When my friend Beth mentioned a 24-hour relay race, I told her of course I was interested. I ended up getting a spot on the team just a few weeks before the race when someone had to drop out and we weren’t too sure what to expect. This race was going to be different from the other relays I’ve done – we had 12 people on our team and 24 hours to cover as many miles and get as many points as possible. The team I joined had actually split into two teams from the previous year – a full team (12) and an ultra team (6). Not really knowing anyone before the race made finding all of our teammates a little difficult, but we had some awesome lime green team shirts that helped us stand out from the rest of the teams.
The camp sites at the Whitewater Center weren’t formal, so I fit my 2-person tent in between our campsite and the one next to us – it was the perfect size to sneak in between the trees.
Leg #1 – Blue Loop
The race started at 7:00pm on Friday night. Teams didn’t have to follow any specific format for runners, so since I was willing to run in the dark, I wasn’t going to start my run for a few more hours. One of the ways to get bonus points in this race was to complete all 6 legs within a 6-hour period, so I volunteered to run the longest leg in the dark. My first leg just over 6 miles and had a lot of up and down hills.
This leg was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but after traveling from Charlotte to Pittsburgh to Tampa to Pittsburgh and then back to Charlotte in the week leading up to the race, I wasn’t surprised that my legs were heavier than I was hoping they would feel. Since it was a trail run, I didn’t follow a standard walk:run ratio and just walked when I had to.
- Mile 1 – 11:51
- Mile 2 – 14:40
- Mile 3 – 15:50
- Mile 4 – 16:57
- Mile 5 – 15:31
- Mile 6 – 12:02
Overall time: 1:27:23
I definitely struggled a little bit with the fact that I didn’t start this run until almost 10:00pm – I worked all day and didn’t eat a very good dinner, so I had to fuel more than I would have expected for a 6 mile run. I am glad that I did this run in the dark – there was quite a bit at the beginning and end that were unshaded, so once we got into the day on Saturday, I’m sure these areas were really hot. Instead, I got to run in the dark with temperatures in the 50’s – perfect running weather!
Leg #2 – Yellow Loop
Originally I was thinking I would have to run my second leg around 5:00am, but the team decided to stick with a 6-man crew for each 6-hour section, so I wouldn’t run again until the next 6-hour segment started at 7:00am. That meant that instead of being up at 4:30, I set an alarm for 6:30 and headed back up to the start line area to meet my teammates.
- Mile 1 – 14:12
- Mile 2 – 15:07
- Mile 3 – 13:30
- Mile 4 – 15:09
- Mile 5 – 13:22
Overall time: 1:14:06
