Rubber Side Down

Big Sur Relay

So, we made it. Greg, Michael, Arnon, Anthony and Herzel, running at this order. A lot of emails went before we finally arrived at the start line. Evidently, despite everyone being experienced runners, there need to be some level of coordination in order to finish a relay. Did you know about the wrist thingy that need to be passed from one runner to the next? do you know who get a time chip and who does not? who get your shirt, your medal, etc? and the most complicated question - how do you get your sweats bag ? ....

I know this is common knowledge, so I will leave those questions and go to describe the run. Well, it starts much earlier in the morning. A wake up at 4AM just to get to the shuttle bus, about a mile from the hotel, at 5AM (it's very dark outside). Then wait for the RIGHT bus or else you find yourself at the wrong switch point, hmmm. It takes about an hour of drive, and I arrive at 6:10 to my switch point on Hwy 1. Did I say I and not WE ? right, not only we drive to different switching station, the busses leave at different times, so I did not have a chance to see my team in the morning. I hope they all wake up.

The race starts at 7AM. I'm on leg 3, which roughly means miles 10-17, starting just before the climb to Hurricane point and ending 7 miles later. You may wonder, what would anyone do between 6:10AM and 8:10AM, the earliest time I could expect Michael to arrive ? the orgenizers took care for that. Apart from a table loaded with coffee and bananas, there is also a very long line to the bathrooms. If you go twice you already used much of this time.

At 7:51 the first two runners pass by at an amazing pace of 5:15 minutes per mile. A couple of cars, police motorcycles and one helicopter escort them. Wow. The third runner shows up 5 minutes later (he's already one mile behind !!). Gee, he IS a fast runner too. Runners keep coming in, as well as some power walkers. Some of the walkers actually run pretty well - I mean, with both legs up. It certainly gives power, thus it is not a walk. Probably they have some kind of a special walk-run strategy.

At 8:15 I eat my first Gu, half a cup of water, and take off my long sleeves. I'm ready for the switch. Five minutes later Michael storms right into the switch station "go, go, GOOOO". And here I go, quickly passing the guys with big drums who play right at the bottom of the climb to Hurricane point. That's a two miles uphill, from 25 feet to about 600 feet. Now you see what the first gu is for. I arrive to the top at a sub-9 pace, and then speed downhill, taking the third mile at a 6:49. Waiting there is the beautiful bridge, and you can hear the grand piano playing at the other side of the bridge. A lot of words were written on this legendary piano man, Johnaton Lee. Sadly he passed away last October. The player was a 14 years old student of him, continuing the tradition of his master. Another mile passed before I got my emotional explosion back and looked at my wrist watch. There are only a few hills between here and the next switch station. I cruise at a sub-8 pace and storm into switch point #3. My time is 56:22 for my segment, just about 8 minutes per mile.

I cannot tell you how surprised I was to see both Herzel and Antony. They took the wrist band and zoomed away. Herzel was supposed to run leg 5.

I took a rest, waited for Debbye to arrive, and we both continued on a slow pace towards the end. Debbye has the third leg in her team - "we are family". Proceeding 1o more miles to the finish line was not as easy as thought, because we both gave all our energy into the third leg.

Aparently what happened was that Antony did not feel well, and so he ran leg 4 with Herzel, but had to stop for the bathroom on the way. Herzel then continued for leg 5 and through the finish line, running almost 10 miles of hills at 8:20 per mile. Our total time was 3:32, 8:05 minutes per mile, place 36 out of some 270 relay teams.

Overall, it is a very hilly course. Probably more hilly than Alma. Anyone planning on the full marathon should better prepare for a lot of hills. But the course is most beautiful, and there were some 10 bands on the 17 miles I did, especially during the last two miles before the finish line, where you need it the most @! there were some 2500 volunteers !!! lots of aid stations, sometimes every mile. Perhaps next year I will go for the real thing.

posted by Arnon @ 3:42 PM