Rock'n Relay

On Aug 2, me and 3 friends came together as the Rock'n Relay team: The Roundabouts- three girls and a guy.

What's the Rock'n Relay?
It's a 2 mile loop course, up and over the Terwilliger hill starting and ending at Upper Duniway Park. The full race is marathon-length, but you run it in teams of four. Three runners do the 2 mile loop three times, and one person (the anchor) does that loop 4 times. The anchor starts and finishes the race, and each team member runs the loop in turns.

At a 10 minute mile, which is roughly what each of us on my team thought they could run, that gives you roughly 1 hour between runs. Not bad. All of us were wondering how that would affect our ability to run the loop. Would it hurt us? Help us? Hell if I knew, I'd never run a tough 2 miles, then waited an hour, then ran that 2 miles again, then waited an hour, etc.

Ahhh... so what's so "rock'n" about that? Well, the event has bands playing the duration of the race at Upper Duniway Park, plus food and beer booths. :D

Anyway, just cause I'd done a 1/2 marathon the weekend prior (unlike everyone else on my team) I was designated the anchor. After my 1/2 marathon time, I was totally pumped for this run.

Basically we just camped out all afternoon on Saturday, Aug 2, listened to music, enjoyed the weather and views, and ran a big hill repeatedly.

Here, meet the team: This is Robin (avid Roundabout fan), Bryce, and Robin's border collie-flat coated terrier mix, Juno... and then Dayna and Sheryl.



So, we hung out a touch before the race started. Other teams were setting up a "base camp" like we did. Some of them even got all dressed up for the race. There was a bouncy palace for the kids. And this was our view of the stage from our "base camp" location. The Portland Cello Project was performing.

The anchor got the purple team bib, and the others got white. The Roundabouts ran in the order: me, sheryl, dayna, bryce.

Here are some pics of us on the course...

Sheryl:
Sheryl, on loop 2, started cramping in her legs. She was disappointed, but had to walk, and was clearly in a decent amount of pain. Ugh... poor thing.



Dayna:



Bryce:
Bryce had some great times. He kept showing up before we were expecting him.



And then, ofcourse, me! I was dressed in all black, cause I thought it'd make me look ominous.
This is loop 1


loop 2



loop 3



loop 4






hehehe, my team greeted me at the finish with beer. Great team!

For me, loop 1 was weird... running in the pack, and trying to slow myself down... ignoring the excitement. I ended up pushing too hard up till the hill, and had to walk up the hill a bit. I resolved to NOT walk up the hill on loop 2 & 3 though, and I was able to manage that. I did walk a touch on loop 4 tho. Just a little bit. Once you hit the 1 mile mark on the loop, it was ALL downhill till the finish.

On loop 1, I ended up getting a side cramp at the top of the hill, and had to walk a bit on the downhill to get rid of it. After that, I also decided to "warm up" as much as a could before my other loops... and could be seen jogging in place while my teammate before me was running the loop. It helped a lot.

Between loops I stretched, slammed electrolyte snacks, drank water, and tried to stay warm.

Loops 2-4? I was basically around no one else. Ok, loop 2 there were some quick runners passing me, but after that, no one.

We finished in 4:18:58... slightly faster than a 10 minute mile as a team. Neat!
My own personal times:
Mile 1 8:27 minutes
Mile 2 10:00 minutes
Mile 3 9:00 minutes
Mile 4 9:15 minutes
Mile 5 9:16 minutes
Mile 6 8:55 minutes
Mile 7 9:48 minutes
Mile 8 8:44 minutes

My average pace- 9:12 minute miles, or for me, 8 miles in 1:13:29!! Not bad!! I think I hit like 5:30 minute miles on my sprints to the finish too. Zoom!!!

I'm pretty happy with both my team and my own effort on this run. It felt really good.

Here are some more pictures from the day...
Note the long-hair chihuahua on the guy's chest laying on the ground... hee!



And, the music




What a fun event.

I even won a $10 gift certificate to Foot Traffic, and a coupon for $10 off registration for another Terrapin Event run.