rr: waveny park summer xc series, 2 person 6 mile relay

it was so hot and humid last night that i almost decided to skip the relay race at waveny park. when i got home from the office i went out for a quick 3 miles and struggled to finish in the muggy conditions. but katie and i were looking forward to this event (and we missed the 2 person relay in van cortlandt park the previous thursday night) so we got in the car and drove over to new canaan. it wasn't a night for running fast, but we'd have fun just the same.

we did this relay once before, in 2006. under much nicer weather conditions we finished in 44:45, a combined 7:28 pace. this time around i'd be happy to finish in under 50 minutes - but that was probably too ambitious.

when we signed up katie opted to run first and i was the anchor and got to wear the bib. on the way back over to the car, emmy and john arrived, followed minutes later by francoise and her daughter, mia. the plan had been for john and francoise to run as a team and emmy and rob as another. but emmy decided to run with francoise and have rob run with john instead. after that last minute team reshuffle, john and i went out for a quick warm-up on the course.

as we finished the loop we ran into rob who had parked his car on the other side of the field and was about to jog over to registration. i made quick introductions, but they recognized each other from many previous races. before the race started, we met up with a few more familiar faces, joe, marty, amy, and dawn, to mention just a few.

the race consisted of a one mile loop that each team member alternated running. the first quarter mile included a sharp little climb and equally sharp descent, but the course itself was basically flat. katie went out first and had a great (if too fast) first mile - but then, almost immediately, the heat took its toll on her.

here are our splits:

9:03

7:16 16:19

10:16 26:35

7:13 33:48

10:55 44:44

7:07 51:51

8:38 pace

my average pace for the 3 miles was 7:12, katie's was 10:01. cumulatively, we were 7 minutes slower than our previous result. the 10:55 mile katie ran for her last loop was probably the slowest mile she's run in years! but as disappointing as it seemed, we still had a great time and wouldn't have missed this one.

in fact, after the finish, emmy brought out frozen fruit bars and fresh blueberries! plus, she and francoise won their age group - and got series tee shirts as award!

check out the race photos.

check out emmy's report and photos.

next up: norwalk summer series 7 miler.