December Racing

October Update

Before we get to last month's races first an update from October. Want to know what it is like to come in second in your AG in a race where over 20,000 people line up at the start? Well I sure would. But since that is not going to happen I have what for most of us will be as close as we will get: a picture of Sue (who actually did it) and the trophy they sent her. Alas, it did not come with an anti-reflective glass so the pictures do not really do it justice. Congratulations again to Sue on this remarkable achievement.

December Racing

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Rodger clearly was the racer of the month. On December 2 He ran the California International Marathon, which most people just call the CIM, in Sacramento California. His time of 3:32:52 was good enough to drop his PR by 28:36! A truly amazing accomplishment. This all came despite high headwinds during the race's final miles making his time all the more impressive. He finished 181/964 in his AG putting him easily within the top 20% of all finishers. Great job and congratulations again!

Sue, for her at least, it was a ho-hum month. Just two races. First place, of course, in both. Here is an edited version of her description of each:

December 2: Sue ran in the annual off-road run called Gail's Run. The proceeds support PAN CAN, which does research in the area of finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. Gail was a young woman who passed away from this cancer over 4 years ago. The race is in the Pound Ridge Reservation in Pound Ridge, New York. Sue ran the 6.2 mile course, crossing two rivers (without any bridges), climbing hills on all fours and running through beautiful wooded trails. She finished first female in under 58 minutes. It was an adventure run that she'll long remember.

December 22: Sue placed first in her AG in the 5k Fairfield - Holiday Run for Toys. Entrants in this race provide toys for needy children. She ran it in 21:07.

Matt

November Racing

Before going on to the team's November races a couple of pictures from races past are in order. First there is Heather's first place AG award from the Niantic 5K at the end of September on the left, and my third place AG award from the October Branford Shores 4M race on the right:

The way the web page displays things does not due justice to Heather's trophy which as a first place trophy is rightly much nicer! We are still waiting for Sue's second place AG trophy from the Marine Corps Marathon to show up. Now that should be a REALLY nice trophy!


November Racing

Amy ran the November 11 Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5k setting a new PR for the race in 27:33. This is over a minute faster than her 2006 time of 28:44! Nice job. Of course this might mean captain Erica will have to sign her up for some tougher legs in the 2008 RTBR! :)

Heather ran in two races last month. The first was the November 11 New Haven MADD Dash 5 miler which she finished in 41:37 putting her a well deserved fifth in her AG! She then followed this up with a 33:24 5k on November 22 for 10/68 in her AG. This was the famous Run 4 the Pies Turkey Trot down in Palm Beach Florida. Heather collected a pie but alas reports it was a pretty mediocre one! Oh well.

Matt/I ran two races as well. The first was the very same 5 mile MADD Dash Heather was in. My time of 32:31 placed me 11 in my AG and 25 OA. A few weeks later I ran my own Turkey Trot at the Southport 5 mile Pequot Runners Thanksgiving Day Race. Another 5 mile race but this time I finished in 32:01 for a new PR! That was good for 14/509 in my AG.

Cathy (a member of the founding relay team, more on that some other time) ran the 5 mile Pequot Turkey trot as well finishing in 46:25.

Sue also traversed the Pequot Turkey trot route. However, she refuses to say she "ran" it since she was out to have fun covering the course with her daughter who was up for the holiday. No chip, no time, and no official race. But she was there and I did see her as she turned towards the final stretch!

Matt

October Racing

Welcome to the second racing update for the RRFC! First we need to back fill:

September 30 the Big Heart Big House 5K took place in Ann Arbor, MI.

Sally ran it in 23:52 for a 7:41 pace to finish 10/182 in her AG. Yes, a top 10 finish! Congratulations!

Now on to October:

October 7 was the date for Connecticut's Ridgefield Half Marathon. Sue and I ran it.

Sue finished in 1:40:46 for a 7:42 pace. That was good enough for first place in her AG! What did the trophy look like? Here it is:
No hardware. Just a $50 bill in an envelope. Probably just as well. Given Sue's already extensive trophy collection this is probably a lot more useful. ;)

Matt (I) finished in 1:29:11 for a 6:48 pace and 5/114 in my AG. Best of all that time is good enough to get me a guaranteed entry into next year's NYC marathon! I am running NY in 2008.

October 21 was a busy day for the fan club with 4 miles races in Trumbull and Branford Connecticut.

Sue ran Trumbull in 27:48 for a 6:57 pace. Way to go breaking a seven minute mile! Naturally she was first in her AG.

Heather ran Branford in 32:54 for an 8:14 pace and 7/22 in her AG. Well done!

Matt (I) also ran Branford. My finish time was 25:36 for a 6:24 pace and 9/160 overall but a mere 4/40 in my AG! Tough AG is all I can say! :) Fortunately the overall winner was in my AG so I actually got to collect the 3rd place AG trophy. As with most races competitors are limited to winning at most one award. Hey, I will take what I can get!

Cathy was a member of the founding RRFC team so I am going to include her Branford race here as well. She finished in 35:09 for a 8:48 pace and 13/36 in her AG. Another well done race!

October 28 saw the 32nd running of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC for which Sue and I have been training these last few months.

Sue what can you say other than she is an amazing runner! Her final time of 3:25:49 for a 7:52 pace put her 2nd (yes you read that right 2nd) out of 439 in her AG! I will get a photo of the trophy once they mail it in to her. Her Age Grade was 79.7% which puts her just 0.3% below what is called "National Class." Basically, it means she competes with the country's best runners. Not too surprising given that she just scored 2nd place in one of the country's largest and most prestigious marathons! Did I mention her MCM time was nearly 5 minutes faster than her last marathon! Details about Age Grading can be found below.

Matt (I) ran the marathon in 3:23:11 for a 7:46 pace. That was good enough to land me in 74/1526 in my AG. I also scored a new marathon PR by just over 5 minutes! My Age Grade was 66.8% which gets me into the category of "Local Class." Heck, I am happy to be in any "class" at all!

Sue and I also want to thank RRFC founding member Cathy for her on course support. We are also grateful to her sister (Patty) and niece (Karin) and our friend Alton who were there with supplies across the miles as well. They were all wonderful and we could not have run as well as we did without them.

If you are wondering about what Age Grade means the following is taken from the MCM results web page.

"AGE-GRADED" results are calculated using tables developed by the World Association of Veteran Athletes (the world governing body for masters track and field, long distance running and race walking). These tables were first published in 1989 and are frequently updated. The tables can be used in two ways: first, by comparing your time to a standard for your sex and age, you can determine your Performance Level Percent. These percentages can be interpreted as follows:
100% = Approximate World-Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

Matt

The Fan Club Races On

While the RTBR is over that does not mean the team has stopped racing. No, not as a team! Individually. I am hoping to post here about once a month the team's racing achievements in the prior month. So here is the September recap:

September 22: I ran the Flagstaff AZ Half Marathon (HM). This race has what every runner dreams of avoiding: a combination of hills and no air! It takes place at 8000 feet and has vertical climbs totaling 1100 feet! What did I sign up for? I finished with a new personal worst HM time of 1:48:03. But that was good enough for 8 out of 31 overall among the men and 3 out of 16 among men over 40. Did they hand out age group trophies? No! Sigh.

September 30 was a busy day for the team! Just in time for this month's recap we have:

Amy ran the Ann Arbor MI Big House, Big Heart 5K side-by-side with her daughter. Their chip time of 41:20 is pretty impressive for somebody in the middle of grade school!

Heather ran the Niantic Bay 5K. Not only did she run it in just 24:41 for a 7:57 per mile pace she WON her age group! (Stay tuned we may yet get a picture of that trophy to post.) Collecting the trophy turned out to be harder than you might imagine. First they handed her the third place trophy. Looking at the finisher list the race officials discovered the second place finisher was named Matt. Hmm, not too many women named Matt. So then they gave Heather the second place trophy. Only later, when the official results were posted, did she find out that she had actually won her age group. An email to the race director, a few days wait, and the right trophy (the BIG one) finally showed up in the mail.

Erica ran the Niantic Bay Half Marathon (HM) showing that fan club members can run long even without van support! She broke 2 hours with a time of 1:58:12! Better yet she knocked 22 seconds per mile off of the pace she ran the New Haven 20K on Labor Day with a final HM pace of 9:02 per mile! Congratulations Erica!

Matt

The Overall Rosie Stats

The Rosie Ruiz Fan Club came in 64/154 in the Mixed Open category! That puts us in the 42 percentile from the top. Great running! Special kudos to the Green Line runners who toughed out a really rough 29 hours, 23 minutes, and 31 seconds yielding an overall pace for the group of 8:33. If you are wondering how good that is, our forecasted pace (based on actual historical race times) was 8:53. So we knocked a full 20 seconds from that! Had we run at our forecasted pace we would have finished 102 in our category, which is the 66 percentile and about where I believe we were initially seeded. A pretty impressive achievement all around!

Matt

Epilogue

The team owes Captain Erica a free lifetime metro pass for all the work she put into making it all happen! I am sure I speak for the whole team when I say we are immensely grateful for allowing us to experience the Reach the Beach Relay.

If you have never run a relay like this you cannot begin to imagine the time and effort a team captain needs to devote to the whole process. Like what?

• Do you have 11 friends that can run a half marathon? Can at least two or three of those 11 run a marathon? No? Well start looking!
  
• How many handy running compatible reflective vests, lights for those vests, and headlamps do you own? None? Get ready to go shopping! Not only that get ready to do some research too. Not all reflective vests are suitable for racing in.


• Do you have a pair of 15 person vans in your garage? No? Ever wonder where you might be able to rent two? This is your chance to find out.


• How familiar are you with the hotels near the vehicle transition areas? Not at all? Think a web based service will help? Think again! You need Grady's Roadside Inn not the Hyatt. Find the town on the map then go to a Yellow Pages website and type in motels. See what pops up and start dialing.
  
• Do you like to shop for things like bottled water, sports drinks, and high carbohydrate foods that can supply 6 people over 36 hours of running? I hope so because you just agreed to stock two vans with the stuff!
  
• Do you want your runners to be able to spot your van on course? Yes! How nice. Now go buy things to decorate the vans with.
  
• Did you know there is a race handbook? Did you know your team is supposed to read it? Do you have a plan to get them to do so? As you might imagine it is very entertaining so your team should jump at the chance. Not!
  
• Maps! Yes, your team needs course maps and if you are nice road maps that cover the whole route.

All of the above and more Erica took care of.

Oh one other detail. What do you plan to do if one of the vans breaks down after the race when it is ready to leave the beach? Well, the curse of the Green Line did not end with the race. When the group that had planned to drive it back to New Haven tried to start it up and leave the finish guess what? Nothing! It would not start. Erica's husband Chris was kind enough to drive six(?) of us to the Manchester Airport where we picked up a minivan for the drive home. The next day Erica and Chris managed to get an emergency repair job for Green Line. That got it started but the mechanic told them not to let the engine stop prior to reaching New Haven as it likely would not start up a second time. It could have been worse! The van did make it to the finish. Had it died midrace our adventure would have gone with it.

Here is the picture Erica took the next day of the Green Line at the finish. Sort of says it all.

Matt

Orange Line Reaches the Terminal

I handed the wrist strap off to Paul and off he went. Like me he seemed really up for his run. Since his leg was only 4.8 miles we checked on him mid-route and then went straight to the transition area. There we dropped off Sally to get ready and I headed down to the basement of a church where they were kindly serving breakfast for the relay racers. While you could get healthy things to eat I went for the breakfast cakes and rolls. Yes plural! After two days on the Cliff Bar diet I was dieing to eat real food, and breakfast cakes are among my favorites!

After they talked me away from the tables (and further face stuffing) we went to meet Paul at his finish.

Paul blew away his predicted time, running his leg 35 seconds per mile faster than our forecast! When he came in to hand off to Sally off we went again. Sally's final leg was 4.7 miles so it we had to hustle.

Like Paul and the rest of the Orange Line that day Sally had no trouble trouncing her predicted pace, knocking 33 seconds off of it! When she arrived it was Amy's turn after which the Orange Line would be done!

Well maybe. One fear remained. Would the Green Line runners manage to run all of their legs? The news from their van remained grim. While they were all clearly determined to finish their legs they were in anything but the best of shape. The combination of running, lack of sleep, and getting soaked in the rain was not doing them much good. Would they make it? If not how many of us would have to run a fourth leg?

Sue soon found her solution to the potential fourth leg problem. I have never seen her look fatigued let alone exhausted. When I saw her collapse after announcing that she was NOT running a fourth leg I knew I had a chance for this one-in-a-million picture!

Yep, that is Sue! Looks pretty tired to me! Would she have run a fourth leg if asked to an hour later? Well I guess we will never know! :) If you have been reading this blog you know the Green Line pulled through for us and nobody ran anything other than their scheduled legs!

When Amy left for her final leg the sky opened up once again and it poured. We all thought our poor teammates in the Green Line would get rained on yet again. I tell you it seemed that van had a curse on it!

Like the rest of the team Amy also came in faster than predicted despite the weather. While she was at it she picked up a couple of puppy dogs!

By the time Amy's leg came around we had finally figured out that we needed to get the foil seals off the bottles before handing them out! So here she is actually getting water from a bottle you can actually drink from. Yes, we were proud of ourselves for figuring this out! Look, it had been a day-and-a-half with little food, or sleep and lots of running. What do you want?

Once Amy arrived the Orange Line handed off to the Green Line and they took off after Ali. Nature finally came through for them and just as quickly as it started raining it stopped. The Orange Line now took off for the beach and the finish line party and barbecue!

Actually, party second shower first. Our next mission was to find a cheap hotel where we could get a shower. Near Hampton Beach (the finish line) we found one. I told the guy at the desk we wanted to rent it for an hour so that we could take showers and then leave. He looked at me kind of funny, like I must think he is really stupid or something. It was only when the women went upstairs and left the guys at the reception area to watch TV that I think he believed me! Post-showers we went down to the beach to greet the Green Line at the finish.

Before the Green Line arrived it was time to get some final Orange Line pictures!

Sans running outfits from left to right. Front row: Sue, Amy, and Sally. Back row: Paul, Rodger, and Matt. As you can see our road kill counter had a lot of action! Everyone had a collection of bones and puppies by the race's end. A reminder of all the people we saw and met in strange outfits, and oddly decorated vans. Every one of them part of a team that had no doubt spent hours coming up with a humorous team name. But, of course, none as good as the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club!

Matt