Tuesday, January, 10, 2011

It's official. Team Crossfit West Jax finished 9th out of 246 teams in our division in the Ragnar Florida Keys Relay this past weekend. 198.5 miles, finishing with an official time of 27:30:10 - that's an average pace of 8:31 minutes per mile, yo - which is not bad for 12 yahoos (13 if you count our driver and cat-finder Bryan) who do a good bit of crossfit but don't do much running-specific training. Surprising? Not really, if you consider that the philosophy of crossfit is that overall fitness, achieved by picking up heavy things and using constantly-varied, high-intensity activities which focus on functional movements, enables us to excel at pretty much any task that is thrown at us. Some of our runners had never run these distances before, and I can safely say none of us had done a series of 3 racing legs within 24 hours. Tour de Pain is the closest equivalent, but much shorter distances.

And while this post is about Team CFWJ (check out our t-shirts!), let's not neglect our two defectors beloved gym-mates Ashley Foyt and Joey McGeoy, who ran - in tu-tus! -with a team called "Flexx!", finishing 93rd out of 246 with official time 31:28:45. I don't know other details about their team, and we ran across each other only twice that I know of: at the Homestead Speedway exchange point and in Key West after the race. Oh wait, seems like Nick saw them one other time, but I don't know exactly when or where. Anyway, congratulations to them as well, and Joey I'm waiting for the tu-tu photos.

For those who haven't been keeping up, this relay event is run by teams of 12 runners who each run 3 legs. Many individual legs are in the 5-8 mile range and the longest is 11.8 (Margaret, God bless her), and total distances (all 3 legs combined) are between 9.1 and 21.6 miles with 4 of the runners doing over 20 miles. CFWJ started on Key Biscayne at 8:30 Friday morning and finished at the Southernmost Point at 12:00:10 Saturday if my math is right. At night we ran with reflective vests and headlamps in order to give the impression of safety. Who was involved in this? Here's the run-down, by runner position (1-12):

Runner . . . 0? Bryan Schwartz: OK, not a runner but definitely part of the team. Driver and DJ for van 1. Conveniently married to Ashley Wallace Schwartz, so able to host van 1 crew at her parents' house during overnight stop on Islamorada, and saved the day (night) by finding their cat Jo-Jo, who had been inconveniently let out earlier by a member of . . . another running team (*cough Joey cough*).

Runner 1: Matt Thompson. Hauled ass out of Homestead Speedway only to be sent back to get vest/headlamp because some official hadn't coordinated his watch.

Runner 2: Cassie Norris. 7 mile bridge. Blood blisters.

Runner 3: Tom Moore. Fell on gravel at night, losing some skin on left hand.

Runner 4: Margaret Wetherbee. Ran 11.8 mile leg.

Runner 5: Amanda Upchurch. Always excited. Found a glow-stick.

Runner 6: Armando Robledo. Late substitution for John Summerlin who had urgent family matters. Ran fast and long. Likes Krispy Kreme donuts (don't we all).

Runner 7: Aniela Limondin (Nail). Another fast runner even at midnight. Especially at midnight, perhaps.

Runner 8: David Cohen. Ran through foot issues, logistics wizard for the trip, designer of t-shirt.

Runner 9: Ashley Schwartz. Toes looked worse than Cassie's, if that's possible. Graciously offered her parents' house for R&R during critical night hours. Supplied us with a driver for van 1.

Runner 10: Amy Folsom. Was to be a driver but at last minute became a runner, substituting for Melody Blythe who caught her daughter's stomach flu the day before we were to leave.

Runner 11: Nick Hawkes. Consistently strong runner, team motivator, decision-maker in a group of non-committers.

Runner 12: Chuck Roman. I don't think any of us realized how strong a runner Chuck is. Somehow was more energetic after running than before.

Photos are of van 1 (minus Bryan), van 2, and everyone except Chuck - but with Bryan - at finish. Where was Chuck? Oh, running the final mile of the race.

Overall this was painful, exhilarating, fun, exhausting. At the finish, the prevailing thought was "I'm glad it's over and I'll cross this off my bucket list and never do it again." But by the next day people were talking about a repeat next year. I'd consider it, but don't expect a definite answer until the wounds have healed at least. For those of you who didn't run this year but are interested in taking on an endurance challenge that doesn't involve flames, electricity or ice (Spartan Race, anyone?), keep the Ragnar in mind for 2013.

Am I the only one who thinks "Flexx!" sounds like the name of a porn film?

Now go train for the Crossfit Games Open, which starts Feb 22. 3-2-1-GO!