YES Gerry did participate in that 24 hour relay and boy was he sore and tired after it was over. He went home and slept for like 17 hours straight.
YES Gerry did participate in that 24 hour relay and boy was he sore and tired after it was over. He went home and slept for like 17 hours straight.
Gerry wrote:
YES Gerry did participate in that 24 hour relay and boy was he sore and tired after it was over. He went home and slept for like 17 hours straight.
I haven't done a 24 hour relay, but have done things that resulted in 17 hours of solid, straight, sleeping.
Sleeping that long--more than 12 hours--is simply your body telling you it's time to recuperate. When you're that tired sleep until you wake up naturally.
I was going to do a 24 hour relay last year but it was cancelled, i was actually pretty upset. It was supposed to be around a horse track which i believe was 1 1/4 miles.
someone explain how you do the relay!!??
i feel that im getting slower wrote:
someone explain how you do the relay!!??
Sorry--was something about the OP not clear?
The Fort Meade one started and ended at Noon. I also remember that I didn't eat anything the whole time, just drank fluids, and probably not enough of that. I wore spikes the whole time, never took them off. It was miserable whenever I had to go to the gym to pee. Our team was named by me (The Southern Pennsylvania Coalition of Athletes, or SPCA!) We beat the several-year returning champions, (Alligator something or another). There was a guy up in the press box that read the current time every time a runner crossed the finish line, and each team had to have someone jot it down, add up the times and report back. There were probably 70 teams, so the time was being read the entire 24 hours. At the end, the last runner had to stop at the sound of the gun and wait for the measurement of the remaining distance. The age of computers and GPS would make all of this easier, but not the actual running part.
Yes, skwilli, I ran that one as well. Started and finished at high noon. Here's the score card from 71 or 72. Great memories.
Man, this post brings back some fond but painful memories. I remember being part of an all-comers 24-hour relay one summer in high school, but it was a pretty laid back affair (as laid back as these events can be!) and we weren't out to do much Finishing was our only goal.
However, in the late fall of 1974, I believe, right after nationals, our college cross-country team (Harding University . . . Harding College back then, NAIA), did one on our cinder track. I was the most grueling thing I've ever done. Our goal was to break the Arkansas state record. We pulled it off, and I'm almost positive we covered 279 miles, which at the time ranked us pretty high on the lists that were available.
My average was 5:12, with just a handful of them under 5:00, and there were several people with faster averages than mine. We started at either 10 a.m. or noon. Only one person dropped out, and that was in the early morning hours, around 5 a.m., but this was a good thing, because he was costing us time/distance. Our slowest guy averaged 5:20.
I lost 10 lbs. in the course of 24 hours, slept hard for 14 straight hours following it, had IT band trouble & knee trouble for the next month, and was certain I never, ever wanted to do another. Still feel the same way.
Did the math, and a 5:10 average p/team will put you at 278.7 miles.
I'm guessing that no one has records of these. I googled around and couldn't find anything.
so you have 24 hours to run as many miles as you can, 10 person team.
About how many miles does each runner cover within the 24 hours?
or miles in an hour?
Actually the *max* for the team is 10 runners; you can have fewer if you wish, and I remember that RW used to keep records for the two-man, three-man, etc., teams.
Even with a full complement of ten, the better teams were edging toward 30 (pretty fast) miles in the 24 hours; I'd have to think that the shorthanded teams typically went over 30, and maybe more like 50 per person for the two-, three-, and four-person squads, so you'd be taking about two turns per hour.
Now that I think about it, probably the best thing to do between carries might be to float in a pool or something, but who's got that available next to a track?
I went out at 3am to run in a Cancer Relay for Life, figuring that would be when they needed runners. There were only a couple of people there cleaning up. The "Relay" has started at 6pm, and found out that they start shutting down at midnight! I went ahead and ran my hour, and then they shut the lights off. Sort of a letdown!
If one of your men missed a mile he was out for good, and you continued with a nine man team (you ran more often). Losing just one man was a big detriment, any more than that and you could kiss the lead goodbye. Our team had 10 pretty good runners and only lost a man on the last mile. We ran 269 miles and most of the next quarter for the win. Having to run every 50 minutes or so was a very sneakily difficult thing to do. Maybe not once or twice, but 27 times took its toll.
I can't believe you ran this event! How old were you? It literally sucked the life out of me for years to come. I honestly was a better runner before the event than ever after. I wish I had the log of the event. I used to, but can't find it amidst the debris of my life. I have somehow retained the recruitment letter used to lure me into participating, (may Courtland Howard forever incur my wrath!). I averaged 4:57 I remember, and have the trophy for 2nd place somewhere in the basement, but it wasn't easy.
am i remembering correctly, that your team set a PA record in the process?
who else ran with you - certainly would guess gary townsend, dave anderson, courtland howard were top guys along with you. have some of the lancaster/millersburg guys or did they have their own team?
I remember runnersworld in the early 80's had a fairly lengthy article about the 24hr relay. They also had the official rules. Ten people I believe,no skipping or else you went down to nine. A kiwi team averging 4.43 or so stands out in my mind. Correct me if I am wrong.
Our 24 hour relay team lost our first guy after about 6 hours. Then two more dropped out just after the halfway point. At the end there were only six of up left. That was really tough. In the beginning running a 4:30 mile pace was an easy effort but after about 18 miles 6 minutes was tough. My last mile was around 6:48. Jerry Jobski, a runner from Arizona, ran a 4:24 mile early on and I think that was the overall fastest. We had two teams at the Olympic training camp at Pullman, WA. One group was marathoners and the other was 5k & 10K runners. Of course the 5K/10K group trounced the marathoners.
Courtland's brother ran, the Massa brothers ran and those you mention. Can't think of everybody. Can't believe its been thirty years either. Back in the early days of the Nike waffles.
Wasn't considered a PA record because it was done in MD. The bastards.
Great stuff--thanks so much to all for the memories!