Anybody remember the 24 HOUR RELAY?

I know alot of high school track teams do them as fundraisers where they go around and get people to pledge like a penny per lap.

I'm trying to have one next summer for our team fund raiser. Instead of pledges though I was looking at making it an open event for anyone, charging $100 per team (only $10/runner) & giving various awards. Like fastest all female team, fastest co-ed team, fastest mile between 9pm & midnight (men and women), etc. We don't have anything like this in our city, so I think a lot of people would be interested in it.

Doodlebug wrote:

I know alot of high school track teams do them as fundraisers where they go around and get people to pledge like a penny per lap.

Yes, that's were I still see them happening. Haven't hard of a college doing one though.

Anybody else? Specifically, anyone know of one that's going to be held in the NY/NJ/CT area?

Try the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life website.

http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/findevent

I found over 170 relay events, as long as 24 hours, within 200 miles of NYC. It looks like they start up in January 2009.

in 1969-70 an Olympic development team ran a 24 and compiled (at or near or about) 295 miles. Lindgren attended that camp but don't know if he participated in the 24 relay. A team from England compiled at or near or about a bit more - or maybe less.

Our college team put a group together in the hopes of topping that distance. We didn't reach that, kinda close, but we had 4 guys that I recall ave in the 4:40s, with (some) more in 4:50s.

It was one of the more challenging things I ever did. We started ~ 7:00am. Come 2 - 3 - 4 in the morning was pretty tough. I've got everyone's splits around here somewhere but ....

We had some marathon types (2 @ sub 2:20) and a couple of other excellent distance guys who didn't run - had they run we would have surely been over the standard that was set, who were prepping for races - that didn't run.

good times

no one wrote:

Come 2 - 3 - 4 in the morning was pretty tough.

Amen to that. When you start everyone is in a party kind of mindset; cheering you on, goofing around, playing Frisbee, etc. but when it gets early in the morning and all you want to do is sleep, it gets lonely dragging yourself around those four laps.

pre841 wrote:

no one wrote:

Come 2 - 3 - 4 in the morning was pretty tough.

Amen to that. When you start everyone is in a party kind of mindset; cheering you on, goofing around, playing Frisbee, etc. but when it gets early in the morning and all you want to do is sleep, it gets lonely dragging yourself around those four laps.

Yes, one of the questions is always when to start the thing. Do you wait until the afternoon/evening, so people can be fairly fresh during those tough late-late night hours? If so, when dawn breaks most will have been awake for nearly 24 hours already--how do you keep people motivated and competitive, with a long (and possibly hot) day ahead of them?

I haven't gone through it all, but your info may be on this thread.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=555889&page=0

October 1989 Indianapolis, Indiana - Marine Toys for Tots 24 Hour Relay at Butler University. Ten of us from Grissom AFB in Peru, IN - eight men and two women won this by running 219 miles. Indiana had an early snow the day before but most of it melted a couple of hours into the race. Notre Dame beat USC that first day and ultimately won the National Championship. Tim Brown won the Heisman. I listened to the game on the radio between the one mile runs.

mcgato wrote:

I haven't gone through it all, but your info may be on this thread.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=555889&page=0

No, not specifically what I was after, but a great thread nevertheless! Thanks!

I did one, June 12-13, 1981. Long Day's Journey Into Night, in Sydney, NY. Our team came in 2nd, with 219.75 miles. A torrential downpour in the middle of the night, on a dirt track, with only car headlights as lumination. I'll never forget it. Of the ten people on my team, two or three are dead, a couple have either knee or hip replacements, and only 4 or 5 of the rest of us are still running. I was 19 at the time.

we had one or two guys who 'slept in' when their hand off guy was coming in - to hand off. As I recall we had several 9 or 10 minute miles. Between the time (midnight or one) and 20 or so miles @ ???, and the fatigue they just couldn't / didn't get up. The unforgiving 'minute'. I also think we had pretty good numbers of participant teams.

Our thinking with starting/finishing in the AM was that we didn't want to be finishing in 'heat'. Although it was Jan or Feb in So Cal which can be cool - or warm. In between I think. It was pretty unanimous that we wouldn't do that again - at least that's what the sentiment at the finish and for days after. We never did visit it again. Although one of our guys had done it before - and he didn't learn his lesson the first time :) In the middle of the night - the real test began.

I was on the winning team at the Fort Meade Marine Corps 24-hour relay in 1977. I was only in high school and came in 2nd at 4:57/mile for 27 miles. A sub-4 guy from Auburn had to run a bunch of fast ones after checking that I was in first place after the first 15 miles. Ran consistent 4:50-4:53 until my legs started to hurt at about the 16th mile. It was the toughest run I ever had and I was never the same afterward. I had the 17 age group record at the time which only lasted several days until my future roommmate (Alan Scharsu) apparently ran one in Ohio. If these are ever brought back in an age of nostalgia, skip it!

me, too. same event but slower (i only beat you once that i recall).

but i have good memories of the fun our team had. our road runner crew had a couple HSers, including myself. we covered around 260 miles if memory serves. after running 20+ of them comfortably around 5:10, to suddenly mid-morning have sub-6 as the goal, then sub-7 as the goal.

there had to be a couple dozen teams, plus a 50M race on the track at the same time, meant you were always passing people. helped with the motivation.

does anyone know if they still hold the London ("Labatts") 24 hour relay? I know they were still doing it several years ago.

I remember trying Ben Gay for the last mile and it brought me back to sub 5:30 after having one over 6:00! I couldn't move for quite awhile after but still managed 15 the next day.

In the early-mid 70s they were very popular - RW would actually run an annual listing of the top performances in various categories (some teams would use less than the max. 10 runners, and later there were coed & female teams).

I recall reading about a relay that was held at an Olympic distance camp or perhaps even post-trials in either 68 or 72 (the account may be by Kenny Moore) in which the "marathoners" (pure distance guys) went up against the "milers" (track runners).

Our HS team used to do one every June, last day of classes. We had a big rivalry w/ the team from the neighboring town and for a while traded the national HS record back and forth. It was such a big deal that some years you had to try out to get on the squad (I think the trial was a workout of 4-5 repeat miles w/ diminishing recoveries) In the mid-70s they assembled a team of CT all-stars containing several guys who went on to become All Americans in college that I think may still hold the HS nat. record.

We used to start at 7 or 8 a.m. to avoid the heat when tired. In those days before digital watches we used the hour tone broadcast on WCBS as the official starting and finishing signal. The camaraderie of those all-nighters, trying to grab a few ZZZs between legs, eating all kinds of junk food, listening to rock & roll on the portable radios was one of the high points of my running life. No wonder all these point-to-point relays are so popular these days. Good times, indeed.

what a difference 20s/mile average makes.

i got home later afternoon and then ran a club race along the river that evening - 4 or 5 miles. participant was probably a better descriptor than competitor.