I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.
Y'all, how do I even start this post? The adventure that we had this past weekend, words cannot hardly describe. The GAP Relay was one of the hardest and most EPIC things I have ever participated in. Let me see if I can break it down for you a bit.
First off, let me summarize/ramble for a bit. This was an AMAZING experience. Seriously, everything about it was pretty incredible, even the parts that were less than perfect. There was never a point that I thought to myself, I regret this. You know how sometimes you run a race and think "never again", well, when we were done, my first thoughts were about next year! I am not sure I will do it again, but I would be totally willing to for sure. Am I crazy, probably, but yeah, this was really a great experience. If you are even vaguely thinking about doing the GAP Relay in the future, don't think, just go for it. You'll thank me later.
*As I was writing this post, I realized how long it was getting, so this is actually going to be 2 posts. The 1st one (this one) will give kind of an overview of the event in general) and the 2nd will break down my specific experience. Mostly, I hope that if you are considering doing this race (which I hands down recommend) this will give you a good idea of what to expect. And if you do have any questions, ask in the comments or email me. Seriously, AMA.
The Before
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| You can tell by my boots, I was not the lead off leg! |
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| All fresh and well rested pre-race |
Leading up to the GAP Relay, P3R sent lots of relevant updates via email. Our team captain, Randy, registered the team and each member individually registered themselves with their pace and SWAG sizes (tech shirts and socks). The team captain also gets a pair of Brooks shoes, which Randy totally earned by assigning the legs and sorting all of the basic logistics stuff. I loved just being able to show up on site and not have to think too much about what to do (not thinking for the win!!) We made our way to the starting location, Canal Place i n Cumberland, MD about 2 hours before our start time. This was the first time the whole team had met in person, and luckily, we all go along famously! Whew! We got our packets which had a bib for each team member (we were 201), our shirts, our socks, slap bracelet wrist band (our baton) a goodie bag with trail guide, cookies, mini first aid kit (other things I am forgetting), packets of Nuun, and a bagged lunch with your choice of sandwich, chips, and Eat N Park Smiley Cookie (LOVE THOSE). We brought our stuff back to the vans and got situated by storing gear, decorating our vans, eating our lunches and generally getting ready for this adventure. A race volunteer came by to inspect our vans to make sure we had everything we needed to be safe. There were a few requirements - first aid kits and 2 lights per runner but we had gotten that information in the runner guide well before the race so we were all ready to go!
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| And he's OFF... |
The start line was at the Mile 0 marker at Canal Place. A few logistic notes: there was plenty of parking and they gave those of us who left cars at the start a parking pass that said we were running the race. There were real bathrooms right around the corner. The start area was really well organized and really beautiful as well. Half the teams started at 3 pm and the other half at 4 pm. We were a 4 pm team but headed down to cheer on the 3 pm squad. Then Brian headed off to change as he was our lead off. The rest of us hopped into our vans and headed off to go pick him up after his 5ish miles.
Things to note about before the race: the better you can organize yourself as far as having your gas tank full, your food/water ready and directions pre-printed, the better you will be. I'll mention this more in a bit, but you NEED to have printed directions to the exchange points. You CANNOT count of having cell service. Okay, I'll even just flat out say, you WON'T have cell service a lot of times. So be ready for that.
Van Crews are off as well...
The During
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| Before |
As I mentioned, I will be doing a 2nd post that will detail my specific legs, but overall, the Relay goes like this... 1 team member runs while the others drive to pick them up at the next exchange point. You will not have as much time between exchange points as you think as the majority of them are middle of nowhere as this is a trail run. So your runner may be putting in 5 miles at a straight shot, but you may end up driving quite a bit longer to get to the exchange point. And there are other things to consider. One time we had to wait for 3 pretty long trains to pass while picking up our runner (luckily it was a longer leg so we did make it in time). But the best course of action for pick ups is to pretty much finish your leg and then hop into the van and go. Which, as you can imagine, isn't the best for your body. You get stiff quick and sit in wet clothes longer than you should (I totally chaffed bad after one of my legs cause of this). This is where having more runners on your team would help A LOT. We discussed one smart plan would be to have legs divided so that one van could drive ahead and all in it take an extended rest/refuel break. With just 5, this was not really possible. Heck, just having 1 more person on our team would have given us more to work with as far as breaks. But as it was, we made it work. Pretty much you'd run, tag off, hop in the van, get to the next exchange point and then have your time to change clothes, eat a bit, and try to sleep if possible (full disclosure, 4 of our 5 runners (me, Gwen, Randy and Bill) slept a grand total of about 25-30 minutes each, 1 (Brian) didn't sleep at all!!)
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| Exchange Point Energy Coming in Fast |
Each exchange point was manned by at least 2 volunteers. Sometimes, especially on the dark runs, there was another volunteer a bit before the exchange who would call out when they saw a runner so everyone could prepare to cheer, mark results and get the next runner off. There was a lot of variety of what was at each point, but each had something, even if just bottles of water and some candy. Others were immaculate. For instance, the Ramcat exchange point was like a magical oasis with hot food and goodie bags. Or so I heard. I ran that leg so I didn't get to partake. The Whitsett exchange point had much appreciated coffee. I also heard they had hot cider, but again, I was running from this one so I didn't get to hang out long there. Bill has a breakdown of his favorite 3 exchange points on his blog here: #GapTrailBR Post Credits. You for sure need to bring your own food/water/fuel and so on, but it is nice to know that there are treats along the way. You also go past some gas stations (we made a Sheetz stop at one point) along the way, but yeah, prepare ahead of time. Exchange points also all had port-o-potties. Some exchange points had indoor bathrooms as well. One was at a pool and even had showers! Had this been my last leg, I might have used them, but alas, when I got to that exchange, I still had 1 more to go. Another was at a train museum that was kind enough to stay open late to let us in from the cold and change clothes in their warm bathroom. Everyone volunteering was amazingly friendly and I cannot thank them all enough for giving up their time, especially the ones in the middle of the night, to help us out. Y'all are appreciated more than you can know.
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Typical Exchange Point Set Up
Nothing was better than seeing that blue tent! |
I briefly mentioned before, but another big thing I want to note is that you are going to want to make sure that you have ways to navigate between the exchange points that do not involve your phone. Cell service was not reliable out in the wilderness. Thought I will say, with runners from all over (2 from SC, 1 from NJ, 1 from PA and another from VA) we all had different service providers and if one person's phone wasn't working, then typically another's would. So I wouldn't say we were out there blind, but it was nice that we had printed written directions. The race provided these, along with coordinates for the exchange point, and I have to say, the coordinates were perhaps the most accurate way to navigate. Bill had downloaded all of these ahead of time, but again, when phones were not working, those weren't available to us. I am happy to say that we made it to every exchange point in time, and if I can do it with my horrid sense of direction, then anyone can do it. Only 1 time did we end up in a very wrong place, but luckily Gwen was able to bust out the coordinates and save the day.
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| Typical Trail Conditions |
Hmmm... what else to say about the during the race. It was hard, but it was amazing fun. We got a little dorky in the middle of the night which you can see here on some of the live videos Bill shot on his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wbrent01/. With us starting at 4 pm, our first 3 legs were in the daylight but then the next several were in the dark. The sun rose during leg 15, so that gave us 11 legs of 24 in full dark. But I will say, I never did feel unsafe in the darkest points of the night. The trail is rail-trail, not root and rock and very safe to travel. The whole team ran in road shoes no issue. It was almost entirely hard packed surface with the occasional asphalt crossing with the exception of the final few legs through Pittsburgh where there was more asphalt portions. If you think to yourself, I am not a trial runner, so I cannot do this, you're incorrect. The entire trail is extremely doable by someone who has only run and trained on road.
The After
I ran the 23rd of 24 legs so for me it was one last run, then jump into the van and book it to the next exchange point. We made our way to the South End and parked under the Birmingham Bridge in view of the finish line. There was a volunteer a way to down the path shouting out when a runner was approaching and soon enough, we hear the call and here comes Randy! The rest of the team ran out to meet him and we ran in the last little bit together. Where we joined, you could not see the finish line and I couldn't help but giggle a bit when we turned the corner and I hear Randy say when he sees the finish - "Oh thank goodness, I thought we had another half mile. We ran through the finisher banner as a team and were done! WE CONQURED THE GAP TRAIL!! You can see video of our finish here: BibRaver Team Finish. We were given our medals and 2 trees, took pictures and that was all she wrote. We finished fairly late, but where by far not the last team (21 of 30), which left me a bit surprised on how sparse things were at the finish line. There was music, but I honestly cannot remember if it was a band or sound system (gotta admit, I was a bit shell-shocked still).
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| The Banner Says it ALL |
We asked about the finisher party and were told that it was at Double Wide Grill, a restaurant about a half a mile away. We changed clothes quickly and then decided to drive over as we thought it might be dark after, and well, we had just run 150 team miles! The packet that we picked up the day before had free beer tickets for each of us and we got 50% off appetizers at Double Wide. Again, I was surprised by the lack of actual party, but there were a few other teams (obvious by their finisher shirts) there. The beers and food were much needed and very tasty (I split an order of Tijuana Rice Balls and had a Shrimp Po Boy with fries). Mostly we relaxed and reminisced about the last 24 hours and how awesome it was. We had accomplished something extremely hard. One thing I did wonder was if there had been more going on and missed out finishing a bit late. Looking back I think we were assigned the later start time based on us originally having a 6th team member with a fairly fast pace. With just 5, I think we should have started at 3 pm, but you know what they say about hind-sight. Overall I was extremely proud with how we performed. WE DID IT!!
I want to take a last moment to give a big shout out to my team, Randy, Bill, Brian and Gwen. Like I said earlier, the start line was the first time we had ever all met in person though a few of us had met previously. I don't think I could have hand picked a better group of people to go through this with. It takes a special type of person to want to do something like this to begin with, and this group was extremely special. We laughed together, cheered together, comforted one another and became great friends over those 24 hours. When I said at the beginning of this I would do it again in a moment, what I meant was I would do it again this these people again in a moment. Love y'all, mean it!!
Lastly: HUGE thank you to BibRave for sponsoring the team and to P3R for an amazing race. And stay tuned for a step-by-step breakdown of my specific legs. Again, feel free to ask me anything in the comments below!
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| After |
Check out my team mates blog posts to hear their side of the story here:
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