Reaching the beach: 201 miles, 18 people, 3 vans, 2 teams, 1 insane adventure.

This past weekend (well, Friday and Saturday) I participated in my very first long-distance overnight team relay. These races have become quite popular, and now there is one nearly every week in a different part of the US. I was invited to join a group of friends from an online running forum (some who I'd met in person before, most of whom I hadn't) to run Reach the Beach, a 201-mile relay across New Hampshire from Bretton Woods ski resort to Hampton Beach.

( Race report, and a (very) few photos )

Overall, this was a great experience, though I can't see myself doing this kind of race multiple times a year, like some of the people on our team. I'm not a fan of sleep deprivation, and the busy roads of this race course were not that pleasant to run on. The team aspect was a lot of fun, though sometimes my introverted side just wanted more quiet alone time than I could get in a van with five other rowdy people. The race organization was fantastic, and the van organization was fantastic as well - I have to say, it was definitely a plus that I was doing it with a team that had the logistics pretty well wired. And it surprised me that I was able to run pretty darn hard (for me) under these tough conditions. In conclusion: