Ragnar FLK

TH3 FRB · January 11, 2012 1:49PM

I just returned from Key West after running the Ragnar FLK relay (198 miles from Miami to Key West) with a 6-man ultra team. I'm going to write up a blog post about the experience in the next week or so but figured I'd post up a quick summary. Aside from myself we had another fast guy and 4 slower guys. I was the youngest on the team and bumped us out of the masters category.

I ran the lead-off leg which was cool because I probably have a starting line photo somewhere. I've never run a long relay like this so I had no idea how the start/stop would play out over 6 (or 7) legs through 24+ hours. We started at 10:30am on Friday. I took that first 5.5 miles comfortably easy (6:40/mile) and prepared for the traveling circus to commence

My longest legs were in the middle of the night at 8.9 and 10 miles. Everyone was required to wear a blinking red light on their back so it was fun to see people up ahead and reel them in - we each kep track of our "kills" through the event. My last leg in the dark was a quick 3 miles and I decided to hammer it out. I knew had less than 10 miles left after this so I was fairly confident I wasn't going to crash and burn. I dropped a 6:08/mile average with 30 miles already in my legs. One of our team just had his achillies tendon reattached 8 weeks ago so we didn't expect him to finish out all 6 of his legs but he managed 4. That left myself and Tommy to pick up the slack...a bonus 3.5 miles for me after my 6th 4.5 mile leg. It was starting to get tough by morning and we could almost taste the cold beer at the finish so that kept us motivated. The pace was getting hard to maintain but as I trotted out on that last 3.5 miles I set a goal for myself to just match my opening leg pace...everything else had been faster. I kept my nose on the Garmin and clocked 6:37/mile, which isprobably all I was capable of at that point anyway.

I ended up logging 41 miles and averaging about 6:35/mile. I also had over 100 kills. I passed 48 teams on a single 10 mile leg

I'll add a link to my blog post when it's ready.

Nemo Brauch · January 12, 2012 8:36AM

Nice job Joel! That's super speedy pacing for an Ultra. You forgot to mention the super smart decision you made to stay in Key West for a few days AFTER the race! I won't make that mistake again.

Coach Patrick · January 13, 2012 7:54AM

Joel, well done!! That's quite a high bar in terms of performance...kudos to you and your team. I have only done one such event and I'd like to get back into it at some point when my IM-focus fades! Enjoy you rest.

TH3 FRB · January 13, 2012 10:04AM

Thanks P! It was a total blast and the challenge of consistently running a quick pace over multiple legs was fun. I took about 6 weeks off completely from training after Vegas and started running again 5-6 days/week back in late Oct. I've got some other crazy running events planned so I needed to get back to it and start building my speed again. I only had 2-3 long easy runs in the 15-18 mile range along with a lot of 5-10k pace mile intervals and a weekly hill session so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle 30-40 miles at a decent pace in a compressed time block but it all came together. In March I'm running a marathon tethered to 4 other guys for a world record and then knocking out my first 24hr solo run in April. So I'm not exactly following standard protocol for IM prep but I'll have a monster run base coming into my IM specific training in May.