Reach the Beach 2009 -- Part 1

When I told my friends and family that I was going to run as part of a 12 member relay team in the Reach the Beach Relay race, they asked me if I was crazy. Who would want to run and rotate through 36 transition areas covering 206 miles all within a 24 hour period? I responded that it may be crazy but it sure sounds like fun.

After getting home at about 8:00 pm on Saturday night, I realized that it was a bit crazy. But, the Urban Dictionary defines crazy in such a way you can begin to understand a runner’s mind. It also happened to be very good description of the people on my team.

Crazy (from urbandictionary.com)

1. Often misinterpreted as a bad characteristic, crazy is used to describe people that are random, hyper, creative, and flat out fun to hang with. (adj.);

2. Often used by people to describe what they do not understand or think is not how something or someone should be and or act.

What is the Reach the Beach relay? It is advertised as a Running Relay Adventure Race. This could not be a better description of this race. “The Reach the Beach (RTB) Relay is the longest distance running relay race in the United States. The RTB Relay will take place in picturesque New Hampshire during the start of the New England foliage season” (from rtbrelay.com). The course this year started at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire and the finish line was 206 miles away at Hampton Beach State Park in Hampton, New Hampshire.

I was runner #8 on the Raging Waters team. We had entered as a Men’s Corporate Open team because we only had 2 women of our 12 runners. To run as a Corporate Mixed Open team you have to have 6 men and 6 women. But, I have to say our 2 women runners were awesome. Plus they enjoyed the fact that they were able to be in a van with 5 smelly men all to themselves for a little over 27 hours. What woman doesn’t fantasize about that?

Based on our team’s estimated pace times, we had a plan to finish the race in 28 hours, 37 minutes and 26 seconds. This would mean we would be averaging 8:21 per mile. It sounded like a fairly solid goal to me and something that if we had it in us we could potentially beat. What I didn’t know at the time was how difficult the 2nd leg of this race is for all of the runners. Not to mention the 3rd leg after being sleep deprived for 24 hours. We were given our starting time of 1:40 pm on Friday which meant we would get into Hampton Beach around 6:00 pm on Saturday.

I picked up a few of our runners early Friday morning (5:30 am) because they were on the Running Waters team and had a 10:40 am start. This meant John Heden (our captain), Charles Lewis and I would be up at Cannon Mountain for several hours before our start. I thought it would be fine as it would give me time to nap before our start. Well, who knew that 399 teams and over 4,500 runners would create such a scene that you wouldn’t be able to get any shut eye. I did enjoy hanging out at the start seeing all the teams. Some had costumes and some were just having a great time before they had to start. I never got my nap in. I didn’t think too much about it. We had our team picture right before it started to rain and then headed over to watch our first runner leave the starting line on leg #1.

The race is really well run and John started off on time and headed out for his first leg of 7.95 miles (check out http://www.rtbrelay.com/course_legs.php for the legs descriptions). The first 6 legs were run by our runners in Van #1. Based on our goal time, they would be running 37.81 miles and finish in around 5 hours and 43 minutes. We had cell phones to allow Van #1 to call us and let us know if they were ahead of schedule. So, Van #2 which had Dan Lau (runner #7), me (runner #8), Helene Angley (runner #9), Bruce Metcalf (runner #10), Charles Lewis (runner #11) and Derek Clifford (runner #12) headed down to grab a decent meal before we had to meet Van #1 at the first Vehicle Transition Area (VTA) – Attitash Ski Area.

Van #1 was ahead of schedule and we finished our meal and headed up to the VTA to meet them for Dan’s and our van’s first leg of the race. They came in a good 30 minutes ahead of schedule which is a nice way to start this race. I figured we had it made and would definitely beat our time goal. Dan took the wrist band hand off and headed out for his leg which would cover 7.23 miles. We then jumped in the van to head out to transition area #7 where I would take the wrist band for my 1st leg. Our 6 runners would have to cover 31.59 miles and to hold the 30 minutes Van #1 had gained, we would have to finish in 4 hours and 23 minutes.

Dan came in strong and I was so pumped up to be running my first leg, I took off at a good clip. Unfortunately, the club sandwich and French fries I had eaten about 3 hours before were not cooperating. So, I burped my way down the road. I wanted to keep a strong pace and come in at around 8:00 per mile which I had been training for since running Boston in April. I won’t say it was easy. But, I pushed myself.

Leg #8 runs through the town of Conway. The traffic at this time of night (around 6:30 pm) was pretty thick. I had to be cautious even though I had a reflective vest with flashing red lights on it. I knew I was almost finished when I got to the center of town and the intersection of Rt. 16 and Rt. 153. I was in a groove at this point. As I crossed the road to head over to the Ham Arena and TA8, I saw our team captain John yelling for me to pick up the pace. I was filming the last ¼ mile with my flip camera and he grabbed it and told me he would film and I should focus on running. Up ahead I saw the lights of TA8 and picked up the pace to hand off to Helene. We had a smooth hand off and then I could look at my watch. I couldn’t believe what I saw…52:25! I had run the 6.61 miles at a 7:55 pace.

I didn’t have time to revel in my success as we had to get back in the van to get to TA9 and meet Helene. The balance of the transition areas went really smoothly and we finally reached VTA #2 to meet Derek as he finished his 3.87 miles through White Lake State Park. VTA #2 was crowded and crazy. But, we met Derek who handed off to John again who headed off for Van #1’s next 6 legs. We had head the pace and even picked up a few more minutes on our goal. We jumped into our van to head down to the next VTA so we could get some shut eye before we had to run our next 6 legs. Based on our current pace, we would have to be back up at 2:30 am to be ready for Dan’s next leg. It was 10:15 pm.

We headed down and found TA17 (Robbie Mills Sports Complex) where there was a large parking area and fields where some of our runners could sleep outside. It was clear and only 48 degrees. So, 3 of our guys (Bruce, Charles and Derek) slept on the ground. Helene, Dan and I slept in the van. I can’t say it was a restful sleep with the port-o-john doors slamming and vans coming in and out. But, I did catch a little shut eye before someone set off their car alarm which woke me up fully. I knew there would be no getting back to sleep at this point.

At 2:30 Derek came back to the van to get us all up and going. We had to drive down to VTA #3 at the New Hampshire Technical College. We made it in plenty of time. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The skies were clear and we could even see the Milky Way. Dan took the hand off for his 2nd leg a mere 4.33 miles. He is such a strong runner, that we had to get moving so we would have plenty of time for me to get ready at TA#19 (Belmont High School).

We made it in no time at all. Not much traffic other than vans from the race. I looked at my watch as I headed over to the hand off area – 3:50 am. This was going to be interesting. Dan came in at a good pace and handed off to me. I had one of the hardest legs ahead of me. I was going to have to run 9.23 miles with the first 5.5 miles going up hill and gaining 551 feet. Plus, I would be doing this with no food or sleep since 2:00 pm on Friday. This is what the race is all about. So, I turned on my headlamp and headed out.

I will tell you what happened in my next post. But, we had to complete 39.48 miles starting at 3:10 am. The good news is we heard there was a hot breakfast available at VTA #4 Bear Brook State Park which would have tents provided by New Balance and places to stretch out for some much needed rest. Stay tuned.