The Blazin' Turtles: Beach to Bay Relay Marathon

This weekend I participated in a relay marathon in Corpus Christi. It begins at the beach (on the island) and ends at Cole Park on the bay in Corpus. A marathon is 26.2 miles. This race was a relay, so there were 6 of us on the team (avg 4.4 miles per person).

TEAM #146 - The Snail Blazers (we didn't use the blazing turtles because no Beev in this race!)

Leg 1 - on the beach - Michelle (co-worker's wife)

Leg 2 - beach to base of bridge - Carolina (co-worker's wife)

Leg 3 - BRIDGE - me

Leg 4 - Naval Base - Cindy - co-worker

Leg 5 - from base to Swanter park - Mary - co-worker

Leg 6 - from Swanter park to finish at Cole Park - Kim - church friend

I was concerned prior to the race that we would be pushing the 6 hour race time limit because everyone told me they don't run regularly. I was fine with that. I just wanted to be a part of the race - not to win - just to participate and have fun. There's a men's team from my work area that goes every year and they always talk about how fun it is. So I put together a team of ladies!! Anyway, we did really great! We finished in 5 hours and 28 mins. Pretty good for our first time out! (BTW - the men's team finished in 4 hours 44 mins). Everyone had a great time and that was the most important part.

I had the bridge leg. One of my co-workers on the men's team (Phillip) told me ' awwww it's not that bad and it's really short 'up' distance." All I have to say is that he is a big fat liar. When I run I listen to fast Christian music. As I going up the bridge, here I am listening to how wonderful God is and love, love, love.....and all I'm thinking is that stupid Phillip, he's such a liar, I never should have listened to him...and possibly a few bad words too. all of that in my head - but what a contradiction to the music I was listening to. Ironic, no?

I actually ran all the way up the bridge and down the other side without stopping. I was pretty impressed with myself. Unfortunately, that took a lot out of me, so I had to stop running and walk instead for a bit. In hindsight, I should have run/walked up the bridge instead of being determined to make it up without stopping. I should have thought longer term. The bridge was the first thing I had to do in my 4.4 mile leg. I didn't hand off to the next person at the bottom of the bridge. I still had 3.5 miles to go! Another issue I experienced was that I didn't have time to warm-up and stretch before my run. So, my legs were tight and never really loosened up. So, I could only run for a bit and then had to stop to walk because my calves would tighten up. In hindsight - again - after the bridge I should have just stopped and stretched for a minute. That way I probably would have been able to run the rest of it without stopping. These are things I'll remember next year.

This is a huge event for Corpus. Almost 2000 teams (I hear) participate. 6 people per team - Do the math!! That's a lot of people. Great people watching! As usual, the finish line had free beer for the runners and pizza too. I'm not a fan of beer and I was too hot and yucky to want to eat anything. I just drank water and Gatorade. I was at the finish line by myself for quite a while, because the other ladies were caught in traffic. They arrived later. But i was there to watch and cheer for Kim as she crossed the finish line for our team. I was also there to cheer on the men's team final runner.

Some interesting tidbits of info:

The bridge is hard. Phillip is a liar.
I'm glad I gave my teammates neon green bandanas. The exchange zones were packed with people and it was hard to identify who to hand the baton off to. So, we wold all come through waving that bandana and it was easy for us to jump out, grab the baton and keep running.
Running on the causeway was breezy - so that helped keep me cool, but it also brought in that special fish smell Corpus folks enjoy so much. Stinky!
The ladies team was actually ahead of the men's team until they handed off to me. I lost our team ground. I had no idea we were in front, until Phillip ran by me. I yelled at him as he went by. I'm sure it was something nice - I think.
Even though Phillip is a liar, he's a nice guy. After he handed off to his 4th person, he came back a little ways and ran with me until I got a little closer to the exchange zone. I think his wife got a picture of me running. Oh joy. I'm sure that will be lovely. And of course I was hamming it up for the camera - held my hands up like I was a champion or something. I don' know why - I think I was delirious.
I hung out at the finish line waiting for our team to finish and got to hear some of the team names that are announced as you cross the finish line. Examples: Here for the Beer, Are we there yet, Why are we doing this, Whoa Nellie, Forest Gumpers, Beach to Beer, and others.
People have interesting styles in finishing. I watched one guy drop to his knees right before the finish line and start crawling and then he laid on the ground and rolled across the finish line.

The team bandana!