Reach the Beach - Post Race Report

Who would think that cramming 12 people into two vans and then running thru the night to travel the 207 miles from Cannon Mt to Hampton Beach would be so much fun. I'm sure that you think I'm crazy for doing it but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Maybe it was the excitement of everything or the fact that I hadn't sleep and my brain wasn't functioning fully but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here is a picture from the start of the race at Cannon Mt in Franconia Notch, NH.

I was part of an amazing team of 12 people. Five of us have never run Reach the Beach before and a few of us didn't sign on until last week. The weather wasn't the best at the start of the race, but the weather in Fanconia Notch never seems to be very nice. As our second runner started his leg of the race the sun started to come out and the rain stopped.

I was in the second van so we didn't start our first portion of the race around 6pm. So my first 7.5 mile leg was at 9 PM. This was the first time that I had ever run so late and at and you really are pretty much running by yourself because there are only about 400 teams and they stagger the start so I only saw on average 6 to 10 runners on each of my legs. My first leg was the toughest of the three. It was 7.5 miles will mile 2 being a 300ft climb. I was able to finish the leg in 1hr and 46 second at 8:02 miles. Here are some of the crazy pictures of the gear we at to wear at night.
Our van finished our first section of the race at 10:30. We traveled to our next transition point to rest for a while. It wasn't the warmest night but I got to camp out under the stars. Not that I really sleep with all the active and bright lights, but we tried. My next section of the race was 6.5 miles down Rt 28 thru Epsom, NH and I covered it in 51 1/2 minutes. At least at this point of the event the sun was up and I was just running to finish and get my Dunkin Donuts coffee and some breakfast. It was really hard to have any sort of normal diet in that van. I lived on protein bars and P90X recover drink after my runs.

The final legs of the race went thru Exeter and down into Hampton Beach. I had the second to last leg of the race. It was a total of 3.4 mile down to Winnacunit High School. My legs were a bit sluggish and I had gotten a bad blister on my toe during the last leg. I think the only thing that carried me thru was the adrenaline almost being done. I covered that last leg at my fastest pace of the race in 7:55 miles. I don't know where the energy came from but it felt amazing. The most welcome sign of the weekend was the entrance to state park at Hampton Beach.

Our team Van Heelin' finished the race in 28hrs and 8 minutes at a pace of 8:08 miles and finished 154 out of 400.

I was an amazing 28 hrs. It only goes to show what you can accomplish with a little training and determination. That and the support of 11 amazing teamates.

Vicky