HMRRC Winter Marathon Relay 2012

Sunday was the HMRRC Winter Marathon. Spontaneously, Melissa, our friend Kristin and I decided to be on a relay team for the marathon. If you’ve been reading a while you might remember I ran leg 2 of this race last year on a team and it was one of the hardest things I’ve done because of the bone chilling weather.

With much milder weather this year (in the 30s, hurray!) and a shining sun, it was a gorgeous day for a marathon (relay)!

I had the first leg this time, which was 9.8 miles of multiple loops around the state office campus, just like the previous HMRRC winter series races I’ve done. Can I just say for the record I didn’t plan on running any of these races? The weather was just perfect for running them, and I actually only missed one the whole season! They are such a great way to keep up your training through the winter months.

Anyway, I noticed this time around (the 5th time this year running this course) that it this course is now so familiar that I actually enjoy running the mindless loops. I don’t have to worry about traffic or crowds, and I can just get in my running groove. I’m sad they are over!

Anyway, on to the relay. I went in thinking that I was just going to run…not for time, just for fun. I already PRed two weeks ago, so I was just happy with running this weird distance of 9.8 miles for the relay.

Thanks Melissa (my former relay team member) for the photos!

And for the heck of it, my stats:

Total Milage – 9.83 miles

Average Pace – 9:34/mile

Total Time – 1:34:00

(thanks Kristin for this one!)

I felt like I was “done” at around mile 7, but I had to finish, so I kept chuggin’ along.

Then it was time to switch team members, and off Melissa went for her 2nd leg of 5.6 miles.

Melissa finished with a great time, and then Kristin was off for her 11 mile portion! She is awesome because she is running her first marathon in TWO weeks! But, sadly my camera’s battery died so I didn’t get any photos of the girls but they did great!

Our total marathon time was 4:13:42.

I’m thinking of joining the HMRRC next year so I can run these races for “free”–I ended up paying $5 per race, but that’s not too bad considering most race fees are pretty expensive! However, we might not get so lucky weather-wise next year…I think this winter we’ve been having is a fluke….but a great fluke!

So, I’ve got no more races on the horizon until March–the Shamrock Run— and I’m really excited for that one!