I am going to do my best to capture the race and describe what we went through during this epic journey across the state of Florida during a record setting heat spell.
Ragnar relay started on Friday, Nov. 14th at 2:00p for The Team Hendryx/Fleet Feet team. There were 7 other teams on the start line with us as most of the other 54 teams started between the hours of 8:00a-11:00a. Start times were assigned based on your estimated finishing time - the goal is the get all teams to the finish line about the same time. Our team was made of up 6 runners (Ultra Team) - 3 women and 3 men all over 40. Your team could have either 6 runners or 12 runners in the race - there were a total of 8 Ultra Teams out there this weekend.
One of the goals of a race like this is to try and catch as many teams as possible before the finish - that is how you know you are doing well. The first third of the race would be pretty boring because there would not be many runners around. Hopefully we would start catching people in the middle of the night so there would be something to keep us awake.
The race started on Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin and would travel 194 miles across the state of Florida until each team arrived in Daytona on Saturday (hopefully) Nov. 15th.
It just happened that the race fell on a weekend when we were expecting record setting temperatures - the thermometer was touching 85 degrees when we started - and as you can see by this picture - it was pretty darn sunny.
Lauren S had the first leg - 2:00p start. Lauren is a awesome triathlete from the Orlando area who just won her age groups in the 70.3 World Championships the week before - she would end up running 30.1 miles over 3 legs before the race was done. She ran from Dunedin to Tarpon Springs in this 10.7 mile leg. from there she handed off to Mike R who just completed a 1/2 ironman last weekend and was a late fill in for your team when one of our runners could not make it.
Mike ran the next leg of 6.7 miles starting in Tarpon Springs and ending in Beacon Square, Mike would end up running 29.7 miles. After his leg he handed off to Rene' M.
Rene' ran from Beacon Square to Port Richey. This leg was 10 miles and pretty crappy running - first of all she was running during rush hour, it was starting to get dark, and she had to run most of the way on sidewalks. Rene' had a total of 25.3 miles to run before the race was over. Rene' caught one of the Ultra teams that started with us on this leg and they kept trading the lead while waiting at stop lights, until Rene' blew her away and handed off to Stacey B.
Stacey, who owns Fleet Feet Sports in Orlando, would be running 35.4 miles before the day was done and her first leg was 13.7 miles in the dark. She ran from Port Richey to the middle of no where. Stacey's leg started us on a journey of 30+ miles on Hwy 52. What a long boring stretch of pavement. Stacey handed off to me next.
I started my first leg of 12.7 miles at approximately 7:15p and would start a journey down Hwy 52. This was extremely boring and a little nerve racking - the trucks shining their lights in your eyes made for very tough running. My legs would total 37.8 miles and would be run on a total of 3 roads - I guess I am a bad navigator so I dot the easy directions. I ran from the middle of no where to the middle of nowhere and handed off to Sean H.
Sean started of down Hwy 52 with 10 miles ahead of him - he crossed under I-75 and continued on down the road, he ran through St Leo University and continued on to the next exchange point.
At this point it is 10:00p and 1/3 of our legs are done - it is extremely hot still and dark! We have about a 30 minute lead on the next Ultra Team and we are starting to see people that started much earlier at the exchange points. Everyone seems to be doing well.
Lauren had the next leg which was awful - it went through some extremely "bad" areas, she had some dogs chase her and she had to run down a dark path for many miles. Sean got on the mountain bike and road with Lauren to make sure she was ok. Thanks goodness she got through her 13+ miles without any trouble!
At this point we got on Hwy 50 in about Brooksville and headed due east for the the Clermont area - Mike knocked down 16 miles, Rene' 8 and Stacey 6. At this point we are starting to see a lot of other runners so it makes it kind of exciting. it is the middle of the night, the body is craving sleep, eating habits stink and we are just trying to run as fast as possible while not getting hit by a car or tripping over road kill. Stacey turned north on 19 and we headed toward Tavares/Mt Homer area.
I ran 11.2 miles in this section and Sean ran 9.4. This put us 2/3 of the way through the race - we have passed a lot of teams and the sun is starting to come up. We have now been on the road for over 16 hours with no sleep, crammed in driver and passenger seats and eating Gels and Gatorade (BLAH!).
The last 1/3 of the race we started off heading north to the Ocala Forest. Lauren knocked out 6 fast miles - saying that this was the best she felt since before she started yesterday (maybe the sun shining helped). It was still over 80 degrees and super humid but the sun was behind the clouds. After battling some stomach issues Mike knocked out 7 miles to put us deep in the heart of the forest. Rene' was next with a tough 7 miles - the first half up hill the second half down hill. We now had 3 legs left and had passed a lot of people. At least there was some excitement and people around at the exchange points.
Everyone was feeling pretty crappy at this point in the race and just ready to have it over with - unfortunately the last 3 legs were pretty darn tough - Stacey had 15.7 miles, I had 14 miles and Sean had a nice long 16.1 miles left.
Stacey took off heading east on Hwy 40 which would take us right in to Daytona. The sun has come out by now and it is really heating up - we are using more water dumping it on our heads than drinking it! The support cars are stopping every two miles at this point to make sure our runners are all ok. With about 30 miles to go we found out that we were 60 minutes ahead of the next Ultra team and we looking good for the Ultra win.
I continued east on 40 and handed off to Sean who stayed east and ran strong. He ran in to Daytona across the waterway and heading south on A1A to the finish line. It was early afternoon and hotter than heck.
We met Sean right before the finish line and finished as a team. We were greeted at the finish line by our Team Hendryx/Fleet Feet volunteers who had chalked the sidewalk with well wishes and put our medals on. It never felt so good to have my wife put a medal on my neck and give me a big hug. We finished at 3:20p on Sat - 25 hrs 20 minutes was our time!
Final stats:
194 miles in 25 hrs 20 min - 7:50 pace for the course - pretty darn good considering the conditions.
1st Ultra Team
1st Masters Team
1st Mixed Ultra Team
6th Team overall
we passed 43 of the 62 teams on the day.
18 pair of running shoes, 18+ pair of socks, multiple running lights, countless cokes, endless gels, lots of PB&J, gallons of water and gatorade, minimal sleep, many lbs lost, and after reflection many great memories and fun had by all - most importantly - no injuries!
We now are Ultra Champions and have the course record - we could retire but what fun would that be.
