Race Recap: Colonial200 Relay

By this time last week, I had completed two of my three legs for the Colonial200 Relay. I had already hit the point of sleep deprivation, so I was just pushing on through with what little energy I could muster up. Despite being exhausted, I was having a BLAST! It’s not every day you have the opportunity to relinquish your mom/life duties, pile in a van with 5 other running fanatics {while having 6 other team members trailing along in a separate van}, & then tackle a race that easily takes longer than 24 hours. If you’re confused how this whole relay process works {don’t worry, I was until the race was actually in progress!}, stay tuned—I’ll try my best to elaborate on that in a minute.

The logistics to reaching the start line of this particular race were quite involved. With no one to blame but my own silly scheduling, I stupidly worked a 24-hour shift at the hospital Wednesday morning through Thursday morning—and of course as luck would have it, it was an awful, awful busy day. I had only 30 minutes of rest during those nearly 27+ hours of being awake. I hurried home & slept for about 3 hours Thursday morning, before finalizing all my packing & getting some last minute play time in with my sweet twin boys. One of my teammates, & friend, offered to give me a ride from my home in Norfolk to the meeting point in Jamestown; then ultimately to the pre-race-night hotel in Charlottesville. With all that traveling, my head eventually hit the pillow close to 11pm {I think} on Thursday night. I should note here that my roommate for that particular night was simply fabulous! Kim, whom I had only met one other time prior, didn’t feel the need to chitter-chatter at all. She let me be anti-social & just go right to sleep. Thanks girl!

The alarm went off around 4:40am Friday morning, where we would then make our way to the starting line. After a briefing from the race director, the race began at 6am. With rain falling heavily, our team leader Lei started things off. She definitely set the tone for the race & got us all motivated for the journey we were about to embark upon!

I guess now would be a good time to explain the process of just how this relay thing works. Basically, you have a team of people who will somehow complete the miles, all while alternating “legs”. Legs are simply the varied distance people will run, with designated stopping points for exchanging runners. For this particular relay, the distances ranged from 2.21 miles to 10.46 miles. No back-to-back legs were permitted if you had a full team {which we did, 12 ladies total}. Difficulty of each leg was graded as easy, medium, or hard. There were 36 legs total, so if you had 12 people, each person completed 3 legs. Naturally, 12 people can’t typically travel in 1 vehicle, so the team is split amongst 2 vans. Legs 1-6 are completed by Van 1, then Legs 7-12 are completed by Van 2. When it is time for Leg 13, Van 1 resumes running & vice-versa from there.

Got it?! I hope that made sense! In total, our team would cover 205.56 miles—all while running from Charlottesville, VA to Jamestown, VA!

My first time “at bat” came around at 9:45am. My longest leg I was scheduled to run, was also my first. I couldn’t have planned that better myself! Being a morning runner, it was as if I was setting out for my morning jog—only I was planning to run in the countryside, on hills, at a fast pace; & unbeknownst to me, pretty much the entire workout would be solo. That is except for the lovely cows & horses that I passed & the country neighbors I waved “hi” to. My leg abruptly started when the runner before me KILLED her estimated time & arrived to the exchange point about 5 minutes “too early”. My Garmin hadn’t found the satellites. I didn’t have water in hand. I barely was mentally prepared. But that didn’t matter, it was my turn & I was excited to finally hit the pavement. Errrrr, gravel….. which I soon discovered would be the footing I would tackle for my first leg— previously determined to be 8.33 miles. With the whole debacle at the start of my leg, my Garmin didn’t pick up the first close to 0.4 miles. According to my Garmin, I ran 7.84 miles in 1:04:47 (8:16/mile). I was very happy with this leg, as it had been quite some time since I had ran on hills, and, I never run on gravel!

I guess now is a good time to mention a common term in the relay running world—a “kill”. Although I wasn’t fond of this term in the beginning, it did grow on me as the race progressed. A kill is basically when you pass another runner. My first “kill” came in the final mile of my first leg, when I passed a girl from another team. Rhonda: 1 kill.

Later Friday evening, I ran my 2^nd leg of the relay, at just before 7pm. I was slated for 6.32 miles, so I knew I would finish prior to the 8pm “night safety gear requirement time”. This leg is kind of a blur to me. I had a headache before the leg started {maybe I had ingested too much Nuun?}, but that headache quickly went away once my legs got moving. Isn’t running fabulous for healing the body?! I know I had quite a few hills to tackle, but not much else stands out in my mind as significantly interesting. I did enjoy running on pavement for much of this leg, & like the first leg, I was shooting for 8:00/mile pacing. According to my Garmin, I ran 6.33 miles in 52:33 (8:18/mile). Again, I was very happy with this leg & my body’s performance. No kills this time.

Less than 10 hours later, I started my 3^rd leg, which would ultimately result in me running just shy of 20 miles within 24 hours. This leg was by far the most memorable & most scary. Leg 3 for me began at 4:42am, in the pitch black night, without a soul in sight. I was all geared up in night safety gear, including my reflective Lululemon shorts. These shorts I hoped would be lucky by keeping me safe, since they happened to be the shorts I was wearing when I crossed my first marathon finish line! During the first 2-ish miles, my van stayed close, about 0.5-1 miles ahead. I recall at one point saying, “Stay close, this is so freakin’ scary!” I think it was around the 2-2.5 mile mark that I accomplished my 2^nd “kill” for the relay, which happened to be just as I was passing my van. They must have assumed I was going to be okay, since they drove on ahead & I didn’t see them again until the exchange zone {i.e. when I was done & could safely get back in my van!}.

While completing this nighttime leg, I had a headlamp on that allowed me to visualize all of the nasty country bugs flying just over my head, & probably, in my mouth. Great. Just what I need. Anyone who knows me knows my biggest fear in life is BUGS. Ick! That headlamp was also lovely for allowing me to see glaring eyes staring at me from the side of the road; wild animals I assume. Thank goodness they didn’t eat me alive. Thank you lucky Lulu shorts! All of these fears allowed me to ignore any pain or discomfort I was feeling from the hilly roads I was tackling. Leg 3 ended up being 5.37 miles, which I ran in 44:07 (8:13/mile). Oh & how could I forget! My third & final kill came shortly after the prior one. Total kills for Rhonda: THREE!

Although I could go on & on & on about all of the memories I made, which I will keep with me forever from this adventure, there are just too many to list here! I enjoyed the company of 11 other running fanatic mommas for nearly 36 hours while cooped up in a van with 5 them. In their each individual way, they are ALL awesome! I love that despite personal obstacles, each of them showed up during their respective legs & got the work done!! No excuses style! Really, we had a few asthmatics, a girl pregnant with twins, a few girls with bum body parts, girls with variety of paces, a girl still recovering from a car accident, & the quiet but insanely impressive type! I am once again reminded of the amazing strength that both womanhood & motherhood allows us to possess. For you see, our 200+ mile relay team was the only ALL-FEMALE team to complete this year. Naturally, that earned us a very much deserved award—number 1, baby!

To all of the new friends I made during this journey {& old ones that I already knew were awesome}, THANK YOU for the memories! Thank you for the kind words of encouragement when no one had the energy to keep trudging up another hill. Thank you for sharing your snacks. Thank you for sharing your “I’m a bad mom because…” stories, which make us all feel a little saner in our own parenting. Thank you for keeping the complaining to a minimum. Oh, & one last THANKS—for wearing your deodorant!

If you ever have the chance to complete a relay type of race (i.e. Ragnar), grab a few of your closest running friends & DO IT!! I will say though, Ragnar has a tough act to follow, should I tackle one of their races one day. The Colonial200 Relay was quite organized & on the ball. The exchange zone volunteers were AWESOME! The local police force that steadily patrolled the dark roads overnight was AMAZING! Although I said at the completion of this race that a relay should/would only be done once per year by The Running Blonde, I might now have relay amnesia, & could probably be persuaded into another one before next spring. Hehe……

In closing, I will share with you the “superlative” I was given for the race: “Most stylin’ runner. Who looks good running up a hill in reflective gear with no sleep? Rhonda! And she does it at an 8 minute pace. Because, well, she’s Rhonda.” HAHA! Thanks girls!