Another one posted on the blogs on Runner’s World.com
I have run a marathon in Zurich, a 5k around the Roman Coliseum, and a few half-marathons along the Las Vegas Strip (both in the daytime and night). Those were all fantastic runs, but my favorite year-in and year-out is the Ragnar Northwest Passage. On this adventure, a team of 12 people take turns running between 3 and 8 miles at a time, covering 187 miles nonstop.
This will by my fifth running, and this year I am runner #6. I have been planning assiduously for my legs, and I’d like to share my plan for my first sortie, a 6.5 miler outside of Bellingham.
7:30 am Our first runner begins in Blaine, Washington, right at the US/Canada border. I was given this leg the very first year my friends and I ever ran the Ragnar, so you could say I’ve been doing this long longer than anyone I know.
12:00 (noon) According to some very rough estimates based on average paces, altitude changes, ambient temperature, relative humidity, playlist selection, shoe selection, hydration, and the position of Mars in Sagittarius, I expect runner #5 to be about 14 minutes and 19 seconds away from our exchange. I’ll put on my shoes (Nike Free 3.0 with about 150 miles on ‘em), my cool 70’s-style bandana, my Nike+ GPS watch on one wrist, my iPod Nano in a wrist-band holder on the other, and don a pair of supremely choice sunglasses even if it is raining.
12:02 I’ll head to one of the Honeybuckets.
12:04 I’ll slather my hands with Purell, and down a 5-Hour Energy Drink.
12:06 Another visit to a Honeybucket.
12:08 More Purell, and begin stretching.
12:10 One more Honeybucket visit.
12:12 Purell. More stretching, start the GPS watch and put it on pause so it’s not still searching for a satellite while I’ve already started running.
12:13 Cue up the playlist. John Petrucci, Daikaiju, Tool, Jethro Tull.
12:14:19 Runner 5 comes at me. I take the baton/slap-bracelet. Off I go!
1:12:49 Slap runner 7 with the bracelet, begin earnest search for beer.
A perfect 9 minute/mile average! Way to pace yourself over the elevation gains and frequent busy street-crossings, me!
Now you maybe be wondering about the specifics during the running itself, but let’s face it: running is extremely personal (and the truth is I did type it up but it spans some 15,000 words, taking more time to write than it literally takes me to run 6.5 miles. This is a blog post, not a book by Cheever).
But at least I shared the beer part with you.