Another difference between this year and last year is that I ran on an 8 member team last year versus an 11 member team this year. While I only ran 1 less leg in 2009 compared to 2008, a 2 van rotation was used in this years race enabling longer breaks between legs. Being able to sit down and eat pasta at lunch after completing our vans first rotation was a huge advantage to me over last year.
It was a great experience running and meeting new people during the course of the race. I'm continually amazed at the number of people that I saw at various stages of the race.
The biggest lesson I learned from the 2008 race was to change into fresh clothes after running every leg. I'm a heavy sweater, especially in warm and humid weather like we had TIRweekend. I brought enough running clothes to change every leg last year but opted to stay in the same clothes between a couple of legs. One of those lack of changes was between night legs and I wound up being cold and miserable trying to sleep in damp clothes.
Leg 3 - 8.78 miles 1:12:42
The first leg that I ran this year was the longest leg of the race; Leg 3 at 8.78 miles all on dirt/gravel road. The night before leaving for Gonzales, I mixed my Accelerade and filled 4 bottles on my fuel belt. I stuck the belt in the refrigerator like I have so many times for weekend morning training runs. Out of sight/out of mind I totally forgot to pack it when I left the house at 4 am Saturday morning. We had a supply of water and gatorade in the van so I just grabbed a bottle of gatorade and borrowed a fanny pack to carry it. I also jotted down the road numbers on the leg runner directions and slipped that into the fanny pack as well. Being on a gravel road, the roads weren't marked very well/at all. I made my first turn fine, noting the TIR orange cone and directional sign at the turn. My problem came at the second orange cone right around the 2nd intersection that I encountered. I first kept on running on the road that I was on but not long after I stopped and ran back to the cone. I could see the TIR sign across a fence in a nearby field blown off by a strong wind. The directions that I put in the fanny pack were nowhere to be found (I think they blew out in the wind earlier when I stopped for a gatorade break.) I reasoned that if they put a cone there they must've wanted us to turn so I took a right. Looking at the map of the leg now, I can clearly see that I was supposed to go straight. I missed the water stop on the course but rejoined the course within a mile of the exchange point.
Leg 15 - 4.13 miles 31:25
Leg 15 was a straight path following highway 90 the entire way. There was no chance of getting lost on this one! I ran this leg in a bright orange shirt, blinkie reflector lights, reflector vest and a headlamp. It was getting dark when I started the leg and I had to turn my headlight on for the 2nd half of the leg. After completing our 2nd rotation, our van headed to Katy to a hotel to catch a shower and an hour of sleep.
Leg 29 Cinco Ranch HS to HEB Katy - 2.3 miles 16:18
Leg 29 was a leg that I picked up when our team had to reshuffle legs going from a 12 person to 11 person rotation. I actually gave up a 6+ mile leg and picked up this 2+ mile leg and a 4+ mile leg. So the total mileage only increased a little and was spread over 2 legs. While leg 15 took me to darkness, this leg started at dawn. I had my reflector gear and headlamp on but ended up running without the headlamp as it got light right around the time my teammate arrived. This leg had a couple of turns that were both well marked. I should've stayed on the right hand side of the road on my last turn as I had to cross back over traffic for the exchange. I was able to fly on this leg and actually cut a minute into the 6 minute overage I had on leg 3 (stopping and running back when lost is not a good thing for your pace).
Leg 37 - 4.36 miles 34:19
Leg 37 was run in the afternoon in hot conditions. The leg began at Mason Park and ran through non scenic parts of Houston. I tried to start this leg out slower and just maintain a 7:45 pace; however, there was a huge downhill at the start that got be out the gate too fast yet again. I managed to hang on for a 7:54 pace but gave back the minute that I gained on leg 29.
This year's epilogue had our team walking up to the monument instead of running as we did last year. It was a great way to end a terrific running weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment