Relay Race Tips: Part One

I have only done one relay race and am new to running, so I feel a little funny dishing out "tips" as if I am some expert. However, I am happy to share my personal experience running the Ragnar Relay and what other more experienced people told me along the way.

First of all, you will not get any real sleep. There were 6 ladies in my van and whilst we tried to take little cat naps, no one had any real sleep. I personally slept maybe 4 hours in almost three days (I did not really sleep the night before the race). I was super tired. However, you get this rush from hanging out with cool people, doing a cool race. It's just so much fun.

We used my friend's Honda mini-van. Most of the time we only had 5 people in the car. Someone is always running. When we were waiting for the other van to do their runs, we were trying to find food, showers or beds. So, we never felt terribly cramped. We had a lot of junk. We even had a Thule on the top of the mini-van where we kept the sleeping bags and pillows and some people's bags. We had each lady in our van bring a sleeping bag, pillow and a bag with their personal items. I suggested everyone bring 3 running outfits (including 3 running bras). I never wanted to have to wear the same clothes I had previously run in. I actually brought 4 outfits, but most everyone in my van brought 3. I brought about 5 pair of socks, just in case my feet got wet. I never needed extras. I only used three pair. I also brought a second pair of running shoes, as I had heard about people losing their shoes and having to borrow someone else's, and of course if they got wet, I didn't want to run in wet shoes. I also brought flip-flops to wear when I wasn't running (easy to get on and off and I didn't want my feet to get hot and tired of being in shoes and socks when I wasn't running). One thing I did not bring, but wish I had was a swim suit. I had the opportunity to shower at a high school. Everyone was buck n*aked in the open shower (obviously) and so I changed my mind about joining them. If I had had a swim suit, I would have joined in, but I am not that comfortable with showering in that environment. We all brought a towel. While we were running, another team threw a cold, wet wash cloth to our runner. We thought that was so cool and used that same wash cloth to freshen up our other runners. Next year, we will have several wash cloths we keep in the cooler to toss to our runners and others we see in distress. It can get pretty hot running in the summer in the middle of the day. I also brought a change of normal clothes, as I was in the first van and we were finished with our legs first. So when we had finished our last legs, we went to a hotel and showered and changed into real clothes. That was nice!

We all had a reflective vest for nighttime. If we got out of the car at night, we wore our reflective vests (Ragnar rule, but a wise one). We also had head lamps and flashing LED lights (backside) for nighttime running. A smart Ragnar requirement.

I used a fuel belt to have water/gatorade and GU for my legs. 2 out of 3 of my legs were "non-support" which meant my van could not leap-frog me. I was on my own, so I wanted to be prepared with hydration.

Having a camera and/or video camera is nice for recording the experience. I didn't bring my camera out, as I was too tired, and I regret it. Luckily my friend took photos.

We brought baby wipes to clean ourselves off since we didn't really have access to showers until later on in the race.

OK, I am going to post this and work on writing more as I think of it.