By Moe Johnson
Daily Record Columnist
May 17, 2008 04:37 pm
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Runners from San Marcos who ran the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon yesterday are resting today and taking a well deserved easy ride home. The race is actually the frosting on the cake as this event takes a lot of planning prior to the race itself. A group of six runners needs to commit to the race a couple of months prior to the race and from there, getting in shape during the hot summer months is next.
Most runners go down Thursday or Friday to check-in and have a meeting of the minds with the group. Details have to be well planned out or the whole system breaks down. The easiest part is deciding who runs the first leg on the beach and which runner will do the causeway bridges and who will bring in the final leg when the weather really starts to get hot.
There is an announcer that calls out the team numbers as they approach one of the five handoff stations, but from runners that have run the race in the past, the word of caution is do not rely on that as the main alert that your teammate is getting close. Keep your eyes peeled on the runners and hope that you recognize the team T-shirt or your teammate.
After the handoff, the big thing is getting back to the starting line as the race is a point-to-point and the distance between the start and finish is substantial. That means the seventh member of the team is a non-runner and will pick up each team member as they finish their leg of the race and make it to the next station to pick up the others.
This may not seem like a major task, but there are 1,500 other cars and vans doing the same thing on a few open streets that are not blocked off for the runners in the race. If you want to imagine one serious traffic jam when time is of the essence — this is it. Fortunately, San Marcos has several teams that have entered this race several times and know a few short cuts and hints on how to make this part of the race a little easier.
I remember my first race and since I was the beach leg I started and finished looking for my ride. After an hour of running around parking lots, up and down the beach for an extra four miles, I noticed that there were only a few cars remaining.
I asked a guy in a pick-up if I could ride in the bed to the next stop. At stop number two, I found my teammate and they were also running around looking for our ride. Now there are two in the bed of the pick up.
This went on up to teammate number four when the pick up ran out of room with both teams sharing the ride. I found another team that I recognized and bummed a ride for the team to the next stop. If the pick-up bed was crowded you can imagine ten people in a car sitting on each other’s lap. Ours was a co-ed team and the women had to sit on the laps of the other team. That was a Masters age group team with all members over sixty years. I am sure they enjoyed the company.
When we got to the finish area, we found our driver and she was wondering when she should leave to pick us up. Somehow our pre-race planning did not quite register with her. Planning can only go so far if the team member misses the part they are to play in the race.
That was an unusual instance and after talking with runners from previous races, the event is one that only happens with a few teams. The one thing that is talked about for months afterward is the fun that the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon event is for runners and how they are already planning for the race next year.
To be part of such a large contingent of runners all celebrating the finish of the race and going over each leg with your teammates is one reason teams continue to go back year after year. That, and spending a weekend in Corpus Christi, is always a nice break from the week’s routine.
If you haven’t tried the race you can start planning for next year and line up your running buddies for a fun time at the races.
Dr. Maurice Johnson is an instructor at Texas State University in the Department of Sports and Exercise Science. His column appears every Sunday in the Daily Record.
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