Beach to Bay Relay Marathon Race Report
How hot was it?
It was so hot that a team from the Rio Grande Valley, laredoheat.com defended their 2004 Beach to Bay Marathon Relay title to win the 30th annual 2005 event on Saturday.
It also was so hot that the top Houston Striders team drew the bib number: 666! They should have been known as "Hotter Than Hell" as opposed to the Puddle Stomping Striders!
Seriously, I think this had to be one of the hottest races that I've ever done. (The other might be the mid-June half marathon in San Antonio: the Carrabba's Classic. I might be reconsidering that one for 2005 after today!)
The team that I was on -- the H-Town Runners -- finished in 3:52:02, 292nd out of 1,177 teams (not bad to be in the top 25%). I was the slowest leg on the team, but nobody seem to care too much.
My leg (3.98 miles) ---------- 44:19 -- 11:08/mile pace
The other legs (22.22 miles) - 3:07:43 -- 8:27/mile pace
Marathon (26.2 miles) -------- 3:52:02 -- 8:51/mile pace
Needed to maintain an 8:27 --- 3:41:30
Would have finished 200th instead of 292nd! Yikes!
If it hadn't been so hot (upper 80s temperature and heat index over 90) and I hadn't been bouncing back from being sick, I should have been able to do that leg in under 40 minutes. I knew I was in over my head at that pace -- 8:27/mile. I had a lot of people that passed me, but I didn't get up to 90 I don't believe.
My mile splits looked like this today:
Mile 1 -- 9:24.90
Mile 2 -- 10:53.83
Mile 3 -- 11:51.31
Mile 4 -- 12:09.79 (.98 miles)
Totals -- 44:19.83
All in all, I had a good time. Many thanks are in order though: Brett Riley and Steve Shepard of the Striders for coordinating the teams, John DiMarco for serving as our team captain, Juan Arrieta for meeting me at the host hotel to give me my race packet this morning, Doug Flad for driving me back to the Leg 4/5 exchange parking area and the nurses and doctors from Christus Spohn Hospital at the Leg 5/6 exchange area tent for attending to me after I get dangerously overheated.
I spent at least 15-20 minutes there being soaked down with wet towels all over my body. I heard one nurse say that she estimated that my body temperature might have been approaching 104. Yikes!
I got to the Leg 4/5 exchange area too early as a matter of fact, but the first time around (for this event) it was better to plan ahead. It was good, however, to go to an event and be able to see some of the top runners.
The winning team, laredoheat.com, which was made up of some world-class runners, appeared as if they were on just over a 5:00 minute/mile pace. (They finished with a winning time of 2:18:17!)
On The Run, out of Clear Lake, finished 5th overall with a time of 2:32:01 and their 4th-to-5th leg exchange was manned by two runners who have slowly been whittling away at their 5K and 5M times: Sam Rodriguez and Chris Bittinger. They were in 7th or 8th place at the exchange point. (Just a week ago, Bittinger won the Run The Woodlands 5K #129 for the first time in his career.) I got a chance to visit with Sam a little bit as well as meeting fellow Strider Mike Tognarelli, who recently ran Boston in 3:18:06, for the first time.
I got a chance to see the exchanges of four of our Strider teams: 1.) John Yoder to Mike Tognarelli, 2.) Ted Traynor to Barry Chambers, 3.) Celeste Sabinger to Patti Sears and 4.) Tim Bowler to Rich Sears. The Striders' Puddle Stomping Striders finished 6th in the open men's division and 10th overall.
It was so hot that a team from the Rio Grande Valley, laredoheat.com defended their 2004 Beach to Bay Marathon Relay title to win the 30th annual 2005 event on Saturday.
It also was so hot that the top Houston Striders team drew the bib number: 666! They should have been known as "Hotter Than Hell" as opposed to the Puddle Stomping Striders!
Seriously, I think this had to be one of the hottest races that I've ever done. (The other might be the mid-June half marathon in San Antonio: the Carrabba's Classic. I might be reconsidering that one for 2005 after today!)
The team that I was on -- the H-Town Runners -- finished in 3:52:02, 292nd out of 1,177 teams (not bad to be in the top 25%). I was the slowest leg on the team, but nobody seem to care too much.
My leg (3.98 miles) ---------- 44:19 -- 11:08/mile pace
The other legs (22.22 miles) - 3:07:43 -- 8:27/mile pace
Marathon (26.2 miles) -------- 3:52:02 -- 8:51/mile pace
Needed to maintain an 8:27 --- 3:41:30
Would have finished 200th instead of 292nd! Yikes!
If it hadn't been so hot (upper 80s temperature and heat index over 90) and I hadn't been bouncing back from being sick, I should have been able to do that leg in under 40 minutes. I knew I was in over my head at that pace -- 8:27/mile. I had a lot of people that passed me, but I didn't get up to 90 I don't believe.
My mile splits looked like this today:
Mile 1 -- 9:24.90
Mile 2 -- 10:53.83
Mile 3 -- 11:51.31
Mile 4 -- 12:09.79 (.98 miles)
Totals -- 44:19.83
All in all, I had a good time. Many thanks are in order though: Brett Riley and Steve Shepard of the Striders for coordinating the teams, John DiMarco for serving as our team captain, Juan Arrieta for meeting me at the host hotel to give me my race packet this morning, Doug Flad for driving me back to the Leg 4/5 exchange parking area and the nurses and doctors from Christus Spohn Hospital at the Leg 5/6 exchange area tent for attending to me after I get dangerously overheated.
I spent at least 15-20 minutes there being soaked down with wet towels all over my body. I heard one nurse say that she estimated that my body temperature might have been approaching 104. Yikes!
I got to the Leg 4/5 exchange area too early as a matter of fact, but the first time around (for this event) it was better to plan ahead. It was good, however, to go to an event and be able to see some of the top runners.
The winning team, laredoheat.com, which was made up of some world-class runners, appeared as if they were on just over a 5:00 minute/mile pace. (They finished with a winning time of 2:18:17!)
On The Run, out of Clear Lake, finished 5th overall with a time of 2:32:01 and their 4th-to-5th leg exchange was manned by two runners who have slowly been whittling away at their 5K and 5M times: Sam Rodriguez and Chris Bittinger. They were in 7th or 8th place at the exchange point. (Just a week ago, Bittinger won the Run The Woodlands 5K #129 for the first time in his career.) I got a chance to visit with Sam a little bit as well as meeting fellow Strider Mike Tognarelli, who recently ran Boston in 3:18:06, for the first time.
I got a chance to see the exchanges of four of our Strider teams: 1.) John Yoder to Mike Tognarelli, 2.) Ted Traynor to Barry Chambers, 3.) Celeste Sabinger to Patti Sears and 4.) Tim Bowler to Rich Sears. The Striders' Puddle Stomping Striders finished 6th in the open men's division and 10th overall.
posted by WalkSports.com | 8:20 PM
2 Comments:
sounds like a fun event, but be careful in that heat!!!! 104 degree body temp?? MAN!!!
I had sent an e-mail to the folks at Spohn (thanking them) and copied the race director. He replied, asking to forward the e-mail to their Medical Director, but also said that there were very sick runners still in the hospital. I should have worn a hat and stayed under the tent the entire time. That might have helped me a little bit.
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