Race Report
5th Annual
Capital to Coast Relay
2 days
* 223 miles * 12 runners/team
On Thursday Oct 16th,
20 runners from the Waxahachie area headed down to Austin, TX to run the Capital
to Coast Relay. Overall there were 51
teams participating and a course time limit of 40 hours to complete the race. http://www.capitaltocoastrelay.com/
So how did I get in
this mess? Well it started when a friend
of mine mentioned putting an Ultra six man team together. He was not able to work out a team, so I
signed up with the local WRC (Waxahachie Running Club) team.
I was still intrigued to run the race as if I were on a six-man team, so
I decided to run two of the 12 legs!
There were two teams
from WRC and we had four vans. My team
van had five runners. One runner was the
oldest race participant at 69 years young – Henry Frare. One runner had been
running for about 14 months and had completed a marathon – Andrew White. The other two runners were not marathon
runners but had a solid running base of 1-2 years – Andra Moore and Kristi
Slate.
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| Team One – Look at the innocent smiles! |
For me the event
was very exciting! Overall I thought “How
hard could it be to run about three half marathons for a total of 38 miles?” I did run back-to-back marathons for 52.4
miles in two days almost nine month ago.
What I did not expect were the challenges of sleep deprivation, the hot
and humid temps, and the overall stress of the race venue – it is an endurance
event, right?
The first day
started with about three hours of sleep.
Having four guys in the same hotel room sleeping in full size beds was
not very conducive to a solid night of rest, plus we had to get up at 2:45 for
a 4 AM race start.
The race started in
downtown Austin just south of the capital at 4 AM. There were 51 teams ready to go! I did hear that a few teams started later. I
guess they were fast enough to make up time with their faster pace!
My first 13 miles
went fine, it was a lot of sidewalks and small hills as we headed south of
Austin. The vans would leapfrog their
runners and meet them at 1-2 mile increments.
We seemed to be the only people around town with lots of yelling and
excitement for all! I passed the first
exchange point and kept going. Here is where the road got a little lonelier as
the runners started to spread out. As we
got closer to the 2nd exchange point, the road quickly turned dark
and narrow with several hills to climb.
Luckily there wasn’t much traffic to deal with along the way.
After the handoff I
got in the van and tried to get some rest.
During the run itself I had nothing but water. Prior to the start I had a banana and a
little bit of coffee - this was my regular pre-run routine. My plan was to keep it simple and light for
the race. The next four runners ran
their legs and then we got a bit of a break.
Afterwards we
headed down to our next handoff. The
road I was to run for the next 11 or so miles was called Knockenut road. We had a lot of laughs about the name of this
road and I heard that while I was running the jokes in the van got more
creative.
We tried sleeping
for a bit before my leg began but the sun was very hot, the side of the road
was full of bugs and ants, and we also struggled to get a cell signal.
Once van #2
approached, it was time for me to run again.
It was a blacktop road and the thermometer read 93 degrees! There was little-to-no shade along the way,
so it was time to just grind it out. At
one point about five miles into the run, the road turned rough and rocky, and
it became very dusty as the vans passed by.
This is where I had to dig deep and just
finish my leg of the run. I got a little
hope when the road turned back to blacktop; however, that lasted about a tenth
of a mile as it turned back on to Knockenut and the rocks and dust returned. Luckily I had a great crew and they were
cheering me on and handing me water as I needed it. At this point I took a few salt sticks for electrolytes
and lots of water.
Once I finished my
leg the other runners ran their portion of the race. I laid back in the van trying
to rest and the day turned into evening as we continued on. I had an apple and a cliff bar for dinner.
We finished our leg
of the race and drove about 30 miles to Karnes Middle school where we could
take a shower, rest and get a bite to eat.
At this point I had no interest in eating, so I took my shower and sought
refuge on the gym floor around 11:30. I
did not have any sleeping gear, so I grabbed two Spiderman blankets and a State
Farm pillow wrap and attempted to get a little rest. The challenge was all the noise! I could hear
every word spoken in the gym, every rustle of a bag, the commotion of runners
entering or leaving the gym. We got up
about 2:45 AM and drove another 36 miles to the next exchange.
We stopped for
coffee and gas along the way and then parked for about an hour or so as we
waited for the next runner. We then
realized that we were one exchange point too far away, we made a mistake and
had to backtrack! This really created a
sense of urgency as we flew back up the road to the correct exchange
point.
Here I was, running
the 3rd and final leg of my race - 14 miles! It was about 5 AM, very dark and not much to
see on the road until I made it back into town.
I passed the next exchange point and kept on going. Along the way I had a near mishap as I hit something
in the sidewalk. I never saw what it
was, but I went stumbling forward as I attempted to stay upright and not face-plant
into the concrete! I survived, I did not
fall, but my heart was now racing and I was wondered if anyone had seen
me! That day the running gods were with
me and I was able to keep going.
As I got to the
last four miles or so I really started to wear down….I went from a steady run
to a run/walk blend just to keep moving forward. I tried a Honey Stinger for some quick energy,
but I wasn’t really hungry. I was awake,
but the legs just did not want to move.
My only thought was how I could move forward faster to end this
punishment. Looking back, it wasn’t that
bad, I wasn’t injured or anything, I just had nothing left in the tank at that
moment! The endurance part of the event
was made real to me, and I was at the point of pushing beyond my limits and
seeing this thought through to the end. I
think this was “the wall” many talk about in a marathon but I had never
personally experienced it.
Andra was the next runner up. I told her if
she wanted to go ahead and make the exchange a bit early she could, we were
losing a lot of time with my current pace.
She did this when I had about ¾ of a mile to go; however, I was not
quitting. I told her to go on and I was
going to finish my leg no matter what. I
had 38 miles to run and I was planning on making it through all of them!
Once I got back in
the van I was spent. I wanted nothing
more than to sleep; however, this is when the fun began!
Andra sprained her
foot four miles into her run, so Kristi set out to take her place. She went about four miles and was done so
with three legs left, we were down to our last two runners! Henry ran the next leg, he was solid for sure
and even passed a runner. Next up was
Andrew - he started out with a solid pace and tore down the highway at a good
clip.
Our team had
completed our portion of the race. Now
it was time to head down to Corpus and wait for the last runner to complete the
race. We made our way down about 35
miles and drove through some hard rain. Apparently this hit the runners for about 30
minutes as well.
We stopped for a
late lunch and we were just glad to be done.
We checked into the hotel and received regular updates on both teams as
they made their way to the coast. Our
team completed the race in 38 ½ hours!
The second team came in 27 minutes later just beating the cut off time!
Lessons
Learned
Sleep
is vitally important in these types of events. Plan ahead, make sure to have sufficient gear
to sleep when you can, either at the checkpoints or on the side of the road
along the way.
Running
Fuel - we ran out of bananas on day two and -
because we were on the same road as a few hundred other runners - all the
stores were sold out.
We even stopped at McDonalds
but they would not sell us any!
Be sure you understand your exchange points! We could have really fallen
behind if we had not quickly backtracked when we were at the wrong one.
Finally – make
sure you know your team. One or
two of the wrong personalities can make it a miserable experience for the other
runners on the team. Luckily we got
along very well. One other factor to
keep in mind is you have to be flexible – when we had to change up the runners
due to exhaustion and injury, we had to be flexible enough to just jump in and
run when we needed to.
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| Both WRC Teams at the Finish Line |
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| Me and my medal! |
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| Team 1 |
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| Team 1, Van 1 |
