So I did the K-100 relay yesterday. I did leg 5 which only has one hill so it wasn’t too bad.
It was very hot. And because of the higher altitude, I had less atmosphere to shield me. So I am now sporting a nice sunburn. I had slathered on a bit of SPF-8 sunscreen, but it didn’t protect much. Fortunately I had taken off my shirt for the run so I don’t have a farmer’s tan.
My support team for my leg wasn’t that good. It consisted of two people who are secretly camels in disguise. So they didn’t think I needed that much water. They were supposed to show up every two kilometers to see if I needed anything, shout encouragement, and take pictures. And they were good for the first few stops. Then it started stretching out to every five kilometers. When I did see them and got water, I drank the entire bottle within two kilometers, which left for a very dry run. I could even feel myself powering down from lack of fuel. I passed someone and was doing well but they got water and I watched them motor past me. So people passed me. But the other groups tend to put their best people on this leg so I can’t feel too bad.
At one point, there was a rather large mountain goat with an impressive rack on the side of the road. Munching grass. All the runners passing by were probably the best entertainment going. However, when I started getting close he looked like he was deciding to cross the road and was ambling towards me. When we were a few meters apart, I just treated him like any other pedestrian I come across during a run. A nod of the head and keep going.
After I passed I didn’t look back.
Then I just steamed along. I did mug another support vehicle for some water. That helped give me some fuel. The small child holding the sign “Run faster! There is a bear behind you.” was cute, but didn’t really increase my speed. In the end I did the 17.6km in 1:41:27. I wonder how much faster I could have done it with a decent supply of water.
I don’t know yet how my group did. We weren’t a competitive team. You can’t be when you are sporting a few senior citizens. Unfortunately, there was a death in the family of one of our runners, so we had to make different arrangements. We moved people around and had one of our runners do two legs. He did amazingly well. Probably because the two legs used different muscles. His first leg was mostly uphill and his second leg was all downhill.
Today I ache and I am taking it easy.