Posts Tagged by race preview
One Week {and a giveaway!}
| August 17, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under Running |
One week from today, I will be boarding a plane to Seattle to join the nuun team for 24 hours of running, peanut butter eating, coffee chugging, van sleeping fun on Mount Hood and along the Oregon coast. As cheesy as it sounds, this is the opportunity of a lifetime!
When I first applied to be on the team, most of my excitement was just about the relay itself. For whatever reason, I didn’t think much about the other bloggers who would be on the team, and the fact that this experience would connect me with women I never would have even heard of otherwise (which is dumb, since I always babble on and on about how much I love the team aspect of relays).
Since being selected, however, it’s been all about the other ladies running. This group is easily the most excited team I’ve ever run a relay with. We’ve come up with a team logo, team uniforms and warm-ups, amazing van decoration ideas, and more. This has taken the team camaraderie that I love so much to a whole new level. Now I’m just as excited to fly out west to meet my teammates as I am to actually run.
Anyway, since we’re so close to the event that has consumed {almost} every waking thought for the past couple of months, I thought I’d take some time to answer all those questions people didn’t actually ask me (I’m sure you all were thinking them though, right?)
Frequently Never Asked Questions
How in the world did you get chosen for this thing?
In case you’ve started reading Health on the Run recently, here’s a link to the application that started it all – I Wanna Run Hood to Coast!
I head HTC is hilly. How exactly have you been preparing to run through mountains at elevation?
Umm….well Providence is sort of hilly too. And I run up those hills on every run. So that counts, right? (Let’s forget about the whole “sea level” thing for now)
Have you done double/triple runs to prepare for the fact that you’ll be running 3 legs in 24 hours?
Sometimes I do a workout in the evening and then get up in the morning to run. But I’ll admit that’s more because of the way my schedule works out than because I’m trying to be intentional about practicing. Plus, in those situations I have about 12 hours between workouts – which is double the amount of time I’d have on the relay.
So…no.
Okay, it sounds like you haven’t really trained for this at all? Is this true??
Yes and no. Honestly the only thing I’ve done is just continue to marathon train. I’ve been trying keep up with lifting regularly and I’ve mixed in some tempo runs/speed work/races, but those are things I’d be doing anyway. I don’t mean to make light of this whole race, but I ran 17 miles last week – which is about the total distance I’ll be running through the course of the weekend. Yes, I’ll be doing those runs on much hillier roads, but I’m hoping my marathon training will have given me enough strength to make it through this relay.
What are these team uniforms you speak of?
Sorry, but that’s top secret, classified information. Okay, so not really but I’m still going to make you wait until the relay to find out. Just think lots of color – people are definitely going to see us coming!
What is your favorite relay snack?
Nuun will be providing most of the food for our vans, which works out great because I’m flying across the country. But I might try to sneak in a few of my favorite things. Like Justin’s nut butter packets (so much easier than bringing an entire jar!) and my new favorite relay treat, peanut-butter filled pretzels. Seriously – I couldn’t get enough of the saltiness after running.
Becky modeling the crack snack she brought for us on the Cape Relay
Will your awesome Bondi Bands be making an appearance?
Why yes, of course – because I swear this thing makes me run faster. As does my I <3 26.2 shirt, of course.
“In my dreams I am a Kenyan” and “Will run for ice cream” – both so true
This sounds like so much fun! How can I track your every move next weekend?
I’m so glad you asked! I won’t be blogging through the relay, but we have created plenty of opportunities for you all to follow along on the adventure. Ready to be overloaded by social media?
- Follow me on Twitter (if you don’t already). I promise my sleep-deprived tweets will be mildly entertaining
- Follow our team AfterNUUN Delight on Twitter (@afternuundelite) – seriously, we need more followers
- Follow the other {almost as cool} team Nuun Platuun on Twitter (@NuunPlatuun) – I know it’s not a competition, but Nuun Platuun already has twice as many followers as we do. I know they’re all cool and intense and everything, but we’re all about the love, so follow @afternuundelite, okay??
- For you non-Twitter users, we have created a Facebook page! “Like” Bloggers Spreading the Nuun Love” on Facebook to see updates from both teams in one place. Plus, I heard all the cool kids are doing it.
- And finally, I will also try to post occasional updates, photos, etc to the Health{ontherun} Facebook page, in case the other options aren’t enough for you.
Phew, I know that’s a lot! But I just want you all to be involved in the fun.
And now, because I want everyone who reads this blog to be just as excited by the Hood to Coast relay as I am, I have a fun surprise for you all!
Hood to Coast DVD Giveaway
As you may {not} know, the Hood to Coast movie recently came out on DVD. Not just any DVD, either. A 2-Disc special that includes over 95 minutes of extras. Hours of Hood to Coast fun in one little package?? Try not to get too excited.
In the small chance you haven’t ordered it already (because I know most of you pre-ordered the movie months ago, you were so excited, right?), I have decided to give away one copy of the DVD to one lucky HOTR reader. I might also throw in a few tubes of Nuun…if you’re lucky.
To enter -
Simply comment on this post and tell me your best relay experience OR one reason why you don’t think you’d ever run one (because I know we’re not all so crazy – though if you hate relays, I’m going to sort of wonder why the heck you want the movie…). Or you could ask me a question that you might actually have about the relay/nuun team/etc, give me some last minute tip or even leave some nice encouraging words (is the elevation really going to kill me??). Basically, if you comment on this post and say anything related to relays, I will consider you entered (unless, of course, you don’t want to be. Which is fine!!).
I’m not going to ask you to do a bunch of other things, but I will give you ONE bonus entry for following the Nuun Teams on Twitter, liking our Facebook page, or liking the Health{ontherun} page (all listed above). Sorry, but following me on Twitter doesn’t count. Just leave a separate comment telling me what you did so I can count it as an entry.
And even if you don’t want the bonus entry, you should follow all our team pages anyway!
Edited to add: I guess I should specify when this thing ends. I want to order the movie before I head out west, so the giveaway will run through midnight on Monday, August 22nd. I’ll choose a winner that Tuesday – so enter before then!
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*This giveaway is sponsored and funded purely by me. The only connection I have with the relay is the fact that I’m running it next week. I just want to spread the Hood to Coast love to all my readers!
12 Runners. 24 hours. 200 miles.
| June 12, 2010 | Posted by Lauren under Running |
The early morning fog swirls around you as you run down a quiet road through Vermont’s beautiful Green Mountains. The only thing you hear is the sound of your steady breathing and your footsteps as they hit the pavement. As you watch the sun slowly rise over the trees, you feel at peace. All is right with the world.
Suddenly, you’re snapped out of your reverie by the sound of running water. Its fresh smell fills the air as you round the corner to see one of Vermont’s amazing covered bridges. You look in awe at the idyllic beauty of the scene and think to yourself, “Does it get any better than this?”
Now, imagine feeling this way despite the fact that you’ve spent the past 24 hours in a cramped van with 5 other smelly runners. After over a day with practically no sleep, you’ve been surviving on caffeine, energy bars, and pure adrenaline. This is your third and final leg of the race and at this point, you’d give just about anything for a shower and some clean clothes. Your salt-covered legs feel like bricks and your stomach is twisted up in a million knots. But somehow, you keep putting one foot in front of the other, focusing instead on the beautiful views all around you. Because, after all, this is supposed to be fun (and honestly, despite all this, it is!)
This, my friends, is what the Green Mountain Relay (GMR) is all about. A challenging relay race through the beautiful state of Vermont that truly tests your limits…all within a fun, extremely well-organized event. This will be my second time running the relay, and it is one of the most fun, yet most difficult things I have ever done.
The 200-mile Adventure Relay
So what exactly is an adventure relay? From the GMR website:
The Green Mountain Relay is a 200-mile team distance relay race adventure in Vermont designed for runners of all abilities. Scheduled the third weekend of June to take advantage of the Summer Solstice, and limited to 100 teams, the intimate GMR route travels north-south through the heart of Vermont and the Green Mountains, with a majority of the route following or paralleling historic Route 100. The Fifth Annual running of the Green Mountain Relay will be Saturday – Sunday, June 19th – 20th, 2010.
Start your running season off with a fun and challenging adventure with 5 or 11 of your running friends on one of America’s most scenic relay race routes.
…Runners will experience all that is special about Vermont: country stores, sugar houses, quaint country inns, covered bridges, and revolutionary war period homes, buildings, and cemeteries. Route 100 weaves through small towns and villages, past mooing cows, crowing roosters, and the roaring waterfalls in Granville Gulf. Runners cross over seven historic covered bridges, go up and over challenging hills such as Terrible Mountain, and finish with the Bennington Memorial on the horizon.
The basic premise of the event is a 200(ish) mile relay from Point A to Point B that you run with 11 of your craziest closest friends. You are divided into 2 separate vans which trade off throughout the course. Runner #1 starts, runs to the checkpoint and hands off to Runner #2. This process repeats until all individuals in the first van have run a leg of the race. Van #2 then meets Van #1 at a set transition area, where Runner #7 will take off. All runners in Van #2 then do their first legs before handing off again to the first van. This way, there is a runner from your team going at all times as you slowly make your way through the heart of Vermont, down to the finish line. Each runner ends up running somewhere between 15 and 20 miles over the course of the relay.
The starting line – teams start in waves based on your expected finish time
If you’re really crazy fit, you can choose to run the race with a 6-person team (or less!). In this case, each person would run over 30 miles.
GMR 2009 – EC & I at a transition, running so fast we’ve turned into a blur
There are adventure relays that take place all over the US. I’ve only done two – GMR and Reach the Beach (in NH). GMR is a much smaller race, but it’s definitely my favorite of the two. The event is so well organized and the scenery is amazing.
GMR 2009 – EC powers up a hill
Training
Next week at this time I will be in Vermont with EC, HOTR Sister #4, and a team of 9 other individuals who happen to be complete strangers. Yep, that’s right. I’m spending 24 hours in a smelly van with people I’ve never even met. Why would I choose to do something so crazy? Well, the truth is, the team EC and I were supposed to run with ended up falling through. We were both extremely disappointed about this, and tried to tell ourselves that there will always be next year. However, I was never completely able to accept this fact. Call me crazy, but I wanted to run the race so badly that a few weeks ago, I sent out a desperate plea on the event message board asking any teams if they still needed a couple of runners. To my happy surprise, EC and I were able to find a team that had some members drop out at the last minute, and we’re dragging my youngest sister along for the ride.
Getting ready for an evening run by drinking 1/2 of EC’s favorite substance
But because I had (almost) accepted the fact that I wasn’t running the race, my training has been less than ideal. In fact, my mileage has seen a significant decrease in the month since my 1/2 marathon, both because I’ve been focusing more on lifting, but also because I’ve been traveling. A lot. And I haven’t been the best about getting in runs during my travels.
Since I’ll be covering a total distance of 18.2 miles, ideally I’d like to have had a couple of 10+ mile runs along with several days of running 2 times per day under my belt at this point. In reality, the only double digit runs I’ve had so far have been on my two double run days. Most of my runs have actually been hovering around the 6 mile range. While that will be the average distance of each of my legs, I’d feel much more confident going into the relay had I been running just a bit more these past several weeks. I plan on doing a long run this weekend and again early next week as well as squeezing in one more double-day, but then I’ll just have to trust that adrenaline will carry me through.
On a positive note, I do feel pretty confident about the hills. So while two out of three of my legs are rated hard and have some pretty decent climbs, my regular running routes cover some pretty good hills, making me not (too) worried.
Updates From the Race
The cell reception is pretty bad along the course, but I’m going to try posting periodic updates through Twitter and may even try to do a quick phone-assisted blog post when possible. And I’ll definitely be doing a full recap after the event, so stayed tuned!
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