Day Three: 500k relay. Toowoomba to Gatton
Our final day! I ran 7.78km total. (Distance “advertised” 7.50km)
Leg #5: The Champion Run
Difficulty rating: 5
Time start: 5.30am
Total distance: 3.50km
Total time: 17.10min
Average pace: 4.54/km
Fastest pace: 3.48/km
Elevation: -63
Temperature: cool
The best weather (cool)! The best time of day (early morning)! My ideal terrain (mostly flat with some gentle sloping downhills)! What can I say? All the stars aligned to make this my fastest split times I’ve ever raced.
I was very fortunate, in that I was the third runner of the day but the first to get a follow vehicle (the first two legs had a police escort only). My team offered me water, but the weather was cold and the distance short. Who needed water?
The person tagging off to me surprisingly came in dead last by a long shot. Surprising because the two people ahead of me were both strong runners. But on my leg were a few slower people, and I was sure I could pick them off! I received the tag off and took off down the hill. Not long after the follow vehicle picked up my trail (they were a bit slow as the poor finisher had to jump into the car right after his race). It was a quiet morning and a quiet highway. So the followers rolled down the window to cheer me on. I responded at first, but I was on a mission after all! I needed to catch those guys in front, within my sights after 500m. I only heard about 20% of the words, but the voices sounded encouraging. I gained a lot of lost time, but sadly 3.5km was not enough time for me to pick-off a lead of at least 800m. If I’d had another km I would have had them for sure! In the end I was only 100m back. I gave it everything I had, and am really happy. Maybe next year I’ll be fast enough (lucky enough) to pass someone in the champion runs.
Leg #6: The Mass Start.
Difficulty rating: 2
Time start: 2.00pm
Total distance: 4.28
Total time: 25.21min
Average pace: 5.55/km
Fastest pace: 4.52/km
Elevation: 24m
Temperature: hot & humid. As hot as Friday with dead air that stifled.
The very last leg of the race. The ‘glory run’ for some teams, who run this unified and finish together. The six of us in it had planned to do that, but our coach found out and wasn’t happy. We had to run our best, he said. We had to beat the team that was (at last check) 15min ahead of us in time. I was bummed, as I was the slowest runner put into that leg.
No one wanted to do it. No one! It was hot, and there was a champion run “finish” coming into the town, but then after a 30min break we had to mass start it to Gatton. The 8.4k journey was split into two runs. I ran the last of the 4.2km.
What can I say about this run? I ran with a water bottle for the first time this whole weekend, as we were only promised one water stop. But within 5 min the heat and jostling had heated my water up quite warm, and it was no longer very useful.
I remember a marathoner telling me that at the end of her first marathon she had burst into tears due to the physical & emotional exhaustion of her achievement. I never thought such a thing would happen to me but by the end of that race I could see what she meant. There reaches a point when you think you can’t take it anymore. Was it from sleep deprivation? Physical exhaustion? Heat exhaustion? Sadness that this marked the end of such an amazing weekend? Frustration that my hopes of finishing with my teammates had been squashed by our coach? That I had forgotten my sunnies and the brightness (and heat) was burning my eyes? Perhaps any of those – perhaps all. In any case, it was the most emotional race I’ve ever run. Fortunately, no one expected me to speak at the end of the race. I had a lovely supporter from the team pass me a chilled bottle and I poured it over my head as I caught my breath. Perfect!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
500k relay: Day 2
Probably my least favourite of the days for two reasons. One, slight disorganisation. Two, no champion runs! I ran 8.22km (distance “advertised” 9.1km).
Leg #3: The Mass Start
Difficulty rating: 4
Time start: 7.15am (but I was dropped off with another teammate promptly at 5am. Meaning we were standing around in the middle of nowhere on our own for two hours. Us, the race marshals, and a frisky horse)
Total distance: 4.22
Total time: 23.14
Average pace: 5.30/km
Fastest pace: 4.24/km
Elevation: 42m
Temperature: warm/hot.
This leg not so bad. There are no follow vehicles. The gun goes off and everyone starts like a typical race. There is a police escort before the first runner and behind the last runner. You reach the end of your leg and once everyone has arrived (and is bundled into cars to get to the next change over) the next leg starts. My thought? Please don’t let me be the one with the police car right behind me! I don’t know if I would want to have everyone watching, waiting for me to come in only to be hustled off to the next place. But I don’t have a choice – it all depends on what other runners have been elected to run my leg of the race.
Fortunately – fortunately! – I am not the slowest of the slow runners and finish well ahead of the back (but well back of those ahead).
There was only one water vehicle on the course. They were recruited from one of the teams and were very friendly & provided cups of water. As it wasn’t super hot out yet, I didn’t mind just having the one.
Leg #4: The Cri.
Difficulty rating: 4
Time start: 13.20pm
Total distance: 3.98km
Average pace: 5.37/km
Fastest pace: 4.21/km
Elevation: 0
Temperature: hot & humid
My least favourite. Total chaos! In previous years it was a scenic two loop run around a creek. But floods had taken out one of the bridges and town budget hadn’t replaced it. So we had to run 5 laps around a park. Getting to the park was even less fun! Being told the race would start any moment, those of us who had just set up for lunch didn’t even have time to make it before running down to the creek to start. But wait! No one is at the creek! So we raced back up to the bus to see what is happening. No one there, either! A police car barrels in and announces on the loudspeaker that those of us running the cri must get to a park 1km up the road ASAP as the race is starting momentarily. Chaos! Madness! Panic!
Our poor bus driver – who was rubbing his hands in glory at the spread of lunch set out before him – was dragged back to the bus before getting a single bite to drive six of us up there. Then at the start we were told we would have a 15min wait as they needed to split up the number of runners on the course due to the narrow paths.
Then they told us less than a minute before the gun went off that everyone would be running at once because time was on a budget. And we were off! No fellow teammates to provide us water. I roped our poor bus driver into providing us water at the end. Poor guy! He goes from thinking he’s about to get a nice lunch break to missing lunch so he can hand out water to hot, sweaty runners. Heroically, he didn’t complain.
The course was supposed to be 5k long but no one wanted to correct the race organizers on how many laps they had us run – I was super grateful it was (for the first time) shorter than advertised. And thank you to the other teams who saw us poor support-less runners and handed out cups of water! It’s all in good spirit, after all!
...and then what happened, some may ask? We hopped back onto the bus, drove the 1k back to the picnic site...which was all packed up with two runners waiting for us. The others had started an hour ago, they said. We had to throw everything in the bus (no time for lunch! Us runners were too hot, anyway) and race to catch up with the rest of our team. It was a bit of pressure, but we made it. Phew! We finished at 6.15pm. Start time of the first runner was 4.45am. What a long day! But we did it!
Dinner (as with the night before) was at 7.30pm set up in the motel parking lot. Poor motel guests must have had heart palpations when they see a group of giddy people set up shop in the parking lot and pull out a few beers (though no one planned on getting drunk). But we were all in bed by 8.30pm for a 3am wake-up on Sunday.
Leg #3: The Mass Start
Difficulty rating: 4
Time start: 7.15am (but I was dropped off with another teammate promptly at 5am. Meaning we were standing around in the middle of nowhere on our own for two hours. Us, the race marshals, and a frisky horse)
Total distance: 4.22
Total time: 23.14
Average pace: 5.30/km
Fastest pace: 4.24/km
Elevation: 42m
Temperature: warm/hot.
This leg not so bad. There are no follow vehicles. The gun goes off and everyone starts like a typical race. There is a police escort before the first runner and behind the last runner. You reach the end of your leg and once everyone has arrived (and is bundled into cars to get to the next change over) the next leg starts. My thought? Please don’t let me be the one with the police car right behind me! I don’t know if I would want to have everyone watching, waiting for me to come in only to be hustled off to the next place. But I don’t have a choice – it all depends on what other runners have been elected to run my leg of the race.
Fortunately – fortunately! – I am not the slowest of the slow runners and finish well ahead of the back (but well back of those ahead).
There was only one water vehicle on the course. They were recruited from one of the teams and were very friendly & provided cups of water. As it wasn’t super hot out yet, I didn’t mind just having the one.
Leg #4: The Cri.
Difficulty rating: 4
Time start: 13.20pm
Total distance: 3.98km
Average pace: 5.37/km
Fastest pace: 4.21/km
Elevation: 0
Temperature: hot & humid
My least favourite. Total chaos! In previous years it was a scenic two loop run around a creek. But floods had taken out one of the bridges and town budget hadn’t replaced it. So we had to run 5 laps around a park. Getting to the park was even less fun! Being told the race would start any moment, those of us who had just set up for lunch didn’t even have time to make it before running down to the creek to start. But wait! No one is at the creek! So we raced back up to the bus to see what is happening. No one there, either! A police car barrels in and announces on the loudspeaker that those of us running the cri must get to a park 1km up the road ASAP as the race is starting momentarily. Chaos! Madness! Panic!
Our poor bus driver – who was rubbing his hands in glory at the spread of lunch set out before him – was dragged back to the bus before getting a single bite to drive six of us up there. Then at the start we were told we would have a 15min wait as they needed to split up the number of runners on the course due to the narrow paths.
Then they told us less than a minute before the gun went off that everyone would be running at once because time was on a budget. And we were off! No fellow teammates to provide us water. I roped our poor bus driver into providing us water at the end. Poor guy! He goes from thinking he’s about to get a nice lunch break to missing lunch so he can hand out water to hot, sweaty runners. Heroically, he didn’t complain.
The course was supposed to be 5k long but no one wanted to correct the race organizers on how many laps they had us run – I was super grateful it was (for the first time) shorter than advertised. And thank you to the other teams who saw us poor support-less runners and handed out cups of water! It’s all in good spirit, after all!
...and then what happened, some may ask? We hopped back onto the bus, drove the 1k back to the picnic site...which was all packed up with two runners waiting for us. The others had started an hour ago, they said. We had to throw everything in the bus (no time for lunch! Us runners were too hot, anyway) and race to catch up with the rest of our team. It was a bit of pressure, but we made it. Phew! We finished at 6.15pm. Start time of the first runner was 4.45am. What a long day! But we did it!
Dinner (as with the night before) was at 7.30pm set up in the motel parking lot. Poor motel guests must have had heart palpations when they see a group of giddy people set up shop in the parking lot and pull out a few beers (though no one planned on getting drunk). But we were all in bed by 8.30pm for a 3am wake-up on Sunday.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
500k relay: Day 1
First, thank you all for your encouragement & enthusiasm. I apologize for the delay in writing this but as many of you know I have had numerous computer problems the past few weeks so it has taken a while to work through it.
This past weekend was my 500k Endeavour Relay. I cannot describe such amazement! Well...I can, but not to any worthy degree. In my mind there were three types of runs: the cri’s (criterium), the mass starts, and the champion runs. I ran two of each. In this blog I’ll describe Day 1: Mt Gravatt to Warwick.
The day started at 2.30am to start the race at 4.45am. I was a bit nervous of that wake up time – I’ve never gotten up so early for a race before! There were 15 teams with a size between 12-30 runners. Our team had 21 total members – 18 runners + 3 support crew. I ran the very first leg of the race, which was a cri. To run the 500k relay, you do it along highway. Some stretch of highway is too dangerous to run on, so instead you run a “criterium”. In this first cri we had two waves of seven runners each. All 14 runners ran 7km. 7km x 14 runners = 98km travelled. This allowed us (after our cri) to drive the 98km down the highway to another place where we started the highway running. Everyone with me?
So, back to the race. Today’s total for both runs was 12.31km (distance “advertised” 11.90km). My total distance run of the weekend: 28.31km.
I hadn’t eaten brekkie beforehand. Big mistake!!! The runs are all categorized for level of difficulty with 10 being the most difficult and 2 being the easiest.
Leg #1: The Cri.
Difficulty rating: 8
Time start: 4.45am
Total distance: 6.98km
Total time: 43.03
Average pace: 6.10/km
Fastest pace: 4.59/km
Elevation: +64m
Temperature: hot & humid
This leg was also the longest leg of the entire weekend at 7km. It was around Griffin University Campus and we had to do 3 laps around. The course was on a hill, so our option was to go up...or down.
The best part was finishing the race with a teammate and having another teammate right there at the finish line with a chilled bottle of water and lots of encouragement and congrats. You see, we had designated “water boys/girls” in the race. This was non-running team members whose job was to be at the finish line with said bottle of chilled water. I have always dearly loved my support crew but the support this weekend absolutely spoiled me (you will learn why as you read on).
Leg #2: The Champion Run
Difficulty rating: “4” which was agreed to be under-rated for that leg of the trip (all agreed a 6 would have been more accurate)
Time start: 1.20pm
Total distance: 5.33km
Total time: 32.50
Average pace: 6.12/km
Fastest pace: 4.25/km
Elevation: +51
Temperature: over 36C and humid. Hot enough that the tarmac started burning my feet. Not the “stepping on hot coals” burning but the “my feet are cooking in an oven and I want to pour ice on them” burning.
The Champion Runs were without a doubt the highlight of my weekend. I mentioned we had 3 support crew on our team? One drove the bus for all us runners, one a “follow vehicle” and one a “water truck”. The follow vehicle was supplied by Endeavour, the “water truck” was a car supplied by a support crew.
Here’s how the Champion Run works: you run down a stretch of highway (always secondary highways – usually pretty quiet). The distance is between 3-6k depending on the leg and then you tag off to the next teammate who continues on down the highway. At all times you are followed by your follow vehicle, which has a flashing light and large banner proclaiming “runners ahead”. It’s job is to make sure you don’t get hit by other cars. For me, I felt like I was running at the head of a championship race with my own personal escort.
About every 700m our water truck stopped to provide chilled water to us. When you are running in ++36C, even 700m is not enough! The water truck had two teammates: one at the back holding a water bottle out for you, and one further up the road (say, 10-15m) who would collect the bottle from you when you were done. Then they hop back in the truck and zoom ahead to meet you at the next 700m point.
Fortunately in the spirit of the race I received water from other teams’ water trucks – just as our guys gave water to other runners on the road. Some teams had spray bottles. Genius! It was like a cooling mist before the heat beat you down again. As teams drove by in their buses I could hear their screaming and cheering of encouragement. Some made a point of coming up to me later that day or the next to congratulate me on my run.
In the end I was happy with my run – considering the conditions. I tagged off to the next runner and was greeted with an umbrella for shade (there was no shade elsewhere) and an icy cold bottle of water – already opened, of course. But no time to cool down! I hadn’t yet caught my breath before I was herded onto the bus to drive with my team to the next tag point of the race. I was given the “glory seat” on the bus at the front, draped with a towel. Others called it the “sweat seat” but I prefer “glory seat”. On the way past the next runner of course, the bus slowed down so we could pull down the windows and cheer them on. Then the windows quickly went back up...it was hot outside, and everyone preferred the air con!
This past weekend was my 500k Endeavour Relay. I cannot describe such amazement! Well...I can, but not to any worthy degree. In my mind there were three types of runs: the cri’s (criterium), the mass starts, and the champion runs. I ran two of each. In this blog I’ll describe Day 1: Mt Gravatt to Warwick.
The day started at 2.30am to start the race at 4.45am. I was a bit nervous of that wake up time – I’ve never gotten up so early for a race before! There were 15 teams with a size between 12-30 runners. Our team had 21 total members – 18 runners + 3 support crew. I ran the very first leg of the race, which was a cri. To run the 500k relay, you do it along highway. Some stretch of highway is too dangerous to run on, so instead you run a “criterium”. In this first cri we had two waves of seven runners each. All 14 runners ran 7km. 7km x 14 runners = 98km travelled. This allowed us (after our cri) to drive the 98km down the highway to another place where we started the highway running. Everyone with me?
So, back to the race. Today’s total for both runs was 12.31km (distance “advertised” 11.90km). My total distance run of the weekend: 28.31km.
I hadn’t eaten brekkie beforehand. Big mistake!!! The runs are all categorized for level of difficulty with 10 being the most difficult and 2 being the easiest.
Leg #1: The Cri.
Difficulty rating: 8
Time start: 4.45am
Total distance: 6.98km
Total time: 43.03
Average pace: 6.10/km
Fastest pace: 4.59/km
Elevation: +64m
Temperature: hot & humid
This leg was also the longest leg of the entire weekend at 7km. It was around Griffin University Campus and we had to do 3 laps around. The course was on a hill, so our option was to go up...or down.
The best part was finishing the race with a teammate and having another teammate right there at the finish line with a chilled bottle of water and lots of encouragement and congrats. You see, we had designated “water boys/girls” in the race. This was non-running team members whose job was to be at the finish line with said bottle of chilled water. I have always dearly loved my support crew but the support this weekend absolutely spoiled me (you will learn why as you read on).
Leg #2: The Champion Run
Difficulty rating: “4” which was agreed to be under-rated for that leg of the trip (all agreed a 6 would have been more accurate)
Time start: 1.20pm
Total distance: 5.33km
Total time: 32.50
Average pace: 6.12/km
Fastest pace: 4.25/km
Elevation: +51
Temperature: over 36C and humid. Hot enough that the tarmac started burning my feet. Not the “stepping on hot coals” burning but the “my feet are cooking in an oven and I want to pour ice on them” burning.
The Champion Runs were without a doubt the highlight of my weekend. I mentioned we had 3 support crew on our team? One drove the bus for all us runners, one a “follow vehicle” and one a “water truck”. The follow vehicle was supplied by Endeavour, the “water truck” was a car supplied by a support crew.
Here’s how the Champion Run works: you run down a stretch of highway (always secondary highways – usually pretty quiet). The distance is between 3-6k depending on the leg and then you tag off to the next teammate who continues on down the highway. At all times you are followed by your follow vehicle, which has a flashing light and large banner proclaiming “runners ahead”. It’s job is to make sure you don’t get hit by other cars. For me, I felt like I was running at the head of a championship race with my own personal escort.
About every 700m our water truck stopped to provide chilled water to us. When you are running in ++36C, even 700m is not enough! The water truck had two teammates: one at the back holding a water bottle out for you, and one further up the road (say, 10-15m) who would collect the bottle from you when you were done. Then they hop back in the truck and zoom ahead to meet you at the next 700m point.
Fortunately in the spirit of the race I received water from other teams’ water trucks – just as our guys gave water to other runners on the road. Some teams had spray bottles. Genius! It was like a cooling mist before the heat beat you down again. As teams drove by in their buses I could hear their screaming and cheering of encouragement. Some made a point of coming up to me later that day or the next to congratulate me on my run.
In the end I was happy with my run – considering the conditions. I tagged off to the next runner and was greeted with an umbrella for shade (there was no shade elsewhere) and an icy cold bottle of water – already opened, of course. But no time to cool down! I hadn’t yet caught my breath before I was herded onto the bus to drive with my team to the next tag point of the race. I was given the “glory seat” on the bus at the front, draped with a towel. Others called it the “sweat seat” but I prefer “glory seat”. On the way past the next runner of course, the bus slowed down so we could pull down the windows and cheer them on. Then the windows quickly went back up...it was hot outside, and everyone preferred the air con!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Back with the pack
This weekend I returned to Brisbane. What a fantastic, fantastic trip! I was home for three days and ran every single day with all my favourite people. How much I’ve missed everyone!
Friday: women’s run with my running group.
Chris (the coach) kindly picked me up as I was car-less. Ahh, how I have missed the Friday morning fun! Because we had new people, Chris decided to forego the loop in favour of uphill sprints and stairs. Not steep hills…but lots of stairs. And weird things on stairs that I had to do slowly due to my lack of coordination. But despite this, the laughter and joking never stopped.
Saturday: long slow run with my running group
The group was full of new faces and people I hadn’t seen for weeks, so there was a lot of catching up to do. A fellow runner kindly baked me a belated birthday cake – yum! To quote Chris, I was in the group that was “just doing 12k”. (The fast group was doing 20k). Ah, bliss! How I’ve missed the 12k runs. They are so short and easy. You’re out and back before you know it. No mental psyching up required, no physical exhaustion or stiff muscles following the run, and no time commitment! We split from the fast group who did a completely different route, which was a nice change. While I love starting together, the trouble is that we end up pushing too hard. Chris ran with the back posse group this week and we wound our way through the hills at a slow, easy pace of 6.10. It seemed every hill and corner I was beside someone different. The run was over far too quickly – 12ks are like that, but most of us went up for breakfast and hung around for the next couple of hours catching up.
Total time: 1.13.18
Sunday: social run!
Sunday I did a social run with my two most loyal & favourite social run friends (you know who you are!). How fantastic is it to be able to catch up while going for a walk/run? We did a loop around the uni, cutting it short as my friends had a time limit due to other engagements. We alternated between an easy jog and a walk. As one of them pointed out, it’s nice to have friends I can catch up with on a run. It gets me out the door and aside from sleep, not many activities are planned at 7am. And who would want to sleep at 7am when you could be out running with friends? Pace – who cares? That’s what’s great about social runs! J
All that fantastic running over the weekend made me realize that maybe I haven’t just been lazy with my “semi-off-season” running these past few weeks. Maybe I’ve simply lacked the motivation to go out when I haven’t encountered anyone as fantastic to run with as my Brisbane group (I’m counting both the running group and my social running friends in this!). Running with others is not for everyone – some people are better at being a lone wolf. Me, I’ve discovered the joy of running in a pack.
Friday: women’s run with my running group.
Chris (the coach) kindly picked me up as I was car-less. Ahh, how I have missed the Friday morning fun! Because we had new people, Chris decided to forego the loop in favour of uphill sprints and stairs. Not steep hills…but lots of stairs. And weird things on stairs that I had to do slowly due to my lack of coordination. But despite this, the laughter and joking never stopped.
Saturday: long slow run with my running group
The group was full of new faces and people I hadn’t seen for weeks, so there was a lot of catching up to do. A fellow runner kindly baked me a belated birthday cake – yum! To quote Chris, I was in the group that was “just doing 12k”. (The fast group was doing 20k). Ah, bliss! How I’ve missed the 12k runs. They are so short and easy. You’re out and back before you know it. No mental psyching up required, no physical exhaustion or stiff muscles following the run, and no time commitment! We split from the fast group who did a completely different route, which was a nice change. While I love starting together, the trouble is that we end up pushing too hard. Chris ran with the back posse group this week and we wound our way through the hills at a slow, easy pace of 6.10. It seemed every hill and corner I was beside someone different. The run was over far too quickly – 12ks are like that, but most of us went up for breakfast and hung around for the next couple of hours catching up.
Total time: 1.13.18
Sunday: social run!
Sunday I did a social run with my two most loyal & favourite social run friends (you know who you are!). How fantastic is it to be able to catch up while going for a walk/run? We did a loop around the uni, cutting it short as my friends had a time limit due to other engagements. We alternated between an easy jog and a walk. As one of them pointed out, it’s nice to have friends I can catch up with on a run. It gets me out the door and aside from sleep, not many activities are planned at 7am. And who would want to sleep at 7am when you could be out running with friends? Pace – who cares? That’s what’s great about social runs! J
All that fantastic running over the weekend made me realize that maybe I haven’t just been lazy with my “semi-off-season” running these past few weeks. Maybe I’ve simply lacked the motivation to go out when I haven’t encountered anyone as fantastic to run with as my Brisbane group (I’m counting both the running group and my social running friends in this!). Running with others is not for everyone – some people are better at being a lone wolf. Me, I’ve discovered the joy of running in a pack.
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