Seneca7 Relay race report

Well it was that time of the year again to run the insanely fun Seneca7 relay.  We had run the race last year and had an absolute blast doing so.  Race report from 2011 can be found HERE.  But I digress, this was going to be a new year with a semi-new cast of characters, but still the same bad race at the same bad time. 

Our team name this year was going to be an homage to the previous year where we were known only as, "Dude where's my car?" for being the innovators that we are and one of our teammates coming up with the crazy fun idea that we would ride bikes instead of drive a van around the lake.  If you read the report from 2011, you'll realize that along with having a ridiculously hilarious time during the day, we got a little lost.  (Thank you Matt...haha!) but anyway, our team name this year was none other than "Dude, where's 414?" because that was the infamous left hander that Matt just flew by and proceeded to climb about 1000' vertically within 4 miles and make a 4mile leg into a 10 miler.

But this year we had a distinct Buffalo contingent of two runners from last year Steve and Charlie (who are both crazy Iron-folk and young guns with a newly christened ultra-running background) Steve did a 50 miler this past winter and is focusing on the NYC marathon this year and Charlie was silly enough to complete a 100 miler this past winter as well within 24 hours.  Both solid guys and they brought with them our 7th runner and just really funny guy Joe.  Joe I had met in 2010 when we were killing time in line to register for IMLP and he added a good tone to the day (along with throwing down some difficult legs)

Photo credit Charlie Watson

The Rochester crew consisted of myself, Tim Howland (if you don't know him, just read through some old posts and peruse the comments section.  You'll laugh hysterically.) Brian and Ian.  All of whom are great friends as well who I've run with for the last several years and had MANY a fun time with.

Race morning was pretty darn chilly out and the high for the day was supposed to be about 45 or so.  I think I speak for the entire team when I say that we all probably had some trouble packing our backpacks for the day as it was hard to find enough clothes to stay warm, yet not enough that you would sweat a lot and then get chilled.  I don't know about the rest of the team, but I know that I FROZE all day and didn't really warm up until about 10pm after a good shower and about 5 bowls of chili. (which left some dastardly effects....but I digress)

Leg #1 was pretty chilly, leg#2 seemed to warm up a tad and I was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt, then leg #3 the sun must have gone behind a cloud and I was forced back into shorts and 2 long sleeve t's.  The race went great though despite the cold and some of the Garmin files for the particular legs that I ran can be found here:

Leg #3 - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172902922

Leg #2 - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172902791

Leg #1 - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172902752

As you can see, we all (at least I kinda did) fell apart late in the day and everyone was complaining about having to bike in.  Brian at one point bought some beef jerky and we all kinda devoured it at an exchange point midway through.  The weather would have been great if we were in a van, but on the bikes, wearing helmets and sunglasses, most of us got REALLY burnt from the sunglass line down on our faces.  

I'll take that as a badge of honor.  :o)  When the final leg came up, our anchor man Joe was leading the charge to the line and we were all limping home via bikes.  He held on strong though and we made it to the line in 7th place overall and that was good enough for the fastest "eco-friendly team" there!  So with that came a recycle box of swag (each person got all this stuff below) and we got our picture taken on the apple crate podium that was on stage.

It was a long day after we went off in the last wave (they apparently seeded everyone this year, which was a great idea for the fast and slow folks alike) we all seemed to finish AROUND the same time and hung out in the cold and had some delicious veggie and meat friendly chili and some brews.  All in all a really fun day on bikes and running with everyone and I'm super stoked to see this race grow so much.  Upstate NY needed something crazy like this and I can totally see it turning into something like Reach the Beach or Hood2coast in the upcoming years.

Final results can be found HERE and looking at that we were able to hang onto 6:42/mile pace and got marked as the fastest eco team. (a recognition that was truly earned that day due to the cold) Also as a nice feather in our caps, we were crowned on the record boards found HERE. Pretty cool indeed. But fun day and good swag aside, this race is one you'll want to check out in the future.  Totally fun experience!  But now back to multisport work once more.  September is coming soon so be safe out there friends, be sure to train hard and stay out of the sun. Cheers.