Bush Marathon Relay report...

CR Bush Taggers
L to R: NiceWhenIStop, allrounder, Barefoot, Aki

it was a lovely day with brilliant sunshine & no early morning fog...a bit of a breeze but a generally great day for running in our nation's capital...

Jodie & i made it down to the start about 10mins before kickoff...met Tuggeranong Don for the first time and also saw several other CRs floating around...i quickly introduced Barefoot to Aki & Jodie before we got in position to watch the start...temperature-wise, it was a cool 1.7 at the start but climbed to 12.6 by the time we finished...

Off they go...

Aki was our first runner and got us off to a pretty strong start with 57:XX for her leg (~11.2k) & at the first change we were in 2nd out of 5 teams...

Jodie's leg ended up being slightly longer than was stated (5.8 v 6.4) & she came in around 40:XX...

So much for Jodie's leg being the easiest & flat!!

meanwhile Corinna Tong ran the 2nd leg for her team with her weimaraner (!), passing Jodie & putting about 500m or so on her...

How easy do they make it look?!

my leg (the only out 'n' back leg) involved some 10 gates to climb through and i was pretty pleased to push hard all the way...i got into a good rhythm early & made steady ground on the marathoners, passing about a dozen or so all up...Trevor Jacobs was manning the drink station just after crossing into Mulligans Flat while Emma Murray was on duty at the turnaround point...i made the changeover to an (injured*) Barefoot, about 8mins behind the 2nd placed team...

the stats for my leg:
start temp/humidity: 8.8/68%
start time: 10:08am
total distance: 15.18k
total time: 1:17:49
avg pace: 5:07
total calories: 1137
avg HR: 169
finish temp/humidity: 12.0/55%

Good training for C2S!

* Barefoot had done his calf in the 5k and when he arrived at the change over spot he hobbled out of the car...Jodie was concerned & thought she might have to tell me to keep running!...however, he said he'd be fine & was aiming for an hour to do his 10.2k leg...mind you i only found all this out after we tagged!

unbeknown to us, Barefoot had analysed the 2nd placed team's final runner's pace as being about 1min/k slower than his own & figured he should be able to catch him around the 8k mark &, as all good plans do, that's pretty much what happened...he even ran past cunningly obscuring the fact he was a relay runner!

we, however, were very surprised to see Barefoot powering home in around 52:XX in second place (just behind the first female marathoner)...i think our total time was 3:48:XX...

CR Bush Taggers in action

Barefoot collected our coffee cups & massage vouchers before we all gathered for the team photo at the start of this post...it was a fantastic team effort & it was really cool to make up a team via the CR forums...

thanks must also go to our two cheersquads:
- Mrs Barefoot & little Barefoot who supported Barefoot in the 5k, drove him to the relay changeover @ Goorooyaroo & then followed us back to the finish to see his astounding finish; &
- my parents who came to the changeover @ Goorooyaroo, staying nearly 2 hours to see both changeovers out there...

Postscript: i must say as Barefoot cooled down he got stiffer & limped more...but he was still considering running in the "Cities" marathon tomorrow!