Howdy y'all!Last Sunday I finally got off my lazy, grad student behind and participated in a race. It wasn't entirely my idea, I was roped into it by one of the guys in my lab group at UT. It was the Austin Relay Marathon! I've never done a relay marathon before, and it was a total blast and I highly recommend them.
"Now how do these chips go on?"After 3 weeks of very little training, one week of the "cold from hell", I got in two moderate runs as my "training" for this event. My team, Longhorns & Yellow Jackets, consisted of Mike (from my lab group), and 4 women who had never met each other. Apparently Mike has "a way with the ladies".
I was relieved to be assigned the 1st leg for a couple of reasons, but mostly because it was the earliest leg, hence the coolest possible time. Temps were in the '90's by the time the last 2 legs went out, and those gals really did an amazing job!
The legs were as follows:
1st leg - 10k = Tammy - 1:00:30.4 (9:44-min/mi)
2nd leg - 11.1 k = Mike - 56:42.6 (8:13-min/mi)
3rd leg - 11.1k = Julee - 55:58.6 (8:07-min/mi)
4th leg - 5k = Emily - 31:19.5 ( 10:05-min/mi)
5th leg - 5k = Liz 26:08.4 (8:25-min/mi)
As a team we ended up placing 131 out of 243 teams that completed the race, and 356 teams total. Plus, now we all can say we did a sub-4 hour marathon... right? ;)
I wasn't very sore after this event, but I felt like I was pushing threshold at the central level. The heat was probably more of a limiter than my legs. Luckily, fall is on the way, and I've lived through the worst of it. It should be easy sailin' here in Tejas through next spring.
The bus for the mexican place that provided breakfast tacos at the finish line. Mmmmm!
Team tents lined Riverside
