After spending the 4 days post 50k trying to figure out if I should run the 12 hour or not (see prior post), I decided literally at the last minute to not run solo but to run a relay with Kelly and Leslie Ann.   Registration closed at midnight Thursday and we were signing up around 10 p.m.

Running on a team would give me the ability to push the individual loops if I felt like it, but also back off my loops if needed.  And really, as we weren’t going to be competitive, to stop running all together if necessary.

I’d never run a relay before, and wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it.  I really like being out there solo all day!  However, I must say I did enjoy the day.  And who wouldn’t with a base camp like this:

And a support crew like this:

and a team like this:

In the end one of the most fun things was watching the top two teams compete.  One team was a group of young ladies (two 12 year olds and a 13 year old), and the other was a team of seasoned veterans.  (Aka old guys and gal.  🙂  )

The girls were fantastic — all of them ran 9 loops of the 2.93 mile course, to complete their first “marathon.”  They literally pushed the veterans all day and in fact had the lead in the last two hours or so of the race.  In the end the veterans had just a bit too much… They came in ahead by just a few minutes on the 27th loop, and the girls opted to quite at 9 each, while the winning team went out for one more loop.  79.11 vs. 82.03 was the final tally, but again the girls could have gotten in one more loop, they just would not have made up the time difference.

Here’s a shot of all 3 teams:

My team ended up with 67.39 miles and here’s my strava data — I opted to treat each loop as it’s own run:

I did run a double as my last outing so we could eek in one more loop before time expired.  I’m trying to track down my individual splits and will update this post if I can find them…