I’m not even sure how to put the amazing experience of running the Reach the Beach NJ Relay into words, but I’m going to try. Just a warning, it may take me a few posts to do so. Needless to say, after 31 hours and 200 miles…Team Run, Eat, Sleep Repeat REACHED THE BEACH!
I didn’t know much of what to expect going into this. I had only met one of the people on my team beforehand, I had never run more than 13.1 miles in 24 hours, and had literally no idea what to expect from my body since my mileage was split into three separate legs. But I ended up finishing the distance, my body felt pretty good, and my teammates were AMAZING!
If you haven’t heard of relays before, basically you create a team of 12 runners split into 2 vans and each runner has 3 legs of various distances. Together, the runners complete 200 miles. First, the 6 people in Van 1 run all their first legs, then Van 2 runs their first legs. Then its Van 1′s turn again and so forth until you reach the finish!
*****
I took a bus from the Port Authority Thursday night and got dropped off by a town near the start line in Vernon, NJ (Mountain Creek). But I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere in a random church parking lot in the middle of a freezing cold night. Luckily, I didn’t die like I thought I was going to and my teammates came to save me in one of the vans. We stayed in a hotel that night and I shared a room with the awesome Colleen.
The next morning we headed for registration and orientation before meeting up with my van: Van 1! My van was starting off with the first 6 legs of the relay so after team photos, our first runner Dave headed to the start line and the rest of us went to transition 1 to wait for him.
Here we go!
I was runner 6 so that means I was the last in my van to run my legs. That means that even though the race started at 9:30am, I didn’t run until 2pm because 5 other people were in front of me. Needless to say, I had a lot of time to cheer on and hang out with my teammates in my van at the transitions before my first run.
One of the transitions was in a church where a cute old lady sold us homemade soups and sandwiches which was SO awesome since it was really cold. Most of the transition areas weren’t that stocked with food and most just consisted of the awesome volunteers and one port-a-potty.
We also rocked our bright neon green Jersey Shore-inspired team shirts throughout the morning 
Transition 2 with Mecca and Alex!
Loretta and Mecca at transition 2. Mecca had some SERIOUS hills on this leg!
Alex and me. Go Brooklyn girls!
During our first legs, Van 1 had some seriously insane hills since we started so close to the mountains. If you’ve met me or read my blog you know I hate hills with a passion so this wasn’t my favorite part. But all my teammates were able to rock them out, so I figured I could too.
Before I talk about Leg 1, here was the breakdown of all my distances. The official ones are different but I went with what my GPS watch said. Everyone’s distances were longer than what the RTB people had listed:
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
****
LEG 1
2:00 pm, 6.21 miles, 1:00, Average pace 9:48/mile
After Alex finished her longest leg (9+ miles!!), she handed off the slap bracelet to me and I was off!
I think this summarizes my first leg pretty well…
Because of the elevation my pace suffered, but I’m just happy I kept my pace under 10 minute/mile. Luckily there was a girl from another team in front of me for most of this leg who kept me motivated (even though she didn’t know it until I told her at the end) to push through it, especially this one insane switchback hill that I felt like I needed ropes to get up. Yep, we were definitely running in the mountains! My breathing a bit more labored than usual because of this, plus having asthma doesn’t help.
Towards the end, the transition area was also located on top of a giant hill so of course I had to scale that too. But coming down it was like heaven and I passed the slap bracelet off to runner 7 (and van 2′s first runner) Issac. Then Van 2 was off!
A nice compilation of Leg 1, compliments of Loretta
Its me and the girl who kept me going. We chatted towards the end
After leg 1 our team quickly stopped at a diner for some lunch/dinner while Van 2 took over. Some of us decided to brush our teeth on the side of the road.. very classy. Then we went to the transition area we would eventually meet Van 2 at and tried to sleep on the ground outside in sleeping bags before our nighttime legs. There were another group of runners there too from the Caveman team, who we actually saw so many times during the race. Yup, they ran in caveman outfits. We saw them and a team called the Tough Moms (12 moms) team so many times!
I didn’t sleep at all at that point but just laid there and rested my eyes a bit. I guess it just wasn’t late enough in the day for me. Or I’m not into sleeping outside with bugs or in the freezing cold.
Alex, Dave and Brent camping
Stay tuned for the overnight leg and day two…
*****
We had SO many great sponsors for this relay, and one of them is hosting a giveaway on my blog:
Tommie Copper Compression!
Tommie Copper is a fantastic compression gear brand that I first discovered at the NYC Half last year. They also provided me with a compression shirt for the relay this weekend which I absolutely fell in love with. The material and quality are great, plus we all know how I feel about compression and its recovery benefits. I am obsessed with it and Tommie Copper is no different! I love it and know you will too!
The good news? Tommie Copper is offering a FREE pair of compression sleeves to one lucky reader. All you have to do is use the rafflecopter form below to enter for your chance. The giveaway will be open until October 21 at 10pm EST. May the odds be ever in your favor!
CLICK HERE TO ENTER: a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you ever run a relay? Did you love it too?
What did you do this weekend?
I was following your twitter while you were running this and it sounded and looked like a lot of fun! So glad you had a nice experience and the one relay that I did a couple years ago around Seneca Lake in NY (Seneca7)…it was such a blast! Nice splits and photo compilation!
So glad you were following me
It was such a good time. I’m sure you know since you ran a relay too! Must have been so pretty around the lake
It’s so much fun to read your side of the race! I can’t wait to read more and thanks again for joining us for this crazy race! We’ll have to get together again sometime
Thanks for posting about the team and organizing everything! It was such a fun experience, I’ll never forget it
Hopefully we can run a race or something in the future!
Sounds like so much fun!! Can’t wait to hear about the rest of it. Too funny I stayed at a hotel in mountain creek last week for a wedding.
Mountain Creek was a popular place haha. Its pretty there!
I have only tried socks so far, and I love them. Want to try shorts as soon as can find a pair I can afford.
Glad you enjoyed! I did RTB MA earlier this year.
I heard the race in MA was great (and many more teams than NJ), I remember reading your review and it looked like fun! I didn’t realize how much fun relays are until this weekend.
I have not tried Tommy Copper yet, but I do like my 2XU recovery socks.
I’m considering one right now-Lucky 7 Relay.
I recommend doing it! They are such great experiences
This looks like so much fun! Congrats!!
yay! so much fun
We will definitely have to put a relay team together one of these days!
Yayy lets get a team together it will be so much fun! I’d love to do a Ragner!
Looks like your having a great time! I have never run a relay before, but I would love to do one!
I haven’t run a relay….yet…it’s on my list of running things to do
Glad to hear it went well and can’t wait to hear more! This weekend raced a 5K memorial race for a friend of my husband’s that we lost this summer. I PR’d by over a minute and it was awesome. Great to see a bunch of people out supporting a good cause.
You should do one, you’d love it! So sorry about your husband’s friend, it was so great you ran in your friend’s honor AND had a PR. Congrats
I’ve done Ragnar twice and Hood to Coast once and i LOVE relays! It’s such a great way to get to know people, and i love the sense of community between all runners!
I’d love to do those races too, I’m itching for another relay haha. Its great and I totally agree about the sense of community!
Ive never competed in a relay! But would love to some day
Recently discovered your blog. Such an awesome story and a great sounding race. I’ll have to look into relays.
So glad you found me
Relays are great! I heard about them recently, seems like theres more popping up!
i never ran a relay before but this looks like so much fun! (:
Looks like fun!! Making me excited for my relay race in January!!!
Which race are you running?!! You are going to LOVE it.
I am looking for a relay race to run in 2013 – this made me even more excited!
I’ve never done a relay, and to be honest never even really thought about it. I’d probably give a try though, if the opportunity presented itself.
Congrats on the relay! These race reports make me want to relay too!
I would love to try this. I am not a big fan of running races, but this is different, not everyone running at the same time. very cool!
I’ve ran a relay in Vermont CIty Marathon just 3 of us for 26.2 miles, but I’d love to do a big relay like RTB.
Had so much fun with you!! You totally should have put up the totally classy pic of BLC brushing his teeth lol.
Need to write my recap asap! Will probably turn into at least 4 posts haha.
Rundate soon
Haha I’ll leave that picture to you its definitely one of the best! So funny.
I had so much fun too and I’m sad its over
I’m thinking 3 posts for mine too, at least. Its so hard to summarize everything that happened!
Definitely rundate soon
Awesome giveaway!! I’ve been wanting to try Tommie Copper gear for a while!
I have never run a relay before, but it looks like fun!!
I have never done a relay but sure would love to start and train.
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I have yet to run a relay, but want to!
I would run a relay if I had the team and the distance.
Love this!! I would totally do a relay if I could find friends to do it with me! And I follow your blog through google reader
I think I’m too slow right now to do a relay, but it would be a lot of fun
Haven’t done a relay yet, but I’d love to. It seems like a really fun experience.
These type of events are great. Really looking forward to doing one myself.
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