2/12-13 Race Reports

AWESOME weekend of marathoning, be it solo or split up among 4-people! Brad B. ran a 3:08 at the 26.2 with Donna, which is not only a huge PR, but also qualifies him for Boston (CONGRATS)! And, it was total FAST Coaching - RRO domination at the Valentine's Day Massacre Relay, with "team us" beating "team them" and taking 1-2-3... WAHOOO!

Valentine's Day Massacre Relay Report:

FAST Coaching - RRO was well-represented at the race this year, fielding three teams of four runners. For those not familiar with this race, it is a "relay" style marathon meaning that each person runs four 1.6-mile legs (well... the first leg is 2.2-miles to make up the extra distance). The first 600yds or so is basically a long straight-away (and this year featured a decent head wind). The course then takes a turn and you head up and up and up a pretty long hill. Then a nice little downhill, before the back "rolling" section. Finally, you turn a bend, head downhill, and finish about a quarter mile later.

The starting gun sounded promptly at 10AM, and Brian, Jennifer, and Oyler took off. The course is nice because you can begin to see runners through the woods when they have ~1/2 mile left. A few minutes later, we heard the announcer say that the first runner had been spotted. It was difficult to tell who it was, but then we saw a second runner hot on his heels... this was definitely Brian. The two came crashing out of the woods, and then we saw Jennifer and Oyler not far behind. The exchange between James and Brian went well... and James quickly caught the other runner. Jennifer and I handed off next, and I caught two runners on the first "straight-away" (the top two runners on these teams must really have been banking time for the rest of the legs). I assume the hand-off between the Daves went well too, as Meyer was out in a hurry. James handed off to Keith, securing a sizable lead over the next runner (who I didn't know at the time was me), which this team only added to in the remaining legs. I handed off to Rita... Dave handed off to Sean... Keith handed off to Gavin... Rita handed off to Laura... and Sean handed off to Rusty. This is pretty much how the relay unfolded. After all of the first legs had run, someone checked the results and happily reported that we were the top 3 teams... AWESOME.

Ok, I'll spare you some of the details of us running in circles for 12 more laps. The "young guys" team lapped all of us somewhere around their 12th lap (our 11th)... not much else really happened in terms of exciting news. Each lap seemed to get harder and harder... the wind seemed to be picking up more and more... and the hills seemed to grow taller and steeper. It was hard to judge what pace you were running because there was no one really to pace off of, it was more of a game of see how many people you could pass and try not to get passed by any of the fast legs on other teams.

The "young guys" team, anchored by Gavin, was the first to finish. However, the announcers didn't realize this because they were so fast that their chip failed to register on one of the laps (and no one except us realized that they had lapped everyone). The "girls" team was the next to finish, with a nice sprint across the line by Laura. The competition between the master's teams was a bit closer, however. We went on a "scouting" trip for our cooldown (aka we ran the course backwards so we could cheer for our teammates and let Rusty know how close the other runner was), but thanks to Sean's blazing fast final lap, the "older guys" team secured first in the master's division (and third overall). So, to summarize:

• "Young Guys" (Brian, James, Keith, Gavin): 1st male team (1st overall)
• "Girls" (Jennifer, Meghan, Rita, Laura): 1st female team (2nd overall)
• "Older Guys" (Oyler, Meyer, Sean, Rusty): 1st master's team (3rd overall)

... so if running with your friends is FUN, that means that 1-2-3 is like FUNfetti icing on a FUNfetti cake! (overall results; division results; detailed results) :-)