Friday, May 2, 2014

Golden Gate Relay (similar to a Ragnar Relay)

This weekend I'm doing something a little crazy.

I'm running the Golden Gate Relay
Maybe you've heard of the Ragnar Relay series? The Golden Gate Relay, created in 1995, is essentially the same thing with 12 runners traveling a distance of ~200 miles with someone running at all times. You run both day and night, trading off with teammates at designated exchange points. 


The course is similar to the Napa Valley Ragnar, except the Golden Gate Relay goes in the opposite direction and we run all the way down to Santa Cruz.

Some of the race highlights include running over the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight, running past vineyards in Calistoga, and ending the race on the beach in Santa Cruz.

Aside from being nervous about running on a lack of sleep, I'm pretty freaked out about running at like 3am in the pitch black. My guess is I'll have my fastest times during that portion of the relay! I also haven't gotten in much training since my half marathon 2 weeks ago; I'm glad my longest leg is only 7 miles. I'm estimating it'll take our team about 32 hours. Apparently the Google team will be back to defend their 1st place title. The record for the course is 17 hrs 55 mins- set by a team that had 4 Olympians!

I also have this fear...

My friend and I were considering getting a team together for the Napa Valley Ragnar, so this will be a good test to see if it's something we can actually do... or want to do. ;)

It's going to be a great weekend and race, so be sure to check back for my recap!

7 comments:

  1. This sounds amazing! I would love to run across the Golden Gate bridge! How many teams are usually in a relay like this? Good luck to you and your team!

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    1. I think this one had about 250 teams? It seemed like it would be a lot of people on the course, but they spaced out the start times, so I never saw more than 5-10 people running with me.

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  2. Have fun! I love relays. Running at night is not as scary as it sounds!

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    1. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but there were definitely moments where I thought I would get attacked by goodness knows what!

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  3. I hope you had a blast! I enjoyed all your FB status updates about the relay. Running at 3 AM sounds pretty intimidating...did you have a headlamp to wear for that leg of the race?

    Can't wait for the full recap!!

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    1. It was so much fun! Such a cool experience. We had headlamps and blinking vests to wear, but it was still kinda creepy!

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