This weekend I ran the 1Day Relay – a 50ish mile relay from Bradenton to Venice, FL – as part of the Blogging Bombshell team with Mary, Callie, Casey, Colleen and Courtney.
We knew going into it that Blogging Bombshells was made up of runners with varying abilities, and (I think) it worked out wonderfully! Our fastest runners took the longest legs while the shorter legs were assigned to those of us that ran slower and of course closed with one of our speedsters.
There were 12 legs – which meant 2 legs per runner. I ran legs 4 and 11 for a total of 7.4 miles for the day (A perfect distance before my race on the 16th if you ask me!)
The day started bright & early with group pictures & safety briefings and…well..the START
It was a staggered start, so only a portion of the teams started at 8am when we did. The rest started at either 7, 9 or 10am. (Start times were assigned based on your team’s estimated finish time so all of the teams would reach the finish in Venice at roughly the same time.)
Casey started things off for us – then we all piled in the van and headed to the first exchange point for the hand-off of the team’s “official” snap bracelet. (How did we not get a picture of that damn bracelet?!)
After the hand-off Mary took off for 3.65 miles, and the rest of us piled back in the van to catch her out on the course.
That’s how our day went: Cheer for the incoming runner, watch the hand-off, cheer for the outgoing runner, pile in the van, stop & cheer, pile back into the van, get to the exchange zone…repeat…times 12.
I thought I would get discouraged about my pace during the event – because I was running with women that typically average a 7:00-8:00/mile pace – but everyone was really positive all day long and had nothing but encouraging words for everyone on the team!
We ran the last 100 yards together, finishing as a team in 7 hours, 58 min, 27 seconds for an average pace of 9:15 per mile.
My only complaint about the whole day – the ground at the finish line was really bumpy & could have been a disaster if you weren’t watching your footing!
Turns out we finished 5th out of 20 teams in the all-female division!
Even better, we beat THE team we had been using as “rabbits” all day long. But honestly I can take absolutely NO credit for this…I got passed by one of their runners .5mi from the end of my 2nd leg…thankfully Courtney saved the day and passed them back on the last leg!)
All in all, it was a GREAT day with a really wonderful team! Considering many of us of us had just met in person for the first time that weekend, we really had a fun time together!
I swear I’m at least 10 inches taller than everyone else on the team!
And I would be terribly remiss if I didn’t mention Marcus, our driver for the day!
Mary’s husband happily carted us all over central Florida…for 8+ hours…without complaint…as we got smellier and smellier. Thanks again Marcus!
The 1DayRelay organizers really did a wonderful job for the inaugural event – the course was clearly marked, the staff was friendly, and even though it was a “self supported” event, it felt like we were being taken care of every step of the way. Plus, the after party was pretty sweet – 2 free beer coupons, pizza and other goodies? Yes please!
I would definitely recommend this event to people that want to try a relay before committing to multi-day events like Ragnar. Hopefully I’ll be part of a team again next year!
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Specific to my performance, I’m happy, yet also a bit let down with how I did.
Happy because I pushed harder and ran faster than I have in a long time.
- 1st Leg: 3.81 miles in 44:58 (11:48/mile average pace). I felt decent out there and ran most of the time with just 3 short walk breaks. It was getting hot but it was windy so I didn’t feel overheated.
- 2nd Leg: 3.52 miles in 40:55 (11:37/mile avg pace) plus .11 mi in 1:14 (11:21 avg pace). I was surprised at how good I felt on this leg! I thought for sure my body would NOT like running a second time in one day, but I felt great. This time I used 3min run:1min walk intervals and really tried to push it during the run sections. The wind had picked up a lot but it wasn’t slowing me down – so different from cycling! This leg is proof positive that doing run:walk intervals doesn’t HAVE to mean being slower.
Seriously, lately I’ve been averaging in the 12:15 range on most of my runs, with anything faster being logged on the treadmill. So I’m really happy with 7.4 miles in the sub-12 range.
Let down because I got passed by that effing girl with only a half mile to go! Deep down I know I was pushing myself, but it still sucks. I felt completely defeated & also felt bad that my teammate had to run harder to catch her.
You win some, you lose some. Right? I guess I just did both on the same day this time.
This weekend also reminded me that I really am capable of pushing myself on not-fresh legs – so hopefully that will carry over to Longleaf on Sunday!
That sounds like a great day and your team result is awesome!!!
As I said earlier, your report makes me really look forward to Ragnar TN in November… my 4th multi day relay! I think the only difference between one day and multi day relays are: you get even smellier and sleep deprivation does funny things to the brain!
I’d love to try a multi-day relay someday! But the distances in each Ragnar leg sort of scare me…
Nice! that sounds like a blast. Glad you had some fun!
It was a nice change of pace to get my miles in, but not during a regular “training run”
That looks like such a good time!
It was a lot of fun – I’m glad I went out on a limb and joined a team with a bunch of women I had never run with before!
HI! I found your blog by google-ing Longleaf Tri–and there you are, from the 1DayRelay! Two of us from FairyRunMothers are doing the Longleaf sprint. GOOD LUCK and have a great tri! (our first tri was about a month or so ago, the CotteeMan, only 150m in a pool–so this lake thing could be freaky…have you heard any words of wisdom? is it very deep?)
Yay for google! You guys had the sparkle skirts, right?
This will be my first Olympic/International distance tri & my first time at Longleaf. So I have no idea what to expect either! The website says it’s a “pristine” lake…but who knows what that means here in FL, right? As long as it’s not full of seaweed I’ll feel ok about it.
Maybe we’ll run into each other this weekend – if not hope you have a great race!
What a fun, fun, fun race!!
And don’t worry, I’m ALWAYS 3 to 4 inches taller than all my friends. I have to squat in every picture!
I definitely felt like a giant all day – and luckily I didn’t have to climb into the “way back” of the van very many times…sometimes being so tall comes in handy (or at least gets me the pity seat every now and then)
This was such a fun day! Our team was so wonderful and supportive, and I feel like everyone did their absolute best. Great job running sub-12 miles!
Also… I totally have a picture of Marcus wearing the bracelet. I’ll get around to posting my pictures… eventually.
It definitely was a great day – so glad we got to meet & run together!
This sounds like a ton of fun! It’s really great that you participated and didn’t let the faster runners pace discourage you. I know I would have thought twice myself!
I was more nervous about meeting most of them for the 1st time than anything. But it definitely was very hard not to fall into the comparison trap (and I’ll admit, I’m sure I did make quite a few “sorry I’m not so fast” comments through the day.)
Congrats! I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m impressed!
Hey now…you made it fun for me on the last leg
It was definitely a team effort and at no point did I wish we had different teammates. Honestly, I’m impressed with everybody because we all come from different backgrounds. Working out is second nature to me because I’ve done it my entire life. I started two workouts a day when I was 13. There are definitley times when I hate running (or swimming or biking for that matter) but sweating and competition has been a part of who I am for almost 20 years. What’s impressive about doing something you’ve always done? You are impressive because you took bad habits and turned them into healthy ones. Don’t forget how much progress you have made since you first started this whole adventure of running and triathlons. 
Thanks so much Courtney! It’s so easy to lose sight of how many changes I’ve made in my life & how far I’ve come, but it’s the encouragement I get from people like you that helps remind me of all of that.
And I must say – I don’t think I even heard the term “two-a-days” until I was in my 30s! Although now that I’ve discovered how much fun running and triathlons is, I certainly hope I can someday say I’ve been doing it for 20 years!