Reach the Beach is one of my favorite races of the year. 200 miles, no sleep, running through the night, eating junk food, porto potties, baby wipe showers, getting in and out of a 15 passenger van repeatedly. What’s not to like?!
We had a full team of 12, but were plagued by the usual injuries, last minute job interviews, and clinicals. We ended up with 9 runners, which meant extra mileage for each runner, but also more space in the vans!
Here are some highlights from the race!
Transition Area 6B: We were greeted by a volunteer wearing a toilet costume. He got the runners to do some silly dance before heading out for their run. We warned our runner, Glen, not to get hurt while doing the dance!
Best night running costume: Greg surprised us all with his light up running costume. It was super easy to spot him in the dark. Our runner passing off to Greg at this transition came into the check point and asked “Who the hell are you?!” as he did not recognize Greg in the costume.
New lights for the vans! Yes, I was very excited to have ordered blue and green tube lighting to add to the red and yellow lights, which we have used for 3 years now. Our van was beautiful and easy to spot at night!
New Balance Photo Scavenger Hunt: New challenge this year and much better compared to last years Silly Band challenge. This is one of the photos we took for the scavenger hunt. They wanted a team picture in a porto-potty, but I dont’ think we would’ve all fit in there!
Mandatory ice cream stop for Van 1: I had some delicious apple pie ice cream at this stop. We provided our runner, Alex with some gatorade and tempted him with ice cream. Aimee, high off of RTB adrenaline, stood atop a picnic table and screamed “Nice hair Alex! Take your shirt off!” Not quite sure what she was thinking……
New Finish Line: This year, the race actually ended on the beach! The last runner had to run about half a mile on the beach. Some runners stopped to take their sneakers off for the beach run, but running barefoot wasn’t much easier when your legs were already sore from the previous runs! Our runner, Alex, ran in his NB Minimus sneakers, which already mimics barefoot running so he chose to keep them on.
We reached the beach in record time for the Beachbound Bostonians!!
25:50:51
Average pace 8:04 min/mile
The total mileage was only 192 miles because of the detour, but our pace was still the fastest we have ever run as a team.
A list of the healthy food items I ate during this race:
-Egg & cheese on sesame bagel
-Trail mix
-Hot dog
-2 zebra cakes
-Sausage links & home fries
-Meatball sub
-2 slices of pizza
-Ice cream
-Chocolate chip cookies
-Blueberry Muffin
What did you eat during your RTB?
Can’t wait for next year! We have been challenged by my friends “Chasing Tail” so it’ll be a little different next year when we actually run as fast as we can to kick their butts!
BQRunning 