Reach the Beach Relay Recap: Part 3 & Tommie Cooper Winner!

This is my final post about the Reach the Beach Relay race, which I’m actually very sad about. That means its pretty much officially over

So after an incredibly unreal cold night and about 3 hours of sleep, we woke up and started to get ready for our last legs as the sun was rising. After Dave‘s leg we went to the transition area to meet up with Mecca who was rocking her last 7+miles (she ran a total of about 24 miles! Rock star). While we were waiting, we limbered up a bit by doing all of our weird runner habits. Foam rolling, The Stick, strange stretching. The usual.

God Bless the stick!

Mecca and BLC’s handoff!

The rest of Van 1 finished up their runs and pretty soon it was my turn. I waited for Alex for the handoff and pretty soon I was running my last leg!

LEG 3

12:30pm: Leg 3: 5.34 miles, 47.18, Average pace 8:52/mile

I got to run this leg at a normal time of day thankfully and for once I basically had no hills. Loved that! And you can tell my body did too based on my pace. The only negative with not having hills was that it wasn’t nearly as exciting as my other two legs and at some points it got repetitive. But I guess that’s the trade off.

This leg was basically through a suburban town and my view was mainly of people’s houses. At one point I had to cross a main intersection and the police officer stopped traffic for me! I love that RTB set that up with the police departments, it made me feel so much more comfortable and safe.

I pushed myself pretty hard for this leg and wanted to finish because 1) I was really tired 2) I wanted to eat food and not worry about how my stomach was going to react on my next run and 3) Mecca brought homemade brownies and I was craving them. Number 3 was the best motivation I think.

The brownies.. amazing.

Eventually I turned into a school parking lot and saw Isaac from Van 2 waiting for me for the hand off. I was really excited to finish off Van 1 and head to Seaside, as well as start off Van 2 so they could finish and join us in finally relaxing! All of my teammates were a great support and cheered me on to get me to my finish

Coming in for the transition

I was immediately handed a marker by the amazing Alex so I could go to the van and check off my last leg… Van 1 was DONE!

So happy to be done and ready to relax

My totals:

2:00 pm: Leg 1: 6.21 miles, 1:00, Average pace 9:48/mile
1:00am: Leg 2: 2.52 miles, 22:42, Average pace 9:00/mile
12:30pm: Leg 3: 5.34 miles, 47.18, Average pace 8:52/mile
Total miles: 14.07

After I finished, we headed to Seaside to de-germify ourselves, relax, and wait for Van 2 to reach the beach. Of course we had to have beers at a bar that the Jersey Shore cast hung out at. But we also ate free food provided by RTB. I love free food!

Seaside Heights boardwalk and the finishline

We were all so tired that we took a nap in the van for about an hour during our wait. I don’t do well on only 3 hours of sleep thats for sure and I completely passed out. But eventually Van 2 showed up and we headed to the beach to wait for Sarah who was our last runner.

Here comes Sarah!

. We all crossed the finish line together and can officially say we REACHED THE BEACH! The offiical team finish time was 31:42:18. Yes, that’s 31+ hours.

Van 1

Van 2

This was an AMAZING experience that I would absolutely do again. I missed my teammates almost immediately after it ended, I guess spending 31 hours in a van with 5 other people really brings you together. And all other 11 members of my team were awesome, even though we didn’t get to spend too much time with Van 2 (although I was lucky enough to hang out with them the night before the race!) Even though I wrote a summary of this event, its really hard to put into words just how incredible it was. Its something I recommend everyone try.

You can reach the beach too!!!

*****

And lastly the winner of the Tommie Cooper giveaway via random.org/Rafflecopter is….

KAYLA from @ Keep Moving Forward

Congrats Kayla, contact me ASAP with your mailing address and what size you would want in the sleeves