Brew To Brew – Race Recap

So, what was it that kept me away from the blog all weekend?? A spontaneous race!

A friend needed a last minute fill-in for their Brew to Brew relay team, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

This is a 44 mile relay race from the Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO to the Free State Brewery in Lawrence, KS. So even though I am decidedly NOT spontaneous, the lure of racing, beer, and sunny weather was enough to draw me in!

I know, I know. I am still shocked that I, Plan-y Mcgee, was able to convince myself that I could do this at the last minute.

Luckily I had enough time to create a list...

...and pack a crap ton of stuff.

Looks like I'm ready for a whole weekend, right? Nay. 20 hours.

I'm a little jealous of my teammates who were somehow able to just hop in a car with a t-shirt, a cooler of beer, and a gigantic container of cheese balls and call it "good". Sure I endured some teasing about my over-preparedness (near the end of the trip, they were trying to figure out things I hadn't packed), but it was well worth it. I think they'd agree because I was able to loan my Garmin to one of them who had forgotten his at the hotel, provide sunscreen to those who needed it, and brought koozies for everyone. Plus, I wasn't a crazy mess, which I'm sure they appreciated, even if they don't know it.

The race was early Sunday morning. Early as in 6:30am. In case your geography isn't the greatest, let me point out that Kansas City is about 180 miles from Omaha...or approximately 3 hours by car. The rest of the team stayed the previous night  in Kansas City, so I was on my own to get there Sunday morning. You may recall that Kate's first football game was Saturday night. See where I'm going here? Yeah. I got a whopping 2 hours of sleep.

I packed a double dose of coffee for the road.

I picked up a filling gas station breakfast at about 5:00am. Pretty good aside from the fact that it cost over $7.00!!!

I'm glad I fueled up when I did, because it turned out that the first leg was assigned to me. The gun went off at 6:30, and I headed out in the dark to run 4 miles while the sun rose on the horizon. Not a bad way to wake up, if you ask me!

At the first transition, I handed off to my friend, Kelly, and then finally had the chance to meet the rest of my team. I work with Kelly, but Paul, Travis, and Noah are his friends from home, so we'd never met.

We spent the rest of the day together sweaty in a van traveling the back roads of Kansas, which ended up being a lot of fun! A little beer didn't hurt, either. (Don't worry, we didn't drink in the van.)

The course varied quite a bit - from bridges, to highways, to gravel roads, to rolling hills.

We each ran 2 legs, and my next one didn't come until the 8th rotation. By that time it had gotten pretty warm (high 70s) and the wind was strong! The 8th leg was labeled "hard", and as soon as I took a few steps I realized why. It was a 4 mile stretch of gravel road across rolling hills. Up and down, up and down...it was really tough! I remember thinking to myself, "Don't sign up for this race next year!", but by the time I was back in the van, the feeling had subsided. Funny how that happens.

We soaked up the sun while enjoying a couple of beers at the finish line. Final times aren't posted yet, but I think we finished in just over 6 hours.

So, to recap, this was the story of:

• 1 girl who, on
• 2 hours of sleep, went on a
• 3 hour drive through
• 4 states to meet her
• 5 person team at
• 6 am for a nearly
• 7 hour relay race, of which she ran
• 8 of the 44 miles at about a
• 9 minute pace during her 2 of the
• 10 race legs!

Phew.