unsystematic

13 Sep 2009

211 miles later… We did it!!!

This year I had the opportunity to participate in the Blue Ridge Relay race – a 211 mile race from Grayson State Park in Virginia to Asheville, NC. The race spans a day and a half and consists of teams ranging from 4 members to 12. My team, Team 4tunate (to have 2 more runners), was comprised of five other super awesome people and excellent runners. We began early Friday morning with Jason Martin on Leg 1 kicking off at 7:20am finishing Saturday afternoon with me on Leg 36. With 36 total legs and six runners, we each got an even 6 legs with myself being every sixth. See some of my earlier posts for more information.

My plan was to twitter, flickr and blog about the race in real-time, but that plan was foiled when I realized there’s little to no cell phone reception up there. I did however, manage to get a few items out on twitter and Melissa wonderfully put together a nice blog for me from our text message conversations. Be sure to read it too.

Some details about the race: The race started at 7:20am Friday and did not stop until I crossed the finish line Saturday afternoon. That’s all day, all night, and all morning. Reflective vests were required at night and whenever we ran on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Red blinking LEDs were required at night along with a headlamp (otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see anything). Sleep was possible, but not really with all the excitement. With 3-5 hours between legs I made attempts at sleep, but only managed to get rest between the converstation, encouragement, door shutting and anxiety.

Some things I learned: Don’t fight gravity. Love your downhills. Treat them right and they’ll treat you right. Ice injured limbs. Use ‘the stick’ after each run. Eat plenty of carbohydrates, proteins and salts to avoid cramping and provide energy. Don’t push it – set a safe, smart pace and maintain it; with the number and size of the hills you’ll spend all of your energy if you don’t spend it properly and your overall time will suffer.

And now for some leg recaps, detailed information, and pictures! We’ve got more pictures and video coming soon!

Leg 6
Time start: 11:07am Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246412
Before I began my first leg I was worried about my ankle. I was hoping it would hold up and I think I worried so much about it that I actually made it hurt. I say that because now, after 36.4 miles it’s fine. Weird. Anyways, this leads to more and far greater problems later. Keep reading and you’ll see. Oh, the reason for the huge jump on the map is because I forgot to reset my watch and when I started it for my next leg I was miles away. The main stats are still there.

Leg 12
Time start: 4:25pm Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246403
This was my hardest and longest leg. About a month ago some of the legs needed to be adjusted to use different exchange zones to accomodate the increased number of runners. This year was the biggest event to date with 102 teams. A big increase from the previous years’. Lucky me, I got all the extra miles, which is why the race went from 208 to 211 miles. This leg was one of those that received the additional miles. Originally it was 7.9, but it was modified to 9.1. Jason Martin of the team was kind enough to print, laminate and prepare little cards with the mileage, directions and a map that we could carry with us as to not get lost. However, a few of them weren’t updated when the legs were. As a result I began this leg with 7.9 miles in mind, only to keep running confused as hell to 9.1. It wasn’t until I hit the 8.8 mile mark when I kinda realized what had happened.

Leg 18
Time start: 9:59pm Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246397
This was one of my two night legs and the first leg where I was really hurting. I was looking forward to the downhill too, but because I was worried about re-injuring my ankle I was overcompensating for that possibility by not running properly. As a result I ended up screwing up my shins, calves and knees which will only hurt the remaining three legs. Instead of leaning forward and letting gravity do the work, I resisted and “stomped” my feet slowing myself down. Never a good thing and it’s terrible on the knees.

Leg 24
Time start: 2:43am Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246393
My second night leg. Actually it was early morning on Saturday. I’m feeling the pain from the previous run but hoping this 3.2 miler is as easy as it looks. With an all-downhill run you’d think it’d be easy, but when you’re shins and knees are screaming at you from the previous run, running uphill would seem far less painful. I don’t think I can get across how much pain I was in. Running at night was creepy. You run though some really backwoods, isolated places. The team made mention of Deliverance several times and even though I hadn’t seen it, I was able to make a synopsis from the details given. It’s pitch black and you’re running on narrow roads with a few houses here and there. The only source of light is my headlamp and two blinking red LED’s that are required during night runs. The air is damp and every little noise gives you a little spook. Imagine my surprise when I hear a low growling all of a sudden coming from behind me. I stop, turn around, and there’s a dog bearing it’s teeth at me. I scream at it to scare it and it backs up slightly. I continue to run and it’s chasing me growling again. I stop, turn and scream at it again a few times. Then I hear its owner calling it and it runs off. For the next few minutes I felt no pain as the adrenaline subsided. Scary leg, that one.

Leg 30
Time start: 8:22am Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246388
I’m hurting. Bad. And for some odd reason slightly welcoming this uphill leg. Okay not really. I was maybe a little glad it wasn’t a downhill leg though. Nothing super exciting here other than the pain shooting through my knees, calves, ankles, soles and shins. And the fact that we’re almost done. Big uphill leg here with 1,892 feet elevation gain.

Leg 36
Time start: 1:48pm Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246383
The final leg of the race. 6.8 miles of painful, agonizing, tear-jerking running. Or in my case, very slowly limping. This leg begins with exiting the Blue Ridge Parkway onto a nice residential road winding down into downtown Asheville. By this time, I’m seriously wondering if my knees are going to bust and that is absolutely no exageration whatsoever. Earlier in the day my team kept saying that if I didn’t think I could finish, to let them know and they’d pick up my leg. No way was I going to come this far and not finish. I wanted to finish this race, no matter what kind of pain I was in or how broken my body was. I had to sit down and stretch several times during this leg, each time the runners passing me asking if I was okay and offering me water. I had exhausted both 8oz bottles from my fuel belt half way through this leg. Seeing that they didn’t have much water left either, I declined their offer and wished them a good rest of the run. I was seriously very ready to have one of them tell my team to come get me I was in so much pain. But, as runners passed they encouraged me by saying things like “Come on buddy, only two miles to go!” and “You can do it, come on!” Eventually, I made it downtown with only .7 miles to go and eventually across the finish line.

How am I feeling? Everything from the waist down is in excrutiating pain. My left shin and right sole are competing for the most painful making walking extremely difficult. Driving home in my Honda Civic, a stick shift, was pretty interesting as my left foot didn’t seem to want to depress the clutch. I’m pretty sure my left leg is seriously injured warranting a doctor visit this week for an x-ray. I’m hoping it’s just a really, really bad tired muscle and not a stress fracture. Mentally and emotionally I feel very energized, proud, satisfied and more confident in my running. This was an extreme event that pushes the limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. A fun challenge that I’d gladly do again next year.

All in all, this was the hardest physical, mental, and emotional challenge of my life. 36.4 miles in 32 hours is no easy feat. Thanks a bunch to my team, family, and friends who gave me support and strength to make it through. I look forward to running again next year, hopefully with the same team.

Thanks to Jason Sutton for these pictures. I’ll put up more pictures and some video later: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suttonscoop/sets/72157622231803313/

Thanks to Kevin Davis for these pictures: http://justkev.in/pics-from-blue-ridge-relay

Other related blogs:
Jason Sutton, Kevin Davis, Melissa Oyler

Thanks to Kevin, Jason S., Jason M., Alex S., and Whitney T. for being awesome teammates and for all the support from friends and family.