Marathon Relay

This past Saturday, I did the Ft. Ben Harrison Marathon Relay. I ran the half-marathon there last year, but had never before done a marathon relay. There were 4 of us girls total, and the legs of the race were 5 miles, 7.5, 6.55 and 7.15. I was person #3, running the 6.55 mile leg. I had never done a race of this distance before, so I really had no idea what my time would be. I expected it to be somewhat fast, but the only races I've done before have been my half-marathons and a 5K, which was two and a half years ago. The last 7-mile training run I had, I was able to keep a 9-minute pace, putting my finish time at 62 minutes. A year ago that would have been completely normal, but lately with marathon training, my overall pace has slowed down. I shocked myself at the relay with a finish time of 54 minutes--in other words, an 8:17 pace! A few years ago I would have never thought that was possible! It makes me really curious what my pace for my next half-marathon will be--8:30-8:45 could be a good goal.

Our last runner crossed the finish line at 3h 55m. I think we all had a secret hope of beating 4 hours for our combined finish time, since our average pace for the group was 9 mins/mile. Besides, when else could any of us say that we had a marathon time under 4 hours?!

If you ever do a relay marathon, be sure you know how they are timing the legs. As soon as the race was finished, there was a tent where you could get a print-out of your results. I thought something was a little fishy with the time they showed for my portion, because they listed it at 51:35...while I would certainly like to say that was true, I know that a pace of under 8 minutes would have been pretty impossible, plus I obviously had my Garmin that was saying 54 minutes. Only later, when we looked at the results online, did we find out that the times they show for each leg were NOT for the actual distance that you ran, but rather at the closest timing mat to your exchange zone. So, the 51 minutes they showed for me was for 5.9 miles, not the full 6.55 that I ran. This also means that the pace they show for each runner online is slightly off. Your best bet during any race, but especially a relay, is to always have your own watch too! And if you don't have a Garmin (and don't like doing math) www.coolrunning.com has as pretty handy pace calculator!

The Ft. Ben Harrison race has options for either a full marathon, half-marathon, or the relay, which means all runners are racing at the same time. The funny part about this is that all the relay runners appear pretty fast compared to the full marathoners, since we only had to do short legs. By the time I started in on my leg, the marathoners had just crossed 13 miles and were either slowing down or just remaining on their steady pace---which meant here I was flying by all of them. In fact, I only got passed by one person, and she was also doing the relay. Most of the other girls said they were breezing past people too. Sure, is a confidence boost at times, but we also felt bad in a way. The marathoners sometimes let out a sigh or groan as we passed, as if to say, "How can you be feeling THAT good this far in?" You could see their agony as some of them were tiring out and starting to walk--it is a very hilly course. I decided if I ever do this again, I will put a sign on my back that says "Don't mind me...I'm just doing the relay. Keep up the good work! You're looking great!!"