So Reach the Beach was an incredible experience. There was a lot of lack of sleep, great sugar cookies, bee stings, and seeing the sights of New Hampshire with an incredible crew. I drove over to New Hampshire on Thursday and had the chance to stay over with Chris Dunn, the creator of Acidotic Racing. We had delicious meatballs that really set the tone for the long 24 racing experience. That next morning, we loaded up the vans and headed to the rendezvous point at Northwood. This is where we had the chance to snap the photo right by the Dunking Doughnuts truck.
We then headed out to Cannon Mountain, a ski resort right by Pinkham Notch State Park. Just from heading off the vans, I could sense the crazy vibe that is the Reach The Beach. There were people dressed up in funny costumes, and various forms of trash-talking place. The best way to describe everything was it was like a running circus. There were so many people at this event it was incredible. Acidotic went through the team check-in and Austin our first leg got ready. Our team began the race at 2:40 pm and I was the next leg in this whole adventure. Once the race began, it was time to live life out of a van for 24 hours. We then drove to the first check-point and then waited for Austin to arrive. It was really great to meet everyone apart of my team and it was exciting trying to place as best as we could. My legs consisted of distances of 8.9, 7.5 and 6.5 miles. It was a little warm by the time I began my fist leg and my motive for the team was to catch as many people as I could. From the gun, I caught two people and just ran hard the whole down-hill stretch. My big mistake was probably splitting 5:10 or so minute miles for the first 4 miles. I then began to slow my pace. My teammates gave me a nice water break half-way then I brought it home to the exchange point. I came up to Bretton Woods rather quickly then kicked really hard in confusion of the TA and then handed off. I split a 52 low minute low 9 mile leg which was not bad around the 5:45 range. I took a nice rest in the van as we headed along the route watching each member of our team run to perfection. The sun was setting as we linked up with Van 2 and had ourselves some catching of the football. Then my favorite portion of the day came...DINNER! We loaded back up into the van and proceeded to North Conway where we stopped at Moat Mountain Brewery/Restaurant. Last-time I was at this place, it was when I ran up Mount Washington 2 years ago. The food was YUMMY and the Beer was even better. I had a glass of the amber draft and a greek salad. With being so hungry, I devoured the salad in no-time. It was a great meal as we all had time to chat and just relax. 4 more hours or so later and we would half to run our second night-time legs beginning around 11:30 pm. We gathered again in the van and off we went into the night.
What I soon realized was that this constant running thing was tough on your body. It was like running an ultra ultra race where every aspect of the journey had to be calculated otherwise it would be unenjoyable. Let me explain. It was a tough time trying to recover for the next leg.
But let me tell you, running fast at night in the deep dark New Hampshire woods was incredible and running my last leg after getting stung by tons of bees was a testament to hard work. At the end of the whole deal, we raced well and finished 17th as a team. Not to bad and let me tell you this will be an experience I will never forget.
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