Race ReCap: Brew to Brew 44 Mile Relay

what what

Yesterday, myself along with a good friend and six new ones ran KC's Brew to Brew Relay.

Brew to Brew is a 44 mile relay race from Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing Company to Lawrence, Kansas's Free State Brewing Company.  

44 Miles

10 Legs

8 runners

Lots of beer

We started at 06:30, and by we I mean Mark, our first runner.  Never the less, I still had to be up at 04:30.  Rough....seriously rough, especially when you were up until midnight because of the KU game.

I didn't drink coffee because I thought for sure I would nap in the car as we drove through the exchanges.  That's a newb mistake.  Silly, silly.  The car ride from exchange to exchange was where all the fun was at:

Blaring Meatloaf, Justin Bieber and others

Squirting water guns

Cheering on the runners

I had legs 9 & 10, so yeah, I had to wait all day and build the excitement and anticipation.

By the time it was my turn to run it was about noon, almost 90 degrees and pretty darn humid.  I was really stoked to run, so I took off pretty quick but also quickly slowed myself.  Leg 9 was pretty wicked.  Long hills, just constant up and down.  I do enough hill training that it wasn't so bad, but it's pretty discouraging when you see EVERYONE walking up a hill a half mile ahead of you.  Also it was on gravel, I hate running on gravel.  It kinda sucked.  But leg 9 whirred by, it was 4.2 miles.

Leg 10 is where things got a little frustrating.  I arrived at the exchange point, grabbed some water.  I couldn't see where to go next, so I asked some guy and he said "yeah, just keep going!" so I took off.  I was pretty exhausted.  I am just trucking along, it was weird that there wasn't anyone ahead of me, but I shrugged it off.  Finally, I heard someone yelling "hey...hey!!"  It was a paramedic on a bike, who told me I was going the wrong way and that the guy who told me to go this way was joking.  AWESOME!! I had ran a mile and a half in the wrong direction.  I turned around and went back, adding three miles on to this leg.  

yeah! One of the legs has a boat crossing! 

I was livid.  By the time I got back on track, I was along a levee's small gravel trail in full sun.  My first leg went by so quickly because the length wasn't visible, but on the levee I could see for miles.  And miles down the levee relayers were still running.  It was kind of daunting.  I had no gauge as to how far I needed to go because I had ran three miles already and my head was spinning from heat and dehydration.  

I asked several runners how much was left and everyone said "oh about two miles..." well I heard that like six different times for 10 minutes.  Longest 2 miles of my life.  I stopped sweating in those "2 miles" and got chills.  It was pretty miserable.  Leg 10 was suppose to be 4.7 miles, but I ran 7.8.

Finishing was the best feeling in the world, but I was super intensely mad about the three extra miles I ran.  Ya'll know I love to run, but there's something to say about being mentally prepared.  When you think you're gonna run 9 miles, you mentally gear up for that.  If you feel good enough to run more that's great, but that's probably not gonna happen when it's 90 degrees and the sun is in full force.

That's me in the back at the finish, notice the look of despair on my face

Team Life Equals finished in just under 8 hours.  Not bad for running extra miles in the heat and sun! I ran my legs in just under 2 hours, 12 miles...so not too bad!

This was my first relay race, and I am definitely wanting to do more!!

Finish line photos are the best.

Have you ever ran a relay race?

What was the distance of your leg(s)?

Do you want to do one again?