Race Recap- Seabrook Marathon Relay

On pretty much a whim, because apparently I suck at resisting peer pressure, I signed up to be part of a relay team for the Seabrook Marathon, coined “Lucky Trails”.  To say I was nervous about this would be a bit of an understatement.  It was being organized by one of the ladies in my Moms Run This Town group and, while I like her online and in person, and she says she has a pace similar to mine I still have a hard time believing that ANYONE who’s been running for any time at all runs as slow as me…..  I see my MRTT girls at the Bagel run fairly often, but we don’t run “together”….  Luckily, Jessica signed up too, (which was part of my peer pressure problem), so that helped a little.

I read the website and it looked like there was a 6 hour time limit for the Marathon, so that meant we each had 1:30 to complete our distance.  Knowing Jessica’s pace I figured I could get pretty close to 1:30 and then *use* some of her time …  So, with much fear, I signed up with the express mention that I was NOT fast and if they cared AT ALL about time, they should find someone else.  They told me they totally did not care about time…..

We had a 4 person relay, one of the ladies is not part of MRTT – I tried to convince her during the race that she should totally join, maybe Antoinette can work on her some more because she was totally nice—, and we also had one lady doing the full, and one doing the half.  So, a group of six of us were headed out there. 

As one of the chapter leaders of my group I was so excited to have so many ladies participating in a race!  I am also so lucky to have wonderful, supportive, kind ladies in my chapter, but I hear most of our MRTT chapters are that way, so if you aren’t part of MRTT you should totally join!  It’s FREE! 

We had shirts made up for everyone who was going and they turned out so totally cute…..

 

The head honcho of MRTT national (Pam) has a great contact, Stirling Promotions who makes shirts for us and he was so nice with all of my back and forth emails and super fast…  I mean like I placed the order Friday night (late) and it shipped Monday and was here Wednesday.  He’s awesome….

We decided to forego the tutu this time and go with a Sparkle Skirt.  Jessica and I made ours using Pam’s instruction video….  It was totally cheap and totally easy….

 

In the end, the skirts were cute, but Jessica and I think we like the Tutu best for most races….

“Flat Mama”

As race day approached the ladies in my chapter organized a “Pasta Feed” for our group.  SUCH a great idea!  I was really looking forward to going.  As it turned out my older boys got out of youth group activities late (it was Spring Break Week), so I got there late, and then I don’t know if it was the Emergen-C I gave William, or nerves, but he ended up with diarrhea and pooping his pants twice within like 20 minutes of us getting there, so I then had to leave….  I didn’t think he was sick, I figured it was one of those two things, since he was acting fine, but I didn’t want to take a chance and get other people sick.  Big bummer.  Still, it was nice to chat for the whole 5 minutes I was there LOL….  We also had been camping that week and I was in the middle of a major allergy attack, (which is why I gave him the Emergen-C, just in case I was wrong and it was a cold), so it was probably best I came home and drugged myself up again anyway….

I’m still not sure if it was allergies or a cold, but regardless, it has knocked me down a notch for sure.  I’ve never run a fever, so I lean towards allergy, but as I type this I am up in the middle of the night because of a coughing fit, so maybe not…..

Race day Jessica and I get there about an hour and a half before start time and meet up with the girls.  We get our packet, meet the other member of our relay team and decide our order.  I got to go second.  I was kind of hoping for second because my race day jitters are through the roof, and I was afraid I’d puke otherwise, but I didn’t want to make someone else go at a time they didn’t want.  I got lucky.    But then I realized I was going to be the first person to start the relay!  This did not help my nerves, which were pretty much shot at this point…  I seriously don’t know why I get so worked up.  It’s not like I’m ever going to WIN a race, so I really don’t care THAT much about time….  but I didn’t really feel 100% and I was really hoping to stay under 1:30 and not take more than my allotted time.  My jitters were made even worse by the fact that I was part of a TEAM, which meant OTHER PEOPLE WERE COUNTING ON ME TO FINISH THE RACE….  Which is also a ridiculous thing to make me nervous, because it was only 6.55 miles and I have never DNF’d….  Worst case scenario (short of an injury) is I’d walk back if I bonked, right????

Shirts turned out cute, right????

Anyway, I got started on my leg and started out strong, except I forgot to set my watch to intervals and you can’t change that mid run.  I considered stopping it and restarting it, but decided to just time myself instead.  It never ceases to amaze me how empty my brain gets running.  I mean, really, how hard is it to figure out what the watch will say in 3 minutes?  Apparently after about 50 minutes of running it is pretty hard for me…..  Oh well….

The course was mostly trail, ran along a bayou out to the ocean and back basically.  It was actually very beautiful.  I have been fighting with Plantar Fasciitis since December, so I had to stop several times and stretch real good.  When I got to the turn around point I figured I had to stop to stretch anyway, so I snapped some pictures.  It was just beautiful.  I couldn’t resist….

Not a bad view to run to, huh? 

I was disappointed in my time, because I kind of bonked towards the end, with more walking then I wanted.  I was so fatigued, I think this allergy/cold thing just really took it out of me…  I finished at 1:38:40, my goal was under 1:30   But our team finished in 5:17, so that was good

Notice the green hair….  I went all out

Apparently other people thought our shirts were cute too, because we won 3rd place in the costume contest!  Woohoo!

The race was very well organized and a lot of fun.  There was also stuff to do and food to eat all day, and several families out there for the day.  The atmosphere was very relaxed and I really liked that.  Sometimes racers can get wayyyyy too serious.  I was disappointed that they ran out of food at the end.  I have heard this has never happened before, so hopefully it won’t happen again…..  All in all it is a race I will very likely do again…..  Maybe even the Pelican Challenge?  (Half Sat/Half Sun)  We’ll see

 

 

We were all there for fun, just enjoying watching the runners and doing our part.  It was a great chance to get to know the other ladies better and I was really glad I was there.