Anyone running this year. The guy that paced the 5:00 hr Cowtown Ultra got in contact with me and asked me to run with his team. I've always wanted to do it, but never knew enough people for a team. Immediately said yes, so I'm pretty excited to finally get it on.

4th year for my team. Fun race.

Any tips for a 1st timer. Always been good at quick recovery from playing in soccer tournaments with multiple games on the same day.

Assuming you have full team and are not going solo or ultra distances, if you train for marathons, running in this relay is not hard. If you want to run the race well, running doubles in training helps. I turn the race into 4 tempo runs but some our of runners run some of their legs at easier paces. The lack of sleep can make both running Sunday and driving back to Dallas pretty miserable.

Our team books hotel rooms for Friday night. They give the option of sleeping in the high school but I've heard sleeping there is hard. Getting a good night's sleep Friday is key, knowing that sleep on Saturday night will be minimal. Our team uses 2 vans (minivan and large 12 passenger van) and would never consider using just 1 but I do know a team that has used 1 van the last 3 years and for the most part they manage.

Pack a sleeping bag for Saturday. Most of the guys sleep outside the van outside an exchange point. You can shower at a high school Saturday night, bring cash for that.

I'm in the process of assigning our relay legs as I think of things I'll edit.

Thanks. It sounds like we are at 9-10 on the team now and that they've already got vans/hotels stuff taken care of. Not sure they've assigned legs or anything, but the more I run the happier I'll be for sure. Coming off of Cowtown, I agree that making them tempo runs is probably the way to go, at least in my case.

My best friend lives in Wallis, TX so we might have a place to shower/sleep in the middle. He said they all crash at the high school there

wangus12 said:

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Any tips for a 1st timer. Always been good at quick recovery from playing in soccer tournaments with multiple games on the same day.

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bring soft toilet paper. being up and doing multiple legs can really mess with your digestive system. you don't want to rub yourself raw.

Share a beer with The Mullets

A few years ago we were one of the last few groups to start, all the port a potties along the course were blasted....

The Pilot said:

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A few years ago we were one of the last few groups to start, all the port a potties along the course were blasted....

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less teams now than the first two years, but we were the last to start both of the first two years of the race. I completely understand.

Yep, definitely sounds like my type of race.

I literally just found our 10th guy a few minutes ago. This is our team's 9th running (I skipped 2011 and 2012). We have a little turnover every year. Our captain is the only one to have been there for all 9.

We've never rented vans. Always have 10 or 11 guys, so we just pack into 2 minivans or SUVs. 1 resting. 1 active. Very important to rest when you can. When I'm not running, I'm trying to relax as much as possible.

I had a packing list somewhere, but in general you'll want...

-TOILET PAPER
-wet wipes, sanitizer
-towel, wash cloth
-any toiletries you need at home
-blanket, pillow
-maybe an extra pair of running shoes
-water, food, whatever fuel you know you can process
-weather-appropriate clothing. Seems like it's typically a little cool at night, and will get pretty warm during the day.
I used to pack 4 separate running outfits (one for each leg), but I'm with other stinky guys, so now I'll just wear the same gear for each leg. I may pack 1 extra pair of shorts. I do change socks, and wear dry clothing between legs.
-rain gear just in case
-vaseline, bandaids, whatever you need in case of blisters
-foam roller
-advil, tylenol, codeine

We've never stopped at the school for showers and sleep. Really, you get so tired it's easy to just find somewhere to crash. I live pretty close to the course in the Katy area, so last year we stopped at my place and crashed in my living room for a couple hours (my wife even spread out a bunch of blankets and pillows).

We've also slept in a church before services (former teammate was the music minister), Memorial Park, benches outside Chevron building downtown.

My standard routine: Clif/Power Bar about 30 minutes before my leg. Gel/Gu a few minutes before my leg. Protein, carbs, and liquid as soon as I can after my leg. I think this is really important to help recover between legs. Also stretch and foam roll.

Finally, STUDY YOUR LEGS. I cost our team about 20 minutes last year on the Terry Hershey trail b/c I took a wrong turn. Don't assume that the person in front of you knows where they're going!

Have fun. It's a blast.

i'm amazed at those that can actually sleep during these things. I've done TIR as well as Reach the Beach and i've never been able to sleep, even with a "resting" vehicle. Seemed to pretty much be the same for my entire team every time I've done one of these.

I'll probably be the same way. My body will probably switch to mountaineering mode once it realizes what it going on with the long term endurance thing. I won't be able to sleep so the key will be staying off my feet between legs. Haven't heard how are Captain plans to split the team and who is running which legs

AggieOO said:

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i'm amazed at those that can actually sleep during these things. I've done TIR as well as Reach the Beach and i've never been able to sleep, even with a "resting" vehicle. Seemed to pretty much be the same for my entire team every time I've done one of these.

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I absolutely cannot sleep while in a van. But when it's the middle of the night, and I'm in the resting van, and we pull into a parking lot for a few hours, I have no problem taking out the pillow and sleeping bag and falling straight to sleep on the ground. I can distinctly remember getting awesome naps in the Katy Lukes Locker parking lot, the Shell Station parking lot at 1093/359, and on the side of 1093 somewhere around Eagle Lake.

Yeah, when it's light out I don't really sleep. But around midnight or so I can at least get a nap in for a couple hours.

Quote:

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Haven't heard how are Captain plans to split the team and who is running which legs

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Last year I was in our "first van," meaning we took the first 5 legs, and the other van did the last few legs of the relay. I think I liked that better than when I've been in the number 2 van.

We did change it up a bit last year though. Instead of just rotating 5 legs for van 1, 5 for van 2, repeat, we had more handoffs between van 1 and 2. I.e., van 1 would take 3 or 4 legs, then hand to van 2 for a leg or 2, then back to van 1. This meant we have more interaction with the other van; unlike previous years, where the 2 vans would only meet up a few times during the relay.

With the mild winter we've had I am dreading the daytime temps. But who knows, maybe we'll get a cool front.

Since Luke's closed I wonder if they'll do anything different at that exchange. It was great back when Cabana gave out free breakfast tacos.

Good write up from a friend on the TIR.

I talked to a friend that ran in 2015 and they had both vans at almost all the stops so the team could hang out more.

We'll do that for the first 1 or 2 exchanges. But then the resting van will drive up ahead to the point that they take over, so that they can really rest. Also, the vans will do dinner "shifts" so each van can have a nice meal in the evening.

Our two vans only meet up at exchange points where everyone in the running van has completed their shifts, a few people will stay in the running van and most will change over to the resting van. We use the "meet and great" rotation. This shifts people around and ensures you are not riding with the same 5 people the entire weekend.

The Pilot said:

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Our two vans only meet up at exchange points where everyone in the running van has completed their shifts, a few people will stay in the running van and most will change over to the resting van. We use the "meet and great" rotation. This shifts people around and ensures you are not riding with the same 5 people the entire weekend.

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if you use this format, just be sure your stuff moves with you. otherwise you could be missing something you need when you run or something you need when you want to rest.

We keep everything in the resting van and only take what you have immediate need for into the running van, we arent moving around duffle bags, sleeping bags every van rotation.

So I talked to the guy organizing everything for just a bit. Sounds like they are taking 4 teams and to cut expenses, they're going only 1 van per team. Thats gonna make for a cramped rest period. Not sure I like the sound of that

How many people per team? Not only does having 1 van means tighter quarters for everyone but since people are running on open roads, it's a good idea to never lose sight of your runner. This makes going to refuel, eat dinner, reload on snacks, etc, MUCH more complicated with only 1 van.

I'll be honest in saying that I don't really know. I want to say 10 per team. Granted it sounds like all the teams know each other and run together a lot so maybe the vans will be used among the separate teams.

I'm kind of the odd one in that I don't typically run with these folks

The Pilot said:

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We keep everything in the resting van and only take what you have immediate need for into the running van, we arent moving around duffle bags, sleeping bags every van rotation.

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So you actually switch to a different van when you're running?

Yeah I don't think I'd like having only 1 van for the team. Seems like you wouldn't be able to maximize your down time.

Yeah, we have a resting van and a running van. In general, the running van goes through 6 legs before meeting up at an exchange point and exchanging out runners. Some runners stay in the running van, others go into the resting van. The resting van has 4-5 hours to do whatever they want, food, rest, we've made Shiner Brewery stops before too, and at times we'll help stock the running van back up with water/Gatorade. Our team likes this setup because it rotates people in/out instead of keeping the same 6 people in the same van the entire time.

11:30 start time for my team.

11:14 start for us

11:24 for us. Latest we've ever started. Nice since 4 of us will be driving from Houston the morning of.

The GOATs will be chasing y'all down.

Our team assigned us our legs last night. Feel like I got shorted on some mileage with some shorter legs, but I don't really know most of the folks on the team so its whatever.

Looks like I'm running legs 10, 19, 25 & 37. Any of you guys see a ginger with a big ginger beard, come say howdy

wangus12 said:

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Our team assigned us our legs last night. Feel like I got shorted on some mileage with some shorter legs, but I don't really know most of the folks on the team so its whatever.

Looks like I'm running legs 10, 19, 25 & 37. Any of you guys see a ginger with a big ginger beard, come say howdy

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Have fun with Leg 19. I've run TIR 4 times, I think, and running that leg remains as one of those memories that has stuck with me the longest.

It's in the middle of the night, and once you get out onto 1093, it is dead-straight for 6 miles and you can see the flood lights at the next exchange. For the next 50 minutes, you're just staring at those flood lights waiting for them to get closer and it seems like forever.

It's not necessarily a bad leg to run, but the memory of running that leg is still really vivid for me.

I'm gonna yell are you "Wangus12 from the internets?"

I m jealous. Last years was the most fun I have ever had running.

I did 10-13-22-34 last year.

Long story short, our first van was at 14 as we were finishing up. I ended up throwing down my beer and running 13.

The Pilot said:

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I'm gonna yell are you "Wangus12 from the internets?"

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Wouldn't be the first time. I had a guy yell that to me at Chilifest last year. Still have no idea who it was