Monday, May 19, 2008

I Ran A Relay Marathon

Over the past weekend I took part in a marathon in Delaware. A few of us were part of relay. In case you are wondering what a relay marathon is - quite simple. Most of us cannot run 26+ miles so 4 persons run as a relay team for a total of total of 26.2 miles. The lead runner tackles the first 10 miles with the next three running 5.4 miles each for a total of 26.2 m. For this race, there were almost 100 relay teams. Quite a few of us were so unfit we ran when we could and when we were winded we walked.

Our group was named - Chariots of Fire. We were 28 runners in 7 relay teams. Amongst our 4 member team the first runner, Mark, ran his 10 miles at an impressive 8 minute per mile for a total of 1H:20M. The 2nd member Mary, ran her 5.4 mile leg at about 14/15 minute per mile for a total of 1H:15M. The third member, Charlie, took 1H:5M for his 5.4 mile leg. I was told I took 1H:6M for the last leg. Charlie, 3rd leg of my team, was the first person to come back (amongst our seven teams) so you could say I had an advantage. Due to the fact that I was unfit and had to walk for a little while and the 4th runner of another team overtook me and won the race for his team. We came overall 2nd. BTW, the friendly race was only amongst the 7 teams. We could not have competed with the other teams. The fastest relay teams would have averaged 2H:45M and my team finished it in 4H:48M!!

To put it in perspective (how slow we were), I ran at about a 13 minute per mile pace over a 5.4 mile course and the overall marathon winner yesterday ran a 6 minute/mile over 26+ miles and he was a slow marathoner since world class ones run closer to 5 minute a mile pace!!

Wow!!

3 comments:

Jannavi said...

Next time with the 'p-word'....i.e. practice, I think you can speed up considerably :-)

Anonymous said...

hello....went thru most of ur blogs..its gud...i like the "yogesh", its the best

Raag said...

Thank you Daya. Come back again. How are you?