A running blog with some running

This past weekend, Michelle and I joined four others to take part in a Relay across Iowa. Most long distance relays are 200 miles, but to get from the west side of the state to the east side it’s 338 miles. We decided to split up the mileage with 7 mile legs, which worked out to be 8 legs for each or 56 miles.

I was the first one to leave Sioux City on Friday morning at at 6:40am. There was one other team scheduled to start running with us. Four teams total made up the first annual Relay Iowa (at one point, we thought we might have been the only ones to sign up!). My first leg was hilly since we started close to the Missiouri River. Our goal was 10:00/ mi pace for the entire race so starting off it seemed really slow. I ran almost the entire leg with the other team’s runner and we chatted for most of it.

Overall, I think I averaged around a 8:20/ mi pace, although I could be off since I was using my watch over so many miles. My night runs were definitely faster than the day runs, mostly due to wanting to find the van before a wild animal found me.

Our team was great and spending 2 1/2 days running, sleeping and stinking up a van turned out fun. The ironic thing is Michelle and I didn’t really know them that well, some not at all. I’m just glad we all finished our portions, injury free and could walk at the finish line. Upon reaching Dubuque around 1:40pm on Sunday, our legs were tired but more sore we just needed some decent sleep. The van was not the most comfortable!

Here are some images we got during the trip…enjoy.

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