Market-to-Market Relay - 2024 Recap

Oops, we did it again!

The odds are really good we’ll do it again next year as well. Yes, it’s that fun!

What can I say? Eight run-loving gals, a fully-loaded van, a 15-ish hour day, and 77-ish miles of running to be had. How could it be anything but a grand time? 

This last weekend, the Grinnell Girls Gone Running team reunited for their 11th year of running the Market to Market Relay Iowa. While this was only my third time running with this team, I had run the M2M several times with a team from my place of work (in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019). M2M had to go virtual in 2020 and 2021 (#Covid). In 2022, as M2M returned with all its glory and fanfare, my dear friend, Barb, invited me to join this team. Due to scheduling conflicts, we had to swap a few runners around (last year and this year both), but I was excited to reunite with the gals on GGGR team.

Ready for the start line (L-R): Kem, Rebecca, Rachel, Mary, Allison, Lauren, myself, and Barb

Similar to a Ragnar relay (but on a smaller scale), M2M incorporates an approximate 76-mile route. There are 18 exchange points along the course where the teams rotate runners and swap out each team's running batons (in this case, each team has a slap bracelet). Each team is comprised of 6-8 runners, and there are various team divisions based on gender, age, co-ed, collegiate, and corporate. Many of the teams have their vehicles decorated and many of the runners are in costume. It's quite an event!

With our team (#232) of eight, I was the second runner (thus, my bib number was 232-B). That meant my first leg would be happening less than an hour after our team's 6:30 wave start. I'd had a very light breakfast before meeting the gals at 4:45 (they departed Grinnell at 4:00AM), but knew I wouldn't need much else for food or fuel until later in the morning. Mind you, there isn't much downtime between the running legs, since we have to drive ourselves to each of the parking spots near the exchange points. The runners are on the paved Raccoon River Valley Trail (for most of the course), but the vehicles are off-course (and given maps, with detailed directions).

We pulled into Jefferson shortly after 6:00. The weather was near-perfect, with temps in the low-50F's and plenty of sunshine (trust me, we've had many other much cooler race starts before, with wind and rain). There was ample time to grab a few pics with the famous pink gorilla (who rallies all the runners with his trombone as each wave is released), and our first runner, Mary, got ready to head to the start line.

Go Mary!

My first “leg” was Stage-2. The weather, thus far, was feeling ideal. There was a gentle NW breeze and full sunshine, though it was still pretty early so the sun wasn’t too strong. It was 7:05 when Mary made it to the exchange point and handed over the slap bracelet to me.

The runners are on the green route; drivers are on the orange one

I've seen all segments of the Raccoon River Valley Trail (running and biking), and this particular section is rather rough (I'd actually run this same leg, back in 2018, with my other team). It was paved, but there were numerous repaired seams along the way. I had to be careful and watch my steps to avoid tripping (and/or face-planting). 

This leg of the relay was categorized as easy, and it was. What took me by surprise, though, was a weird tightness near the base of my left hamstring (it’s usually the right side that gives me grief). This unexpected (and most unwelcome!) discomfort appeared as I was approaching the 2-mile mark. It wasn’t excruciating, but it was impossible to ignore. I made it to Stage-3 in 31 minutes (3.37 miles; 9:13 pace) and handed over the bracelet to Lauren. 

Top (L-R): Lauren handing-off to Allison (Stage-4); Rachel handing-off to Barb (Stage-6)
Bottom (L-R): Rebecca (all smiles at Stage-7); Kem at Stage 8

The morning went well, and we were substantially "ahead" of our predicted finish time...not a bad thing! Due to some repairs on the trail, this year they had to implement a time-out on the segment from Linden to Redfield. Meanwhile, we kept busy.

 I took advantage of the limited downtime to massage my grumpy hammy (and vicinity) at every opportunity.

And, in keeping with tradition, I hit the vintage slide in Linden while waiting for Rebecca to come in. 

Another group photo opp at the brickyard in Adel, during Stage 9...

BTW, the WTF stands for Where's the Finish

The sunshine was great, but the 77F temps were feeling pretty warm by the time it was my turn to run again. It was 12:28 when Mary finished her 5.1-mile run and handed me the bracelet at Stage-10. Ugh, although I had been stretching and Theragun'ing the hammy, I was really having doubts how this segment was going to play-out. 

I decided to pop in my ear buds, hoping some music would give me a nice jolt of mojo. I had run this leg of the course just last year, and I remembered it as being very scenic, partially shaded, but also a gradual incline to Stage-11. I'd only taken a few steps and had to pause to reset the music on my phone. My hamstring felt SO tight, but I focused on running slowly in hopes that it would loosen up...and, thankfully, that strategy worked! I'd gone what felt like a mile or so when I glanced at my Garmin and noticed I'd forgotten to restart it (#FacePalm).

Well, what's a runner to do but just keep going, right? The hammy didn't feel great, but it was gradually feeling better the farther I went. It was probably a good thing I didn't know my actual mileage as I was running or else I'd be focused on finishing rather than persevering. It was 1:07 when I handed the bracelet over to Laruen, and I was glad to be done! I wished I'd have thought to bring water along with me, for my run, because I was so hot, so tired, and so thirsty when I finished (that was probably a good distraction as well, LOL).

We had to keep a log of each runner's start and finish time, so I knew my exact running time. I also knew my "approximate" distance of four miles, so that enabled me to calculate my split from that first mile (11:08, thank you very much), but the other three miles were 9:47, 10:00, and 9:35 (which were recorded on the Garmin, after I restarted it). Anyways, despite the rough start, my 4-mile average pace wound up being 9:47.

Whew! As Lauren was running, I camped-out in the van and changed out of my icky (sweaty) clothes and donned the team tank. I was extremely glad I'd kept it for after finishing instead of running in it.

The rest of the afternoon went well, though the heat was pretty intense. We were all glad to have a cool breeze (and no humidity to fight).  

Top (L-R): Kem handing off to Mary at Stage-9, my final hand-off to Lauren (Stage 11)
Bottom (L-R):Barb finishing Stage-13, Rachel handing off to Rebecca at Stage-15, Rebecca handing-off to Kem at Stage-16

We made it to the final stage (Stage-17), and all that was left was to make our way towards the finish line and run the final stretch across the bridge when Mary came in.

Let me just say, it feels so awesome running those last few meters as a team! Our team did well...we finished in 6th place (of 34) in our category (women's division), and 67th overall (of 199 teams). There are teams of women, men, mixed (both women and men), collegiate, corporate, military/public safety/defense, as well as masters for both women/men/mixed. Lots of relay runners!

In keeping with our flamingo theme, we all had the appropriate tattoos...

As for swag, we all received gender-specific tech shirts, socks, and finisher medals (which are actually bottle-openers). Also, since our team placed in the top-7 of our category, we'll be receiving medals for that as well.

As I've said before, this is a top-notch event. This was the 12th year, and there's also an Omaha venue (late September), and there's a "deuce" challenge where teams who do both the Des Moines and Omaha events get special recognition (and bonus swag).

A few things to note:

***While there are numerous volunteers (and law enforcement personnel) monitoring the traffic, the relay course is an open course...so the runners really have to pay attention to signage when the route enters the final legs in Des Moines (there's a lot of pedestrian traffic, non-relay runners, and cyclists are in abundance).

***Each team is self-supported...we have to provide our own food, fuel and drink for the entire day

***This does make for a long day. We had a 6:30 wave start, but some teams started as early as 5:30 (based on projected finish times, etc.).

 

Have you ever done a relay of this sort? Would you, if one was available? 

I'm linking this with Zenaida and Jenn for the TuesdayTopics Linkup. 

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