North Face Marathon Relay

This was a tough race to pack for with rain and snow in the forecast (in April, mind you), knowing we'd be standing around for awhile before/after our turn to run, and positive the trails we would be running on would be a muddy mess.  So, we packed all the things!

Sure enough, Joann texted me first thing Saturday morning saying it was pouring rain with hail.  Awesome.  I stopped for a Chick-Fil-A breakfast (yum!) and drove out to the shuttle stop and met up with Jessie, Eileen and Henry.  We packed ourselves, our backpacks and chairs onto the shuttle and made our way to the race start.  Luckily it had stopped raining by this point, but we were sure the damage was done to the trails.  And it was cold.  Very cold.

We made it to the race start and started settling in, organizing our stuff, trying to figure out what to wear, how to stay warm.  The wind was really strong and made for some very cold weather.  We figured out our run order, and I was to be the 2nd runner.  I liked this idea, to let Jessie go and get a good start, and then since I'm slowest, Eileen and Henry could make up some time on the back end.

We met up with Paula's crew, and Paula told us that she was going to be her team's last runner because she was the slowest.  I asked about the rationale behind that and she said that there were cutoff times, and they aren't cumulative.  Every runner has 90 min, and if one runner falls behind, the rest of your team is screwed.  Hmm... OK... makes sense then that I also should be the final runner cause the last thing I'd want to do is DQ our team!  So now I'm going last, which means finding a way to stay warm all day until it's my turn.

Time for one more group shot before heading up to the start line to see Jessie off.  There were just over 100 relay teams, so it wasn't a super crowded start line, but a decent number.  Of course the other distances going on at the same time (started earlier) were the 50-miler, 50K and marathon, so we would see other runners out on the course with us throughout the day.

There they go!  You can Jessie in the blue hat just to the right of the guy in yellow who's blocking everyone's view.  Eileen, Henry and I actually lined up on the fence, thinking we were going to get a great view, and then at the last minute we realized the runners were taking a sharp left out of the gate... d'oh!

The first part of the course is a loop on grass.  From our current vantage point, it looks straight forward enough, but I would find out later that the back part of that grassy loop was basically a mud pit.

So, Eileen, Henry and I wandered around trying to stay warm.  Luckily, we stumbled upon the Top Golf tent who was giving away gloves and hats in exchange for liking them on social media - done!  And then, a good Samaritan offered us some much-needed toe warmers.  It wasn't too bad when the wind wasn't blowing, but when it was, it was freezing! 

Jessie crushed it, finishing her loop in exactly an hour, and suddenly Eileen was on her way!  I was super pleased with her time because everyone who finishes under 90 minutes gives me an extra buffer.  6.5 miles in 90 minutes is tough for me on roads in good condition... throw in trails and mud and it's a whole new ball game.  Jessie described the course to us, and it sounded like other than the mud, it wasn't too bad - mostly flat, some pavement, some gravel, some stream crossings.

I will say the waiting around wasn't too bad when your teammates are all super fast!  By the time we got a snack for the runner who just finished, visited the port-o-pots, stood around the fire pits, we didn't have too much extra time to kill.  Eileen came in at exactly and hour also, and Henry started his loop.  I was loving this huge buffer my teammates were giving me!

While we were waiting for Henry to get back, I decided to take a "before" picture of my pretty pink shoes.  I had a feeling they weren't going to be looking so pretty after my run.  Everyone was coming back so muddy!  I was wearing rubber crocs for most of the day to try to keep my feet dry, and it worked... not that the dryness would last more than 50 meters into my run...

Henry came in just under an hour.  I grabbed the timing chip and take off!!  I had been worried that I would have to walk most of the grass area, just because running on grass is so hard, and I'm not a great runner anyway.  I started off and was surprised that I felt really good!  In fact, I glanced at my watch and I was doing 11:30 min/mi, which for me is very very fast.  I knew I needed to slow down or else I'd be sorry later.  But I ran that entire grassy part, the first half mile of the course, including the parts where the mud got so deep that my shoes started slipping off of my feet.

Once off of the grass portion, we ran on pavement for awhile.  I did take a walk break but ended up running far more than I thought I would.  I finished the first mile in 13 min which I was happy about esp given the deep mud in the grass.  Then we turned onto the gravel portion, and I will admit I walked a little more than I should have.  I'm not sure why, I think it's a habit for me to take walk breaks and in this case I'm not really sure I needed it.  Gotta work on that.  Then the gravel ended and the single track trail begain.  Parts of the trail were really not that bad, and in fact, pretty scenic. 

And then parts of the trail looked like this.  I didn't even attempt to run through this.  I was slipping and sliding just trying to keep my balance while walking.  I really am surprised I didn't end up face down in the mud at some point.  So much for my 13 min/mi pace... my 2nd mile was 19 minutes long.  Oops. 

I really did enjoy running this trail, and as long as it wasn't muddy, I ran as much as I could.  After scolding myself for walking too much on the gravel, I got into the mindset of only walking when I really needed to.  On the way back, I was much better about the walk breaks.  Back over the bridge, through the mud, through the streams, on the gravel, and then the pavement.  For some reason I thought the pavement portion was much longer than it actually was, so I found myself nearing the finish line faster than I thought.  My "ON A BEER RUN" teammates were waiting for me with about a quarter mile to go, and joined me so we could all cross the finish line together!

I ended up finishing in 1:34:46 which I was pleased about.  My Garmin registered closer to 6 miles than 6.5 miles, but even with that, given all of the mud, I thought I would be slower.  And here is the "after" photo of my pretty pink shoes.  I kind of wish I had taken a "during" photo because after running through the final few streams of water, they actually got cleaned off quite a bit.  We were really lucky that it never rained on us, though there were some snow flurries at points during the day.  In April.  Not OK.

By now we were all starving.  I had wanted to wait and see Paula's team finish, but thanks to my super fast teammates, we finished a lot earlier than expected.  Paula and I are actually very similar speeds, but since I got to start so much earlier, I finished over an hour ahead of her.  And we were just so dang cold.  So we hopped on the shuttle back to the parking lot and then headed across the street for some post-race celebratory food and beverage.

Joann met us there for the celebration and the two of us stuck around for awhile after the others needed to go.  I am pretty sure we ate ALL THE FOOD.  I was so exhausted that I drove home, took a quick shower, and was fast asleep by around 8pm.  It was a fun day and I would definitely do this relay again.