Saturday I participated in my first relay race. The best part of this relay was that I completed it with 5 other women I had never actually met before! I had connected with a couple of the girls through Twitter, and the rest just fell into place. I had an absolute blast with all of these ladies! Theresa, Callie, Courtney, Casey, and Colleen – thanks for an awesome race!
The 1Day Relay was in its inaugural year, so we did not really know what to expect. The Staff did an amazing job! It was incredibly organized, and everything went very smoothly! We ran all the way from Bradenton down to Venice for our 50 mile adventure!
1Day Relay course map
The race started at Pier 22 in downtown Bradenton. The race staff grouped everyone by projected finish time (which we submitted to them), and they grouped the start by those times. There were teams that started from 7 am to 10 am on the hour. We were lucky enough to start at 8am, and were blessed with chilly weather at the start.
Chilly start!
Each team was allowed 4-6 runners to complete the 12 legs. We were lucky to have 6 people on our team, comprised of all women (there were a lot of gender mixed teams as well). Casey was up first and completed the first leg in great time! She was ready to rock!
The starting line
Then it was my turn at the next exchange. I was definitely ready to run!
Let's Do It!
Instead of battons, we all used slap bracelets for our hand off. 1980′s anyone?? Love it! :)
My first handoff
I completed my 3.6 miles in decent time and then we all piled back in the van and were off to the next exchange point. We had quite the driver for the race. Instead of having to constantly change drivers, we had a volunteer that stepped up to the plate.
Oh ya, I'm driving a minivan!
Yep, you guessed it… Marcus was our awesome driver. The man put up with 6 stinky stinky dandelion smelling ladies for an entire day. He got an earful of some interesting conversations throughout the drive, but never missed a beat. A big thanks to Marcus for being our fearless chauffeur!
This guy is excited to be driving a minivan!
The course was marked very well. The streets were all open, so there was standard traffic everywhere we went. We were always on the sidewalk or shoulder of the road, and the staff did a great job making sure all of the runners were safe while running on the course.
Signs were always around for directions
The only thing I would like to see next year is a few more signs on the longer legs. My second legs, a 7 mile route, did have a couple of confusing parts, and I would love to see some signs just verifying that I was going the right way. Other than that, the course really was amazing! Everyone had beautiful legs of the race, with almost all of them with some sort of view of the Gulf of Mexico.
Not too shabby!
Courtney ran in the last leg of the race, and picked up the rest of the us about 100 yards from the finish. We were all able to finish together, as a team. It was awesome!
Trucking it to the finish!
We were thrilled to have completed all 50 miles without a hitch.
50 Miles complete!
The post race festivites were great as well. 2 beer tickets, pizza and snacks. A great combo! And not to mention, one of the best race medals I have ever received! Look at the size of that thing!
Swag!
Our team placed 5th out of the 20 All-Female Teams on the course. For 6 people going out just to have a good time, we were thrilled with 5th place 
Great job ladies!
High Five to that!
Another big thanks to my amazing husband! Such a trooper putting up with all my crazy running antics!
My biggest fan!
We really had such a fun time! I can’t wait to do it again! Maybe I’ll be able to keep that awesome medal next year….
Have you ever ran a relay before? Are there any must run relays?
Related articles
- Ragnar Recap (heavymedal.wordpress.com)
- Meyer: Ragnar Relays’ Colorado plan is bad way to do business (denverpost.com)
- The Hood to Coast Relay (onlineshoes.com)
I laughed at this post because you raced with Courtney and I worked with her in Lake Claire. She is really cool This race sounded really fun.
Lol that’s awesome. Small world! Ya it was a great race. You should think about doing it next year. It’s not crazy distance or anything. Very manageable!
I almost lost my medal to Dottie…but it was a little too heavy for her tiny little neck and she gave it back
It really was a great day – I’m super glad we got a team together & I think we all complimented each other well seeing as we had such varying paces! Thanks again to Marcus for carting our smelly arses around all day!
Ha ha oh Dottie! I had a great time with you! And thanks again for letting as crash at your place!!
Good luck this weekend!!
Yay! Great to meet and run with you.
Great to run with you as well! I had a blast!
[...] and foremost, I am soo excited to have my new blog layout live! When I ran the 1Day Relay back in October, my teammate Theresa was saying how awesome her husband is at redesigning blogs. [...]
[...] thru the first mile in about 7:20, and knew I had to slow down. I hurt my hamstring back in the 1Day Relay, and am still having issues with it. I knew if I pushed myself too much, I could possibly extend [...]
[...] friend Courtney, a teammate from the 1Day relay, has recently moved to my side of town, and we live so close to each other now! We met up on [...]
[...] I met some new friends while running a really fun 1Day Relay [...]