fall race outlook

it's a hot day today, so i'm postponing my run today until later in the afternoon. i'm slated for a 14-miler; then i'll have to go to work right after that. liv and i both had the night off last night for the first time in a while. we went to my favorite bar in town. it was noisy but fun.

and they have my favorite beer on tap. mmmmmmmmmm . . . delicious.

my big race this season is going to be the philly marathon, but i'm also very excited about running the blue ridge relay next month. we have a team of twelve runners, two 15-passenger cargo vans, and one dog (the dog isn't going to do any running) to run a total of 208 miles over 36 legs.

each relay team member runs 3 legs of varying lengths and difficulty (see below). the race starts at grayson highlands state park in VA, which is near the base of mt rogers (5729'), the highest peak in the state . the course primarily follows scenic, country roads as it winds its way through NC to finish in asheville.

i'm runner #8, which gives me a total of 21.5 miles. the race begins friday morning, september 17th and usually takes between 24-36 hours to finish. since it's a team event, the idea is to try and catch a few zzz's between legs of the relay.

Leg Rotation  Runner  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 First Leg 4 7.5 5.2 6.9 5.2 5.2 5.4 4.6 5.2 8.2 6.3 7.9 Second Leg 7.5 10 2.4 3.3 4.9 5.9 4.3 7.5 2.4 6 5.2 1.9 Third Leg 7.2 6.9 5.2 8 7 4.4 6.5 9.4 5.2 4.4 4.2 6.8 Total 18.7 24.4 12.8 18.2 17.1 15.5 16.2 21.5 12.8 18.6 15.7 16.6 Summary Chart  Leg Miles Rating Elevation Loss (ft) Elevation Gain (ft) 1 4.0 Easy 936 0 2 7.5 Hard 1431 238 3 5.2 Moderate 458 338 4 6.9 Hard 190 544 5 5.2 Moderate 212 251 6 5.2 Moderate 566 760 7 5.4 Moderate 448 288 8 4.6 Easy 243 44 9 5.2 Easy 3 82 10 8.2 Hard 386 534 11 6.3 Hard 159 269 12 7.9 Hard 457 622 13 7.5 Hard 438 530 14 10.0 Hard 149 838 15 2.4 Easy 575 0 16 3.3 Easy 136 184 17 4.9 Moderate 202 433 18 5.9 Hard 1221 184 19 4.3 Easy 77 21 20 7.5 Hard 483 565 21 2.4 Easy 373 0 22 6.0 Moderate 136 412 23 5.2 Moderate 453 384 24 1.9 Easy 199 8 25 7.2 Hard 311 396 26 6.9 Hard 583 104 27 5.2 Easy 10 179 28 8.0 Hard 70 319 29 7.0 Hard 278 312 30 4.4 Easy 0 152 31 6.5 Very Hard 0 1392 32 9.4 Hard 1952 25 33 5.2 Very Hard 663 769 34 4.4 Moderate 170 319 35 4.2 Hard 114 715 36 6.8 Very Hard 1199 228

also, looking forward to races this fall, there's the carrboro 10K on my birthday, october 2. anyone interested in running it?

on a completely different topic, my camera died a few weeks ago, and i've been contemplating buying a new one. this looks like a pretty good deal. for $100 i get the same camera i had previously, which i thoroughly enjoyed.

on the other hand, all the photos i've posted on this blog have been from my iphone 4, which takes awesome pictures, and because i carry my phone in my pocket, i don't have to remember to tote around my camera with me. i'll probably just end up buying the camera. although the iphone takes good pics, i know there will be times when i'll want higher quality.