Denver Marathon Relay - Race Report

Going to a race completely for fun is indeed great fun. The Kernel Jsssup relay team was a mixed team, 2 gals and 2 guys. My friend Susan from work and her twin Sarah and my buddy Scott. We decided to meet at Susan's since it was close to the race venue in downtown Denver. I picked up Scott at 5:50am and we headed north to downtown. Everyone was ready to go and Susan's boyfriend Roland was our driver to the relay transitions.

We all loaded up the car and headed to drop Susan off for the first leg of 6 miles. The race start was 7am so we got her close by 6:30am and the rest of us headed to Starbucks to hang out. Susan was targeting below 10 minutes a mile so we had about an hour before we needed to make our way to the first transition (are the called transitions in a relay?).

After some coffees and lattes we got our numbers and timing chips fastened and loaded into the car again. We made it easily over to the relay station and got ready for Sarah to take over the running. She would be running the 4.2 miles and aiming for close to 9:30 per minute miles. Susan made it right around on time. It's hard to tell exact on relays because the start time is officially unknown until well after the race for the individual. But she was close to her goal and we were looking good so far.

Sarah took off for her 4.2 miles and we headed to the car to get Scott to the next station. We didn't a ton of time given this being the shortest leg. Again no problems getting the car to the next station. We all kept watch for Sarah. It was a beautiful day at this point crisp cool air and sunny. The atmosphere was very festive and the crowds and runners seemed to be enjoying themselves. Sarah made it through and looked to be right on her target as well. Scott took off on the big leg 9 miles and he was aiming for 6 to 6.5 minutes per mile. Not too specific but he was looking to move fast, our fastest team member.

We all piled back into the car with a decent amount of time to get to my transition station. We unfortunately got stuck in a traffic line blocked by the marathon. Minutes ticked away and we weren't too worried at first but we sat longer and longer. I figured I'd be happy to have 10 minutes to spare and hit the porta potty and eat a gel pack before my turn at the wheel. We got closer and closer to the crossing and watched one guy get out of his car to complain. That was comical. Well we made it with 10 minutes to spare and I got prepped to run.

We were waiting for Scott and the Ace Venture team, complete with pink frilly skirts, feathered back hair and a football made there hand off. Scott came roaring through right on target and I took off on the final 7 miles which I was hoping to do below 8 minutes per mile. I have raced several tris where you have the benefit of seeing the R on the back of relay team calves. I did not have such an R and got to enjoy that feeling of passing boatloads of people. It's always such an annoying feeling in a tri especially when you see that R. Well I felt good and kept my heart rate in the low 160s for the most part. I gave an OK kick for the final few hundred yards and looked at my watch which said 11:34am...official time to come later on.

We all met up and headed for brunch with a handful of folks. Thanks a bunch to Roland for driving and great job to the team! Official time 3:31. Susan 9:50 / mile. Sarah 9:36. Scott 6:25. Me 7:49. We all were right in line with our individual projections. Good enough for 39th of over 300+ relay teams and a top 20 for mixed teams. Well done!

Happy training!

Coming up soon...rebuilding my road bike into a racing machine!