Location: Conyers, GA
Date: October 18, 2009
Placing: 1st Overall Team
Race Photos
Results: Click Here
I lied. Sort of. I said that after Duathlon Worlds that I just had one event left for the season but I actually kept forgetting about this event. I'm sure it's because I kept thinking of it as a more of a 'fun' event rather than a race. And quite honestly - although I put my heart into it - that's exactly what it was. Fun. With a capital "F".
This was the second time this season that the Greenville Track Club has managed to gather together a group of 'old farts' (aka 'Masters') to go out into the world and act like we are teenagers. Teenagers with jobs, mortgages, falimilies, etc. - but teenagers none the less. Our local club is fortunate to have some pretty talented Master runners who share some great comeraderie. We had such a great experience last month at the National 10k Trail Championships that we HAD to find another event...and Joe Hammond was just the guy to do that.
We were all 'pimped out' in our tent thanks to Joe.
An 'ekiden' is simply a long distance relay race. The term is Japanese and dates back to the early 1900's. The formats can vary widely and the Atlanta Ekiden's format was: off-road (trail) race for teams of four participants. The distance was 40k (24.8 miles). The course was 8 - 5k loops. You could opt to run your team however you wished. Some teams ran A A B B C C D D. We thought it would be faster to run A B C D A B C D so that each runner would do 2 legs seperated by a rest. Since we had the wisdom of the ages on our team, we decided on the exact strategy with as much logic and scientific thinking that we could muster..."Let's split up our legs because it will hurt too much to do them back to back...and Joe, you go first because it's cold and this was your idea...". Very scientific.
Because this was a team event, the age groups were determined by adding up the ages of all four participants. The ranges were set so that your average age mirrored the normal age groups. There was an 'Under 120' group (average age under 30), a '120-160' group (average age between 30 and 40), a '161-200' group (average age between 40 and 50), and a '200 and Over' group. We were in the 161-200 group. Myself, Ed Hughes and Joe Hammond were so far at the end of this age group that we were able to hire a 'Master-wannabe', Kevin Mosteller, to be our fourth member. At the 'baby' age of 37, Kevin was able to help carry our walkers and administer our Geritol when needed. We could have gotten someone as young as 22 years old and still met the 121-200 age requirement but then would would've ahd to deal with changing diapers and feeding schedules...
Joe wastes no time darting to the front of the group.
The close to 40 teams lined up in the 40-degree, sunshine and the start gun was fired. Joe immediately jumped up towards the front of the group as we watched them disappear into the woods. About 17 minutes later, Joe and another runner emerged neck and neck into the finish clearing with a 3rd runner not far behind. Joe went through the finish chute and quickly stopped in the transition zone while Ed grabbed the ankle strap from Joe's leg, affixed it to his own, an took off. The runner that finished alongside Joe did not stop. Apparently, his team had decided to run back-to-back legs and by not stopping he had opened up a 15-20 second gap on Ed.
No, Ed is not proposing to Joe. At least I think he isn't...
Ed would emerge from his leg almost exactly where he started - a handful of seconds behind the leader. I was up next. Still 20 seconds behind the lead team, who themselves had just transitioned to a new runner, I took off in pursuit. Once in the woods, I completely lost sight of my quarry until about mile 1 when I rounded a curve and he suddenly appeared. I closed in quickly; caught and passed him. This runner was not quite as strong as their first runner and I wanted to be sure and put as much time gap as possible in case their last 2 runners were really fast. I'm not sure how much time I gained but when I came into transition, the gap was sizeable...and I was about to hand off to our speed demon.
Kevin kept telling us that he didn't want to have to run too hard so we had better have a big lead when he took over. Anything else we can do for you, Kevn?
Kevin smoked his 5k lap - even after posting a 2:36 marathon time just a week earlier at the Chicago Marathon. From this point on, we never looked back. Our second laps were each slightly slower than our first but not by much. In the end, we took first overall with a time of 2:39:20 (a 6:25/mile pace) and had taken 6 minutes out of the second place team - a team competing in the 'Under 120' age division. The most impressive thing was how consistent were were as a team. Not a single one of our 8 laps was slower than 21:00. There was not another team out there that broke 21:00 on every lap.
Kevin Mosteller, myself and Joe Hammond enjoying the day...and the "V".
In our 2nd appearance in 2 months, the Greenville Track Club's Master contingent has managed to not only produce an awesome result, but have one hell of a great time doing it! We'll all be keeping our eyes open for more team events in the future...maybe the Greenville Track club can incorporate an event into next year; or tack one onto an existing event. These are way too fun to pass up.
One event left - the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th. I'm anxious to try something new at this event