USAF Marathon (Relay Leg) - Run

Mile 1 was fine. I learned pretty quick why they made us wear an extra bib on the back that said RELAY in big bold print... at least I think I know why. My guess is that it's so that the poor folks who are right around the half-way point of a marathon don't get totally discouraged when people start blowing by them like they're standing still. With the extra bib they know that whoever it was can run like that because they've only been running for a mile or so and only have 4-5 more to go.

I was chugging along at about 9 min miles, trying to save myself somewhat for the oly next week, for the first 3-4 miles when I made the mistake of starting to do math. I thought I had the seven mile leg, but looking at the mile markers I noticed that after running four miles, I was still only at mile marker 16. I was positive that the final leg was just under 6 miles so by my math I was convinced that I was going to have to run closer to 9 miles rather than 7.

Having convinced myself of that I slowed drastically for fear of bonking and fear fear of wrecking my legs, that had not seen a distance like that in quite some time. I kept doing the calculations over and over (which helped to pass the time through the 6th and 7th miles) and just got madder and madder. As the mile 19 marker came into view with no sign of the transition area I was now completely convinced that my teammates had tricked me into the longest most brutal leg. Then, all of a sudden I rounded the corner about 1/4 mile later and there was the transition area just up the road.

Feeling bad for sandbagging for the last 2-3 miles I kicked it in as hard as I could, which caused a nifty quad cramp.

Not try to do math while running... trust the race brochure. It turns out that I had just wound up with the 7.5 mile leg instead of the 7.

Used the walk to the bus to try and work out the cramp. Got back and bummed around with the other relay mates waiting for the final leg to come in. I didn't envy him one bit... I think the last leg was actually the worst. 6.7 miles with a number of substancial hills and he got the chip right as the fog burned off so the temp jumped about 10 degrees for his run.

Snagged a couple extra towels, drank a few propels, bumped into a few familiar faces.


Poor math skills.


Props to the AF. Rather well organized and executed, but considering who's doing it I should expect no less.