To Bone and Back

Last Saturday was the To Bone and Back Ultra Marathon / Relay.  It is a 40 mile race that consists of LOTS of rolling hills. 

The majority of participants are runners in 8-person relay teams. Each runner carries a Bone baton for a 5-mile leg, and then hands off to the next teammate. There were several different team styles--men’s open, women’s open, family, co-ed, masters, and high school teams. They also had teams of smaller sizes--2-person teams (each member running 20 miles) and 4 person teams (each member running 10 miles). For the completely crazy...they could run the full 40-mile ultra marathon!  Barf!

I was on a women's open team.  There were 8 of us on the team, so we each ran a 5 mile leg.  I was the first to run out of my group.  I was glad to be first and get it over with.  I just didn't want to have the pressure of thinking about it all morning.  The race started at 7:30 am, so it was still nice and cool outside.  However, it didn't take long for it to heat up!  It turned out to be a very hot day.  I felt sorry for the last couple of runners.  I don't do well running in high temps like they did.  Glad I didn't have to do it.

My team ended up finishing 6th out of 16 women's open teams.  We were pleased with our time and certainly thought it would take us a lot longer to finish.

My sister ran on a 2 person team.  They each ran a total of 20 miles.  There time was 4:04:53 so they were running a 6:08 minute pace.  She is a total machine.

Some of the girls I ran with are already talking about the next relay.  That is our second relay in 2 weeks.  I guess I better keep up with the running!  Especially since I keep getting suckered into doing it!