Reach the Beach 2007

The road can be awfully lonely when you're all by yourself in the rain at 3:30 AM. But we'll get to that later.

We took off early Thursday morning for New Hampshire, meeting in Portsmouth to begin our trek up to the mountains. Checking into our hotel early in the afternoon, our team got a chance to drive out to the top of Mt. Washington, which was a spectacular (if sometimes a bit nerve-wracking) journey. After returning, we attended the pasta dinner at Cannon Mountain, the starting point of the race. Kudos to the event for what I thought was quite a nice meal.

The butterflies began fluttering a bit in my stomach the next morning, as the impending race became more real. While the first teams left the start line at 7:00 AM, we were expected to be one of the faster teams, and thus weren't scheduled to leave until 2:30 PM. It was a long morning of sitting around, but finally we set off around noon for Cannon Mountain. Following a quick lunch at the ski resort there, we watched our first runner set off on the beginning of our long journey to the coast.

Meredith ran the second leg of the race, which was a fairly long leg. (A theme for her this year) She did a great job with it. I was leg five, so I had to wait a couple more hours as our team ran pretty much over the top of a 1500 foot peak. My first leg took us down the final few miles of the mountain, and flattened out at the base.

My adrenaline was rushing pretty hard as I took the handoff and began down the steep hill. It was hard to keep my legs in check on the decline, so I let them run. Our vans soon went by, offering encouragement. Unfortunately, we were the last team on the course at this point, so I was running pretty much by myself.

Fifteen minutes into the run, I passed our vans and grabbed some water. They informed me that I had run about two miles. I winced, as that meant I was doing 7:30 miles, a pace I certainly couldn't maintain. Sure enough, the pace caught up to me by the end, and I finished the 4.8 miles in an 8:14 pace, still much better than expected.

We followed our sixth runner to the end of his leg, then handed off to the runners in the other van so we could get some much needed nourishment at Subway. Proceeding to the next transition area, we parked and some of us caught a catnap while waiting. This was about the area that we began to realize we were being recognized as "That team 333 that's still out there". We were gaining time on a lot of teams, but we had started so late that we weren't catching anyone.

Our van's second string of legs began late Friday evening. By the time it rolled around to me again, it was almost 3:00 AM, and had started to rain heavily. Fortunately for me, the rain tailed off to a steady drizzle by the time I took the handoff.

My 7.4 mile course took me up out of the town of Meredith, NH. Climbing about 400 feet in the first couple miles, I would descend almost back to my starting elevation, then climb it again before descending to the finish. Though it wasn't an easy run, I found myself able to keep the pace somewhere under a 9:00 pace, even on the hills. With two miles left in the run, my van went ahead to the transition area to prepare the next runner.

As I descended a long hill, I saw a traffic light ahead that I thought I recognized from the course instructions. Looking for course markers, I saw one pointing straight ahead past the intersection. The light turned at precisely the right time, and I coasted through, just a few minutes before my estimated arrival time on my watch. However, as I continued on, I started to get confused. There was one fairly well lit parking lot to the right, but no markers there. I kept going for 15-20 minutes, getting more nervous as I went. I knew something was awry, but I didn't know whether to turn back and risk not reaching the end, or continue on and risk wasting more time if I was wrong.

After thinking briefly about knocking on the nearby sheriff's office, I finally found another team's van to flag down. They informed me that I had missed my turn, nearly two miles back.

With some resignation, I thanked them, and began moving as fast as I could back up the hill I had just descended. My team van had been out searching for me, and eventually found me coming back up the hill. I made it back to the transition area, and handed off to our next runner. I had cost us about 40 minutes, but everyone seemed to just be happy that I was safe. In all the confusion, I never stopped my watch, so I don't know a time or even a distance for that leg. We picked up our sixth runner after his leg and headed to the next van exchange, where we all managed to get at least a little sleep.

The morning brought somewhat better weather, though it was chilly and still a little wet. It also brought the news that we had actually begun to catch some teams during the night, which brightened the mood as well. The race staff seemed impressed that we were making up that much time, and we heard multiple surprised comments when people heard that team 333 was no longer the last one on the course.

My third and final leg of the race was theoretically my easiest. It was 4.7 miles of rolling terrain, but no hills as steep as either of my other legs. I also made sure to memorize the road names on this leg so I wasn't dependent on seeing the arrows marking the course. Even the rolling hills were a challenge after the previous day, but I managed to keep my legs moving in some semblance of a run throughout the leg. I arrived at the school marking the next handoff having run an 8:16 pace.

However, my van wasn't there. Our second van was present, but not my van carrying our next runner! In confusion, the second van called my cell phone, and informed my van that they were in the wrong place. One of the signs had turned, and they had gone down the next leg of the course instead. While I was waiting, two more runners arrived without their vans as well.

About ten minutes passed, and my van showed up to drop off our next runner. Handing off the bracelet, I had finished my portion of the course. Happily, I changed into some dry clothes. I never did see another runner on the course in any of my legs, which was a little disappointing, but also somewhat inevitable given our starting time.

As the final legs wound down, our team passed more runners, though we still ended up being one of the last teams to the beach. When our last runner came into sight, we all got to run (or hobble) across the finish line together, which was really nice. Afterward, we got together for a celebratory pizza dinner before flying back the next morning.

All in all, I had a really good time at the race. Without the course mistakes, I think I would have beaten my goal times significantly on all my legs. Perhaps next year I'll get the opportunity to best them again!