Day 253: CIM Relay

Three of my CPCA colleagues and I formed a team and ran the CIM Relay this morning.  I've run the full CIM twice (including my Personal Record of a sub-4 hour marathon) and the CIM Relay at least half a dozen times.  The weather today was almost perfect -- low 50s to start, a bit misty but not rainy, and sunny and clear by the end.  Much better than in 2012 when the first 3/4 of the marathon were accompanied by nasty stormy conditions of heavy rain, wind, and cold temps!

Our team name was Totally Unrelated Running Divas and included two ladies in their 20s and two of us in their 40s.

I ran Leg #1 today, which is my favorite Leg to run in the Relay, as I prefer getting my workout finished right away rather than waiting around.  The starting Leg is 5.9 miles, and I completed it in just over 57 minutes, which equates to about a 9:41 minute pace.  I was quite please with that performance, especially since I was able to run the entire time (rather than doing a run/walk combination).

One important note for future reference is that it's really not necessary to get to the Convention Center in downtown Sac by 5am for the shuttle bus to the Start line out in Folsom, as it takes at least 20 minutes to get all of the runners loaded onto the buses.  I waited inside the Sheraton Hotel, just across from the Convention Center, until the bus lines finally got shorter and finally boarded a bus around 5:20am.

The CIM results aren't yet posted, so I don't know what the total time was for our entire team, but I'm pretty sure that we managed to finish in less than 4 hours 15 minutes.  Not bad, considering that only one of our team members was running faster than an 8 minute mile pace.

And of course, the most important thing was the fun of doing this as a team, including our designated team driver, who had planned to run a Leg of the Relay but was unable to do so due to injury.