Reach the Beach 2008 - 9/11-9/14

While many of my fellow teammates were doing either the Long Training Run or the Queens Half marathon this past weekend, I was in New Hampshire with 10 other Flyers competing in and enjoying the Reach the Beach relay - over 350 teams competing to run about 210 miles the fastest way they knew how. Although I've run Need for Speed twice, this was my first time doing an overnight, continuous relay. It is a much different experience.

I signed up for Reach the Beach in the beginning of July and was looking forward to running it. I heard only good things about it from everyone I knew who ran it before. Over the past month and a half, our 12 person team began to lose members. It seemed like every other day, someone needed to drop out and we called up the next person on our alternate list. By the time we drove up on Thursday morning, we were down to 10 runners. Therefore, instead of everyone on the team doing 3 legs apiece, 6 of the runners had to run four legs. I was not scheduled to run four legs, but could empathize with the people who had to. It is extremely taxing on your legs, body and mind to run 4 legs in less than a 24 hour period.

Unlike the hot and humid weather that struck NYC, the weather for most of the race was very good for running - overcast and cool with temperatures in the high 50's and low 60's, although there was rain on and off for a few hours during the first night's legs.

Overall, I had a great time but by the end of the race I realized that this event is pretty exhausting - running 3 legs on very little/no sleep sleep in a van with 5 other people in which there is little room to stretch out. My training over the past several months prepared me well, but nothing can really get you ready for this kind of race until you actually do it.

Being one of the faster teams, we didn't start until 2:25PM on Thursday afternoon (I believe the first team started at 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning). Our captain ES started us off on leg 1 which started at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, NH. It was definitely very exciting. It was at this point that it finally hit me that we were really doing this. Our 210 mile journey had begun.

Since we were in the "second" van, we were not going to have a runner for at least 5 or 6 hours. We drove to watch ES hand off at the first transition area and then took a rest at transition area three which was a hiking/ski lodge. It allowed us to take a small rest and get some lunch at the same time.

I was the last runner in our rotation of 10 and I had three legs that were considered "moderate to hard" overall - based on length of leg and the change in elevation on the course. This was a good description. My first leg was 4.9 miles, second leg was 9.1 miles and the last one was a relatively quick one at 3.1 miles. My first two legs were at night/early morning. It took some getting used to running in the pitch black on streets that are completely foreign to you. All of the night runners had to wear a reflective vest, light flashers, and a headlamp or flashlight (I got a Princeton Tec headlamp at Paragon).

Although the legs were very well marked with reflective arrows, all it took was one wrong turn and you could be completely lost in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, I was a little bit nervous going into the first leg, not knowing what to expect. Unfortunately, during my first leg, there were no other runners around me for the first four miles, so I didn't have anyone to focus on or "latch" onto for some company. I spent most of the run trying not to fall on the side of the road and hugging the white line to see where I was going. The only way to know that I was still going in the right direction was the other team vans passing me by. They reassured me that I was still on course and they helped to illuminate the road to see what I had ahead of me - turns, hills, etc. The leg was full of some rolling hills in the beginning, and the last 0.9 miles was almost straight uphill. I was excited to finally see some vests reflecting back at me at about mile four, signifying that I finally reached other humans on the course. Seeing people ahead of me gave me an extra boost of energy and I surged over the last mile. I passed the two people in front of me about half mile from the end of the leg and handed off to ES at the transition station. This being the first leg, I felt good and strong throughout and I was able to get the nervousness and uncertainty out of my system about running the course at night. The leg started at about 9:40PM and ended at around 10:20PM.

The second leg started at around 6:00AM and it was still dark outside so I needed to run in all of my "night" gear. At least I knew that halfway through my 9.1 mile leg, it would begin to get light outside. Believe it or not, I was happy to have a long leg since I wasn't going to be able to do my scheduled 12 mile run, so I figured that this distance would suffice.

I checked out the leg description and it didn't have an elevation chart on the page (while other ones did) so I took that to mean that the leg was relatively flat. I couldn't have been more wrong. The first 4 to 4.5 miles was one hill after the other. Once I got up a hill, it was very deflating to see another one coming up just around the bend. My team was waiting in the van about halfway through the leg to give me Gatorade. I was feeling pretty bad when I saw them. After the leg was over, I asked JG if I looked as bad as I felt, and he said that I looked pretty spent. After having some Gatorade, I labored up the hill (even walking a little bit) but luckily the course began to flatten out and I started to feel a lot better and got a second wind. There was another runner right in front of me (who passed me when I stopped for Gatorade) that I was able to hang with for several miles. The flat road and cool temperatures, allowed me to pick up my pace considerably and I felt great for the next 3 or 4 miles. I re-passed the guy in front of me and then never saw him again. I ended the leg very strong and felt good about how I was able to bounce back after a very tough first half of the leg.

My third and final leg was my first one in complete daylight. It was only 3.1 miles but I was pretty tired at this point. I wasn't sure how my legs were going to react. The leg started at about 2PM. I was hoping to have a strong leg and was hoping to do under 8:00 pace. When I got the hand off from AH, I started quick and felt the strain in my legs. The weather was finally starting to heat up and I wasn't sure if my legs would hold up. As I was beginning to tire, I told myself to stay strong and keep up as fast a pace as I could. Whatever stress or discomfort I was feeling, I knew it would all be over in 25-30 minutes so I tried as hard as I could to keep it up and I did. I passed three people along the way - feeling more and more energized after each one. It was a great feeling to see most of the team cheering for me at the transition area - especially since I knew that my race was over once I handed off the bracelet to ES.

The race finally ended for us at Hampton Beach at around 6 o'clock in the afternoon. We all gathered right before the finish line waiting for RB to appear and then all of us ran across the finish line together. We did it!

This event definitely made me stronger mentally and a better runner. For the past seven or eight years, I've been so used to feeling that the only way I could run a fast pace was if I was among throngs of people in a race atmosphere or with a group of people running to the songs on my iPod. However, this race began to make me realize that this doesn't necessarily need to be the case. On my legs during Reach the Beach, I was all by myself for most of the time, with no music, and no people to focus on or pass yet I was able to persevere using only the voice in my head and my own internal motivation. I learned alot more how to motivate myself when there is no one around. For two of these legs, I was running in the dark on unfamiliar streets with no idea about how long I had to go yet I was able to push myself through times when I felt tired, sore, etc. It was a good feeling. The spinning and strength training look like they are still working, since after the race was over, I had relatively little soreness in my legs. My ankles and achilles tendons were the only parts of me that were particularly sore. After all the miles that I have been putting in, it is time for my next pair of running sneakers.

Team Results -

• Overall: 65th place out of 355 teams;
• Mixed Open Division - 19th place out of 166 teams;
• Average team pace - approximately 7:53 pace (although the first few runners had a pace that was considerably less)

My results:

• Leg #1 (4.9 miles with significant elevation) - 7:59 pace;
• Leg #2 (9.1 miles with huges hills one after the other in the beginning and then flattening out in the middle) - 8:40 pace;
• Leg #3 (3.1 miles - relatively flat) - 7:32 pace.
• Overall pace over the total 17.1 miles - 8:16

Kudos to everyone on our team for a great race and thanks to our captains ES and BH for all of their hard work.