205.8 miles in 24 hours
What is the most fun 6 men and 6 women, 8 wheels, and 2 SUV's can have in 21 hours and 45 minutes while covering over 200 miles? Reach the Beach Relay would be the correct answer. The results can be seen here. Ryan's Adventure Race Series continued on this weekend with the historic reach the beach relay from the base of Cannon Mountain in Lincoln, N.H. to the shores of Hampton Beach. What a blast we all had. This race has always been on my to do list, and this is the year I have decided I had better do all the events I have always wanted to do or else I will be too old or busy to do them.
We set or goals extremely high for a mostly rookie 24 hour relay team. We had our sight set on taking the overall and being first to the beach even though we were among the last 5 teams to leave the mountain. Our aim was to take out defending RTB champions Hello Kitty and be the first co-ed team to win it overall. Well, we fell a touch short of our goals but still had a mighty performance that was over an hour faster than I thought we could do on our best run. Of course all predictions for something like this are completely from the hip. How do you know how fast one can run up the Kangamangus Highway? What does a 1.8 mile split at 7:30 in the morning mean during a downpour after 2 earlier tempo's and only about 2.5 hours of sleep? It is hard to judge and quantify such things so we made a goal of running on feel. If you feel you can go a bit faster, by all means pick it up. If you feel you are going to blow up and not be able to finish your last leg, slow down. We had a last minute change of plans which brought Christy Mae onto our team which caused some last minute planning and a lot of extra driving for our Van 1. Things got a little tense, sometimes hectic, but never crazy or out of control. We took some risks going off course during our vans down time which paid off large dividends in extra sleep. Uncle Fire and I had planned to sleep outside so the others could have the room in the SUV to sleep. Unfortunately during our sleep time it was raining and we were forced under the truck to get some shut eye. It is amazing where you can sleep after two tempo's and it is 3:00 in the morning. I woke up at 5:40 to skip letting us know van 2 was 25 minutes out and 35 minutes ahead of schedule. I must have been on some hard ground because I had the worst case of movie butt I have ever had. Both cheeks were numb for about 20 minutes after I woke up. Good thing that wasn't my leg coming up.
Our team ended up coming in second overall and we were the first co-ed team to the beach and first co-ed team overall. We had a great time. Thanks to my teammates and van mates for making it such an enjoyable race. I had a blast and really hope I can rally the same crew for another run at it next year. I think we can do better especially with the modifications I would make from this year. Mostly just small tunes to optimize efficiency.
Here is a picture of christy and I trying to look awake after some hard legs.
I will post splits and results as soon as I get around to it. There is a couch calling my name for a nap.
That's all I got.