Anybody remember the 24 HOUR RELAY?

great memories-thanks- i knew several members of myour team though i didn't start running the relay until later- maybe 1980 or so- even won the 50 miler at meade in 88. larry noel and i were good friends back in pgrc days as well as dcrrc. i have results from some of the races at ft meade in a box here if anyone ever needs to see them. graduated from this to the hood to coast relay 3 legs of 5-10 miles over two days. 10 runners also- now i crawl along -old and slow- larry t

We picked the opposite season - ran ours on the shortest day of the year, Dec 21 (and 22) (1974). Team was mainly some DIII guys, with a few grad students (including me, who never ran in college). We hit ~270 as everyone got to run a marathon the hard way. Some miler types learned that running with spikes was not a great idea.

I'd love to see the minimalists run one of these. Barefoot probably isn't a good idea either!

I ran in one in the mid-80's in a meet that also hosted a 24 hour Ultra event. I remember the winner of the Ultra did 130+ miles. Our team of 6 guys/ 4 gals managed a little over 224 miles, and the hours between 2 and 4 were quite difficult. It took a long time for my right hamstring to feel normal again.

Would I do it again? Most likely not.

Later in the decade, 12 and 6 hour relay events were held.

What happened to Larry Noel? - had that 9:52 mile in there.

malmo wrote:

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.

Image:

http://i35.tinypic.com/2j1uclf.jpg

I saw a listing once with state records for 24 hour relays.

I even noticed a 24 hour Relay over STEEPLECHASE barriers!!!!! Now those guys were tough and NUTS, actually maybe just nuts.

My dad ran the Ft. Meade a couple of times in the 80's and I have watched the 50 miler on the track. He said the 24 hour relay was more grueling than any marathon. I heard stories of taking cold showers just to help stay awake.

I recently saw his results in an old shoe box and malmo was listed in at least one of them.

MoCo Runner wrote:

My dad ran the Ft. Meade a couple of times in the 80's and I have watched the 50 miler on the track. He said the 24 hour relay was more grueling than any marathon. I heard stories of taking cold showers just to help stay awake.

I recently saw his results in an old shoe box and malmo was listed in at least one of them.

Okay I'll add to this thread - on spotting 'no one's' post on another thread. I was a great admirer of your team mate!

University Victoria, Canada, 1971 our team logged 271? miles. Cannot find any results on google on this.

An arduous event to say the least, kudos to our x-country coach for organizing this and well deserving to be inducted into the Uvic Sporting Hall of Fame.

Wow--dear, dead days! I organized this for the college (women's) team I was coaching--invited the whole squad (figuring it was *very* unlikely more than ten would volunteer), and we had four takers. This was during semester break, so they had to come back to school early to participate.

The group was pretty well guaranteed to set "records" for four-woman, women's collegiate, and women's indoor (Upstate NY in January--you work it out) squads: all of those categories were vacant at the time (early 1975), IIRC.

The group ended up covering 130+ miles--certainly could have gotten over 140, with a shot at 150, but I made them take a couple hours' break in the middle of the night. Still, we ended up losing one of the four after her ~20th mile (knee, maybe?).

Anyway, as it was only one or two of them ran a varsity race in the following years, so it wasn't a great developer for the program. Mostly an ego thing, really. (Mostly *my* ego, no doubt. What can I say? I was 22 and couldn't run anymore.) The women who ran got some nice recognition, though: picture in the paper, entry in RW's annual "Marathon Handbook," and all that.

Thanks for renewing the thread!

I ran two of them, the last being August, 5-6 1978 in Portland, OR. My team finished third. The winning team was the Axeman Track Club from South Eugene High School, which set a then prep record of 252 miles 1277 yards. I remember running against Jeff Hess, and cranking out a 4:49 mile midway thru the race. After putting in 25 miles, I was toast for a week.

My husband, Bob, ran in a 9 man team 24 hr relay in 1976 in Atlanta at Lovett School. At the time I think it was a world record.

Does anyone have any information about this event and where this team would currently stand in the records?

Karen Varsha

I know there has been a 24 hour relay in Colonie NY a few times over the last decade , I am not sure if it still going on but I will find out

In the late 70"s, early 80's this was a popular event in South Africa, with many teams chasing the world record held by Lyndale Harriers, Auckland. In 1982 the University of Port Elizabeth broke the then world record running 302 miles and some change. Our team kept all ten runners in the race and our fastest average was 4:36,9 by John Da Silva and our slowest average was 4:54.3.

I raced with Caltech Cross Country and Track and Field 1976-1980. Steven Kellog (1977) organized 24 hour relays for at leaste 4 years, Each year, We had one team (KELROF) of track athletes, and several more teams of ordinary students and others. The first year the team aimed for 240 miles (6 min pace) and got 247. The next team exceeded almost got 270, miles. The two team following got 263 and 259 miles, aand one year three of our runners had to drop out, They were also our fastest runners. I was on three of these teams, and on my final (senior year) run, I amed to make my mile tiems as even as possible. I did 26 miles between 5:22 and 5:26.

Tbe best 24 hour relayers are not necessarily the fastest, but the sturdiest, those with the best power of recovery.

I ran in the 1978 Fort Meade 24 hour relay. I was with a team of recent HS grads from Prince Georges County MD high schools (primarily High Point & Parkdale - Busing had started in 1974 & a bunch of friends who would've gone to HP got bused to Parkdale). I had just finished my Plebe Year at the Naval Academy (where I struggled valiantly as a bottom feeder on the "Cleveland Browns" JV squad before falling off of T-Tables in September '78). We kept all 10 guys in the race for the entire event & ended up with something north of 230 miles. I averaged around 5:30s if memory serves with the 1st 18 or so pretty much between 5:00 & 5:45. Then, things got tough. Our top guy, Larry Sefcik, Parkdale '77, had only run his senior year in HS competitively, but was a 4:30/9:30 guy. He averaged sub-5:00. The Alligator A or B team, a collection of guys from Baltimore area schools, racked up 288+ miles, I think, with Mike Monahan, their top guy, averaging about 4:46 for 28 miles. I've run 8 marathons & Fort Meade did more damage to my body & mind than any 3 of those combined. Still, what a fun time!

I was on that Axeman relay team! What a blast. At the Duniway track under the (at the time) YMCA. The hardest part was getting any sleep after blasting ~5 min miles and having less than an hour until your next leg.

Our high school XC/distance guys got together and ran one the week after the high school track meet in 1977. Our team had finished 4th in the state XC meet that year and we did well at the state track meet too. We had put together a pretty good crew plus two other kids from nearby high schools to round out our team. We started at noon on a Friday and finished at noon on Saturday. It was a lot of fun but also very hard all at the same time. The first 8-9 miles you ran were pretty good and then it just got harder and harder. No lights provided by the stadium either. Difficult to get any sleep. We were actually doing pretty well until two kids dropped out. Then your turn started coming up to quick and everyone's times just started dropping.

Formerly, T-Rex

Should add, I was part f that team

Never did a 24 hour but did a 12 hour once in phoenix on a grass track. Went from 6pm-6am in the summer time. Was a great race.

I ran the first 3 miles in 4:41 each. Funny thing was I ran one leg in spikes, one leg in flats and one leg barefoot. Overall I averaged right about 4:45 for all but one leg. On our 9th or 10th leg (out of 12 if I recall correctly?) we decided to have a contest to see who could run closet to an eight minute mile with no watch. We were given an 800 meter split for grins and giggles.

Our team was co-ed and I remember our "slowest" runner being a female masters runner who averaged 6:20's. Was a solid team.

Was a great event and would be cool to see them make a return.