Reach the Beach 2012 Part 1

Phew, I am home briefly (got home from RTB late last night and I am leaving for California at 4 am tomorrow morning). Reach the Beach 2012 was a blast and there is far too much for one post, so I'll break it up into 3 posts.

I met half the team at Hampton Beach on Thursday evening. My first year I ran with a random team from PA that I found on the RTB forum, but since then I've run with the team I helped found- Sole Sacrifice. There is a core group of 5-6 of us that do it every year. It's the only time all year I see these guys, so it is great to catch up. We met the rest of the team at our condo for the night up at Bretton Woods. We had quite a few new people this year and they were all great!

Friday morning we were up early to decorate the vans and have breakfast. It was a rare fall morning, warm and clear. The view from the condo was spectacular.

Eileen went crazy with the decorations this year, so our vans were totally pimped out.

 I LOVED the purple christmas lights because it made it so easy to find the van in the dark. No wandering around a giant parking lot full of white vans trying to find MY van. And of course, as always, we had our rubber chicken antenna decoration. We stole the chicken from a team 4 years ago and still have it!

Then it was time to head to Cannon Mountain for the start. It was kinda crazy as usual, but so much nicer this year because it was warm. Last year I had on about 8 layers and was still freezing!

We got all checked in and had time for some team photos.

 Then it was 11:40 and time for the start. After starting the last 2 years, I was ready to run. But it was Jimi starting us off and I had to wait.

 Jimi went out like a bullet and then we were on the road. I was good teammate, passing out water and giving some love out on the road. Around 3 pm, it was finally my turn to run. Although I had been enjoying the warm sunshine all day, it was a little too warm for running. I was HOT!

My first leg was 5.5 miles with a lot of downhill. I wore my Garmin but didn't use it for pacing. I just ran what felt good. After being very discouraged with my pace lately, I was thrilled to look down and see I was holding an 8:30 pace. I ended up running with a guy from Portland for 3 miles. It was nice to have some company. We got separated when we both stopped to get water from our teams, so I ran the last 2.5 alone. I felt good- strong and comfortable, except for some major chafing issues. I won't go into too many details but my clothing on my bottom half was not working with me.

And then I was done. I walked around for a minute and then hopped in the van to head to our last TA in our rotation. Round 1 done!