Every breaking wave on the shore
Tells the next one "there'll be one more"
Every gambler knows when to lose
It's what you're really there for
Each relay team consists of 5 members who each
run 4.25-6.25 miles. The
course, same as the Full and Half Marathon begins in Downtown Dallas. Along the way, the Full marathon
course splits from the Half, goes around the White Rock Lake and joins back,
both ending in Downtown.
Geographically mixed Dallas-Austin, Cheetah Team wearing pink
and bright silver cheetah tops and headbands uniforms. Simple pieces of fabric clipped
and tied on.
The Plan
We kept it simple. With each leg, 5 to 6 miles distance to cover at 7 to 7:30
minutes pace, it was supposed to take runners between 35 to 45 minutes, keeping the team around the 3:15
to 3:30 marathon paces groups.
Even the race provided a complimentary bus service to each relay exchange point, we, The Cheetah Chicks, decided to use own transportation. Edward, our driver, was going to drive around the race course and drop legs
#2, #3, #4 and #5 to our respective relay exchange points.
Runner
|
Starts At
|
Approx. Relay Leg Distance
|
Total Miles
|
Leg #1 Dallas-Angela
|
Mile 0
|
4.25 miles and to keep in the course to complete Half Marathon.
|
4.25
|
Leg #2 Austin-Lisa
|
Mile 4.25
|
6.25 miles and decide on the course if to keep running or not.
|
10.5
|
Leg #3 Austin-Stacy
|
Mile 10.5
|
4.75 miles to complete the marathon course after her leg.
|
15.25
|
Leg #4 Dallas-Roxy
|
Mile 15.25
|
5.25 miles, just run her leg.
|
20.5
|
Leg #5 Dallas-Colleen
|
Mile 20.5
|
5.7 miles, To complete her run, pick finisher medals and meet all at the “C” letter Reunion area.
|
26.2
|
The Process
Almost 8:00 am. Leg #1 shook legs and said bye! Rest of team
all aboard on the dark grey Volkswagen Jetta. We arrived the exchange point #1
around 20 minutes before top runners started to get close. We got to see Meb, followed by Sara with Ryan Hall and our leg #1 kicking at a pretty good pace.
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We had around 40 minutes to get to the exchange point #2, where
leg 2 passes chip to leg #3. Wait! that is not so much! Especially when driving
around cut streets and when we decided to make a logistic stop at that Tony's Valero
Gas station. Ready to go, we dropped leg #3, Cheetah-Stacey by the race course. By two miles from relay exchange point #2, good to warm up.
On our way to relay exchange point #3 we realized about the
full/half marathon split. We had dropped Cheetah-Stacy little bit after the split. Coming from Austin, was she going to realized about that? We didn't know
what to do, we just crossed fingers and hoped Cheetah-Stacey was going to figure this out.
Leg #4 Cheetah-Roxy, me, was at the exchange point. I could
see people around shivering and tiny drops falling into my face. Was it
cold? I didn't feel it.
My only focus
was to spot the cheetah dressed runner coming and hear “Bib number 30073
coming!”.
“30083 coming!” I could hear from the speaker.
"OMG! almost! but water!” I thought while I started singing the “Every breaking wave” song from U2.
“Every breaking on the shore, tells the next one ‘there'll be one more’…”
“30083 coming!” I could hear from the speaker.
"OMG! almost! but water!” I thought while I started singing the “Every breaking wave” song from U2.
“Every breaking on the shore, tells the next one ‘there'll be one more’…”
“30093!” the speaker announced.
“Wave,” I replied. "30063 wave came, followed by 30013 and 30173. “Getting closer!" I yelled. They say it is in our minds, if we really
want something to happen we need to focus on it.
An oriental guy with a cell phone came to me. “That cheetah
was waiting at the previous exchange point,” he told me. Then we checked bib
#30073 at the mobile app on his cell phone. “Yes!” I yelled with I saw the 13.1 mile mark (21K) had already been crossed.
Few minutes after “Alelluia!” I hear bib number 30073 from the speaker as I saw the magic bright pink cheetah uniform coming. It was
10:24 a.m., after 34 minutes of breaking waves, I got the chip from Cheetah-Lisa,
leg #2. She tried to explain me that Stacy never showed up. She had to wait
until an official at the exchange point told her to keep going.
“I know, I know,” I yelled and took off!
Last pacing group I had seen was 3:45. With over 15 miles on
these runners were a little bit tired so even almost without warming up, I was
able to follow and start passing them. Spectators were cheering “You look good,”
“Nice uniform!” “Love those colors!” made the run very fun, even on that windy
hill up. Second alleluia appeared when I got to the big blue relay exchange
point #4 and passed chip to leg #5, Cheetah-Colleen.
Cheetah-Colleen crossed the finish line at 11:43 am. Team
got together for a big hug. Rather than discussing any issue or trying to blame on someone’s
fault, we shared big smiles and started talking about upcoming relay races for
the “Cheetah Chicks”.
The Result
Week after the race I got to check the results. Cheetah-Colleen got to finish around the relay at 11:43 am, with a total of time of 3:38:02 that placed the Cheetah chicks in the 15 position as Mixed/Odds & Ends--Mixed 0-99, Division/Class, which doesn't receive any award.
“Did we get signed to a wrong Division/Class?” I asked Marcus Grunewald, MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, Executive Race Director. “We were supposed to be Female Masters--Female Masters, a Division/Class we would have won, even our logistic issue.”
“Did we get signed to a wrong Division/Class?” I asked Marcus Grunewald, MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, Executive Race Director. “We were supposed to be Female Masters--Female Masters, a Division/Class we would have won, even our logistic issue.”
“I
checked with our timer to help resolve the division issue… Although your team
could face a potential disqualification, it was felt that moving the team into
the Odds & Ends category would be more fair.” Marcus replied to me.
We
really appreciate the MetroPC race officials decision to keep the Cheetah
Chicks team qualified. Not only we had a lot of fun at the race and we already
have plans to sign for the 2015 race, but also we learned a big lesson as relay
team:
- Review course carefully,
- Set strategy as a team,
- Plan times accordingly, including extra,
- Use race services and potty!
- Keep mobile apps ON!
- and... Plan what if scenarios!
Again as my favorite song from U2 says:
Every breaking wave on the shore
Tells the next one "there'll be one more"
Every gambler knows when to lose
It's what you're really there for
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Course
Maps*
· Course Map (includes relay
exchange points) – Click here to view the the Behringer Relay course
map.
Cheetah Chicks results
3:38:07 3:38:02 30073 Lisa Ansin Austin TX Mixed
/ Odds & Ends Mixed 0-99 15
Female Masters results
Chip Time Bib Division Class
4:44:53 30436 Female Masters Female Masters 1
4:45:51 30209 Female Masters Female Masters 2
5:03:14 30335 Female Masters Female Masters 3
FAQ’s
Learn more about the Behringer 5-Person relay:
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