On Monday, I revealed that I was doing my first ever relay and the nerves that came with it. Throughout the week, the anxiety never subsided and by the time Friday rolled around, I can honestly say that I was still not sure how I felt about a weekend relay race with people I barely knew, but were kind enough to invite me on this adventure. But today, I’m back to report that it was a FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC weekend and I’m so glad that I stuck to my 2011 goal of making the most out of every opportunity.
I’ll skip the car ride and bring you to Friday night when we all met up at this fine cabin. Inside the log walls was Ralph, Corinne, Tiffany, Todd, Lloyd, Angel and myself.
Ralph, our ring leader and uber-excel/analytics obsessed, had already prepared a spreadsheet of last year’s relay, the pace the each of previous team member ran on each of the legs. Whoa there, nelly. I haven’t been training for this (let alone at this altitude) and cannot compare to last year’s performance. As anyone with any sense of race nerves might guess, it wasn’t getting any easier for me to swallow this.
Thus, to prevent boring you to tears and writing a mini-novel, let me break down the relay for you like this (and mostly with photos, because who doesn’t like photos?!)
The relay consists of seven legs that run the complete perimeter of Lake Tahoe:
- Leg 1: 9.6 mi.
- Leg 2: 8.2 mi.
- Leg 3: 10.3 mi.
- Leg 4: 12.3 mi.
- Leg 5: 10.6 mi.
- Leg 6: 10.5 mi.
- Leg 7: 10.5 mi.
I was assigned to the first leg and technically knew that my leg was flat with a good climb at the end, but what I didn’t realize was that the altitude difference would eat my soul and legs alive, and that the climb was pretty brutal. Now lets get to some photos already!
I look so happy! Little do I know what is about to happen to me…
I was drafting off of this woman for a while and then she started to speed up. I think she just wanted to get away from the weird girl behind her.
I love this shot. It’s June and there is still snow on the Sierras. But damn, horrible form.
One of the best parts of a relay is that 100 percent support you have from your team along the entire course. I was so baffled and grateful at how every single on of my team members was so genuinely supportive (not to mention fun). This has to be the number one reason I enjoyed this race.
However, this is also where the pain started to set in…the hills were picking up, my lungs felt like they were on fire (I NEED MORE OXYGEN) and I told Corinne that I’ve had to go the bathroom since mile 3 (and there are no port-a-potties on the course). Things were not looking pretty.
After climbing one of the hills, Corinne ran out to me with a bag of TP. As much as I wanted to stop and go, I wasn’t about to a) go the bathroom in front of my teammates (who had already apparently scoped out a spot for me), or b) waste time and let my team down.
So I powered through the last two miles – lungs burning and feeling like total crap. Overall, I bonked. My body simply wasn’t prepared for this elevation change – so I took my 7:15 pace and sent Angel off on the hardest leg of the race…all uphill.
Angel was a trooper and powered through leg 2. I would have died – no doubt about that.
Tiffany demolished leg three and is a pro downhill runner. I think I’d like to add that title to my running resume as well.
I love this photo of Todd on leg 4. He had the longest leg of the race and it was when the heat really started to turn up. Hellllllo, California!
Look at Corinne’s hair fly on leg five! Wooosh, woooosh, woooosh!
Lloyd is the ultimate runner. Not only does he have amazing form (look at that!) but he is literally ALWAYS smiling and never complaining. He’s swell.
And Ralph was the anchor, brining it home for us on leg 7.
“Oh, hi team that kept putting in fresh people multiple times throughout the same leg.”
FINISH!
Holy huge medal!
We circled the lake in 8:57:45 (7:28 pace per mile), finishing 17th overall and 6th in the Open Coed division. Most of the team (myself included) would gripe that we all had a bad day and when we compare it to what we each know we are capable of, sure we each could have run faster. But this race did teach me a thing or two:
- Relays are f-ing awesome
- You will look like crap the entire day, but it’s totally worth it
- TRAIN AT HIGH ALTITUDES!
- Never hesitate on an opportunity to make a new adventure
- Your worst run in always better than a day at the computer
Oh, and wine and Ralph’s salmon are new post-race mandatories!
Happy Running!
Girl, altitude is KILLER!
I ran out in Santa Fe last week and it was very tricky.
And I ran a 5k with Caroline Rotich. She was 4th place at Boston 2011 and she trains out there at altitude and it really seems to help.
Great report! I’m running my first relay in September. But it’s 12 girls, 36 legs and 186 miles! I’m a little nervous as I’m the team captain and no one has done one before! hehe
But it’s all about having fun! RedRockRelay -Zion is the Relay. I heard about that Tahoe one- sounds fun!
Looks like a blast! Great job!
omg this looks amazing in all the right ways. i love the pics of you with the mountains in the background! can i please fly out to lake tahoe and do this relay with you next year? k, great.
Good job! Youcrackmeup!
this sounds like so much fun! i LOVE tahoe and i’ve been dying to do a relay. hilarious pics, btw!
Awesome job on the relay! Sounds like it went great! I think my ex-coworkers did the race too, hopefully I’ll be able to do it next year!
And running a 7:15 pace in Tahoe with all the elevation and hill climbing is great!
17th overall is really good, sounds like it was a fun time!
That looks like so much fun, and the scenery is BEAUTIFUL!
FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Other than the lack of oxygen, this sounds like an amazing time! And such beautiful scenery. 🙂
Congrats on the relay! Sounds amazing and it looks like a beautiful course (I mean, it’s Lake Tahoe, how could it not be beautiful).
wow those are some beautiful pictures! sounds like a blast 🙂 congrats!
great job! i want to try a relay too! 🙂
Fun fun!! Relays seriously sound like so much fun! I have always wanted to go to Tahoe! Someday hopefully!
running heaven! except for the altitude. I’ve run in Tahoe a dozen times or so, and every time am humbled by how much the altitude gets to you. I usually kind of like it, because I can run 1/2 the time as normal but feel just as wiped out…in a good way. Which means more time for Tahoe exploring!
When I was 13, I went up to watch my best friend’s parents run this relay. I thought they were the the most amazing athletes in the world, as at that point I had only ever run….2 miles? I dunno. It’s really neat to remember that experience, and then read this post. It re-invigorates my desire to be a part of the running community!
And your pace is off the hook for elevation/hill/bathroom issues! way to push it despite not feeling well
So cool that you did it and had fun! 🙂
AWESOME! LOVE the photos. What a beautiful place for a relay! I finally got on a team and signed up for the Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire and I am REALLLLY excited! I’m so glad you had such a good experience 🙂 And reason #5 to run a relay…DAMN STRAIGHT. Great job, as always!
Page, you kill me! I love your running pics. A relay looks like SO MUCH FUN. I want to do one now!
Sounds like an amazing weekend!! Glad you had so much fun 🙂 I like the sound of that relay with only one leg!
The race looks absolutely gorgeous.
Nice job! Looks like you killed it.
Ooh! I really want to do this. Might be a smart idea before deciding if the Tahoe Triple is in the cards!
Brilliant!!I’m the lady in blue!!Didn’t think you were THAT weird…!;)he he!
I was over from Ireland visiting my wee sister for the month and she roped me into this relay!Totally enjoyed the day!
One of the girls from her club that was on our RTO team spotted me in your blog…what a small world!Proud to have made your write up!
Miles of smiles to you ;););)