticking even while he was in our van, we were in a hurry. Ryan still drove and maybe b/c of the excitement of everything or maybe just b/c he is crazy, he decided to totally run a red light and turn left into oncoming traffic going straight. We almost got hit,but we made it. Not one of our better thinking moments, but something about this race we won't forget:) I guess we thought that yellow sign on our car saying RACE IN PROGRESS meant we didn't have to follow basic rules of the road...hahaha.
So that was the end of each of our first of three legs of this race. We were all excited to have one leg down, but the heat was rising quickly, and we still had hours of running to go. It was fun to see so many teams at the exchange points. Each team was responsible for their own food and drinks. Our van was loaded. I was super glad that Amy (who knew better) brought so much extra water b/c we ended up needing almost all of it by the end of the day. The volunteers at the exchange points were great. Keeping track of everyone and cheering us all on as we came through.
Since I have so many pictures I will just update one overall leg per post. Tomorrow I will blog about all our second leg runs. This day was so incredible I don't feel bad at all spending 3 posts on it. As mentioned above Clark was on the Hendrick's Regional hospital sponsored corporate team. His team was all guys and very competitive. They had high hopes of winning the corporate division. His team started at 7:45. They did not catch us on our first legs. You will just have to keep reading over the next couple days to see if they ever caught us (starting 45 minutes later than my team). Like me, Clark was runner number one for his team. I thought it was great that while on different teams we were running the same legs. His text to me at the end of his first leg said, "Just finished. 7:02 pace. The hill before the end killed me."
My Ultra friend Keith started his run at 5am. One of his best friends and my friend and PT, Shane, was his support person for the first 40miles of his run. Shane was kind enough to text me updates on Keith's progress during the day. Before my team was even done with our first legs I got a text from Shane saying Keith was at mile 32 running a pace of around 8:30 and 6 miles ahead of any other Ultra runners. Keith is AMAZING (and a little crazy:)
To be continued...................
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