Race Recap: Rochester Marathon Relay

Time for my favorite thing - race report!  Today was the Rochester Marathon and three friends and I did the Marathon relay.  After being super burned out lately and sick of races, it was fun to do a race as a team and just have a good time.

For those unfamiliar with how a marathon relay works (Mom), you have a team of four and each runner runs one 6-7 mile leg of the marathon.  You tag your teammate at an exchange point and they take off for their leg.  And so on.

Best part of being on a relay team?  Picking a sweet team name and team outfit.  Our team name?  Not Fast, Just Furious.  Get it?  Like fast and furious....but we're not fast.  Our team uniform shirts were just as baller as our name:

boom.

We woke up at the crack of dawn this morning (actually, it was still dark) and all met here to get uniform'd up and head to the race together.  We got there at 6:30am and had just enough time for some team pics before half our team had to get shuttled off to their exchange points.

not fast, just furious ready to hustle!

I headed to the start line with Jenn, who was running our first leg.  I wasn't running until the final leg, so my plan was to hop in the car with Brie (whose mom was running the full and friend was running the half) and cheer on the runners until it was time to head to my exchange point.

running friends!

marathoners and relayers heading off! 

half marathon start - hey steph!

After we watched everyone start, we headed to the car to follow the half marathon and find friend DC Chris.  Kid was booking it and we almost missed him at our first stop.  Thanks to Brie's maniac driving we made it in the nick of time.  We stopped a few times and made it back to see him cross the finish line in 1:35 - sick.

DC Chris in beast mode.

We watched some other halfers come in and since we had more time to kill before my leg, we stayed to watch the winner of the marathon finish.

BEAST

This dude finished a MARATHON in TWO HOURS AND TWENTY SIX MINUTES.... that is faster than I can run a HALF marathon!!!  Crazy.

After watching the fastest man ever cross the finish line, it was back to the car to head to my exchange point.  I knew a few other people doing the relay who were running the last leg so I was excited to see some friends when I got to the exchange!

me and laura - team anchors!

Emily and Jenn showed up at the start of my leg so I was excited to have the whole team there as I waited for Fast Emily to tag me on my leg.  Timing worked out perfectly and we got to cheer on Brie's mom right before Fast Emily finished her leg.  Mrs. L was on MILE TWENTY of her marathon, and she still looked fab:

About two minutes later, Fast Emily came running through and it was my turn to run!  Photographer Brie missed our high five hand off, but she did capture my excitement when I headed off:

time to run a 10k!

I saw Mrs. L about a football field ahead of me and hauled it to try and catch up with her.  For a 51 year old on mile 20 of a marathon, she is FAST!  I knocked out an 8:30 pace for about a half mile (I don't think I've ever done that in my life) and just couldn't close the gap between us.  Since I still had six more miles to run and didn't want to collapse at mile 1, I threw in the towel and settled into my normal slow-poke pace.

The majority of my leg was on the canal which was nice and flat with some spectators here and there.  I don't know what it was about this run, but it was an AWESOME run.  I was feeling good and got completely in a zone right off the bat.  If you've been reading this blog at all for the past two months, you know that this has happened a grand total of one other time.  It felt good to be totally in the run.

I made a couple marathon friends along the way, but mostly stayed in my zone and enjoyed being alone.  Besides my crazy fast first mile, I stayed surprisingly consistent with my pace.  We had perfect weather and it was an all around great run!

best pace in a while - win!

As I neared the finish chute, the rest of Team Not Fast, Just Furious was waiting at the corner so we could run down the chute and across the finish line together.  And by run, I mean dead sprint.  I'm not sure who was the culprit that decided to set the sprint pace down the chute (obviously not me) but I think this is the fastest I've ever ran across the finish line.  I hope I look hardcore in the pics.

Not Fast, Just Furious finished in 4:43:46 and came in 131 out of 147 - not bad considering our name would indicate we might be last!

marathon relayers! + our little cheerleader :)

sweet medals

After we high fived and admired our pretty medals, I headed over to see Mrs. L.  On my way over I ran into Colleen who I used to work with at Loft so obviously we had to take a picture.  Colleen is also a non-runner turned runner and this was her first real race.  Way to go Coll!

live love loft

Mrs. L looked awesome and finished her first ever marathon in 4:31.  Beast mode.

Even though I didn't get to see her finish, I could see the excitement and pride on her face afterwards.  Such an inspiration!  This is the crazy lady that got me into running exactly one year ago... she ran a 5k, and then I ran a 5k.  She ran a half marathon, and then I ran a half marathon.  Today she ran a marathon...... umm does that mean I'm next??!

me and my running mom!

Once I was done admiring everyone's accomplishments, it was time for Not Fast Just Furious to go refuel.  Another awesome thing about relays is when your teammates love post-race eating just as much as you, there is no debate about what the plans are after the race.  Food, obviously:

so much meat.

Overall, I had a complete blast today and think I'm finally starting to get my spark back for running.  It felt great to be out there and was a ton of fun to do it as a team.  Thank you to Jenn, Emily and Fast Emily for making my first relay awesome, and congrats to DC Chris, Colleen, Mrs. L and all my HFM's friends on killing your races!  Gosh I love running! :)