Race Report: Brew-to-Brew 2011

Background

Brew-to-Brew (B2B) is a 44 mile relay race that starts at Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO and ends in Lawrence, KS near Free State Brewery.  The first running was in 1995 with 254 participants.  The race sold out this year, but I don't know the number of participants.  Cystic Fibrosis is the event's charity.

The race start is staggered with the first team's start at 6:00am and continues every 30 minutes until 9:30am. There are 10 total legs, many of which have their own unique challenges.  The challenges are there more due to keeping the course off of major thru-fares than by actual design.  The first few legs involve stairs and climbing up levee walls.  Leg 7 involves a boat crossing (or you can add another mile to your leg to avoid the crossing).  Leg 6 has a massively long hill for 2 - 3 miles and is also one of the longest legs of the race.  Legs 8 & 9 are on gravel and dirt roads.

Make no mistake about it, this is very much a beer/alcohol related event.  Running is probably the only reason this day doesn't get too out of hand.  We had 10 gallons of beerita (see below) to keep our runners hydrated.... oh, plus over 100 bottles of water.

The Day
Our three teams kicked off at 8:30am.  Due to various reasons, we ran between two to four runners during the race event.  The overall group consisted of 20 people: 17 runners and 3 drivers (2 runners came from North Carolina.... Go Kenny and Megan!).  I'll mention now that a lot of effort was put into this event.  Maybe more than the actual event itself.  Organizing 17 runners involves a lot of work that team mom (My wife, TKB) managed quite well.  Along with the 10 gallons of beerita and bottles of water purchased, there were 12 bananas halved, 20 oranges sliced, 20 team t-shirts handcrafted, 50 bags of chips procured, 70 sandwiches made, and thousands upon thousands of words digitized to communicate the plans.

In my typical paranoia of race day, I check the forecast daily as it enters the 10 day forecast range.  It ranged from 50 degrees and cloudy to 80 degrees with isolated thunderstorms.  What we got was sunny and 85 degrees!  Oh... and 25 - 35 mph sustained winds with 45 mph gusts.  With the early spring nature of this race, there was very little blockage of this wind as trees had not developed leaves yet.  The only solace found was in the valley's of hills; however, that meant that as soon as you crested a nasty hill you almost get blown back down it when you hit the wind.  On multiple occasions I heard people say "This was the worst run in my life" due to the wind.

Team T-shirts
Team T-shirts are always difficult to figure out.  While there is a small committee who make the decisions for the race, I finally threw out the idea that was ultimately used:

Joe VI showing off his work.

All runners received "I drink ... beers per mile".  (One runner had one with COCKtails as she was drinking margaritas for the event).  All drivers received "I drive ... drunks per mile".  Here was the deal:  For every beer you drink, you get a black tally.  For every water, you get a blue tally.  Once you hit three black tallies in a row, you must drink a water or no more black marks.  Beautifully executed by Team Mom so that she could throttle the alcohol intake.  I'm pretty sure a few of the team members were thankful for the water rule the day after.  We had plenty of people from other teams request pictures of people with our t-shirts, so I guess it was a success.  For the record, I only had 3 black marks as I was more concerned with keeping things in order (such as not leaving behind a runner at a checkpoint).

Legs Breakdown
1: Kenny and Megan
2: Joe VI and Lauren
3: Dan and Anne
4: Carmen and Kristen
5: Danny, Sean, Ben, and Kristin
6: Ben, Kristin, Mark
7: Larianne and Mark
8: Shane and I
9: Stephen and Kenny
10: Stephen and I

Kristin was training for a half-marathon which takes place the following weekend, so she and Ben took two legs in a row.  Due to some last minute shuffling, we had open spots for 9, so Stephen ran two in a row.

My Legs (The route legs, not my appendages)
Leg 8: I actually ran two of the same legs this year as I did previously (last year I actually did leg 4 too).  Leg 8 has rolling hills the entire way.  This helped block the wind but as soon as we reached an open stretch of farmland without trees on the road, we were hit hard.  The first two miles were mostly dirt road but the second half was gravel.  I would never recommend running on a gravel road.  It may strengthen some aspects of leg and foot muscles but this isn't the way you want to start.

Leg 10: This was running on top of a levee for 4 miles and then taking a bridge into Lawrence to hit the finish line.  The first 1.5 miles was full on 35mph wind gusts but once the road started going straight west, there is a nice line of trees to block the wind.  Stephen and I walked a couple times on the route.  The long day was catching up to us.  Stephen was getting some bad dry mouth (he had just completed leg 9) and we found some nice fellow B2B-ers who were willing to share a bottle of water.

My Legs (the appendages, not the route legs)
While my total mileage is less than my current long runs, you do not consider the 6 - 8 previous hours of standing and milling about while you wait for runners to finish their legs.  Running on gravel road and then on a trail just added to it.  While the levee trail was "flat" there was enough variation on the path that your body is constantly making minor adjustments that cause your knees and hips to ache.  Cardio-wise I was in great shape.  If you are digging into the beerita, you'll have some internal issues going on with dehydration.

This day presented another problem that many may not have taken into considerations.  The second half was in 80+ degree weather.  While the wind helped cool the skin, it was still hot.  It takes a few weeks for the body to acclimate itself to running in such warmer weather.

While I did wear my Garmin, I'm not concerned with analyzing the data.  I know my pace times sucked so I'm not going to bother making any sense of them

Overall - Event Critique
Out of this post I have yet to speak of the event organization itself.  They could definitely do a better job with formal communication.  If anything, create a Facebook page for communicating information.  Some information comes from "Kansas City Track Club" and some is decimated from a personal e-mail account of the race director and little concern for privacy as everyone's e-mail addresses are sent out in a massive "TO" line.  This really needs to be changed.  The packet driving directions could be improved over the hand drawn map.  We have the technology... let's use it!

Being a team relay event that takes place all day, I don't expect much from aid stations or post-race festivities.  We didn't stay to see if there was any post-race festivities.  They do provide food and drinks for solo racers but since I didn't run solo, I don't know if that was sufficient.

Overall Overall
It was a very Very VERY long day as we finished around 5:20pm. We had a great time but the wind zapped most of the energy out of people as well as add many layers of grime.  Re-applying sunscreen was like applying sandpaper to the skin.  I didn't get a chance to review the food but when back in KC but we had the right amount of food and beerita.  Not sure when Brew-to-Brew 2012 will be scheduled but you can bet we will be there.  Depending on my training schedule, I might consider doing a solo "6 leg special".  That's right, I said that.

Did you run Brew-to-Brew?  Visit this site and follow the first link to survey it:
http://triathlon-reviews.blogspot.com/

Photos

The Team!  It was only missing TKB who was taking the photo.

Transition 1 to 2: Kenny handing our "baton" to Joe VI, a ball.  It got lost somewhere.

Transaction 2 to 3: Joe VI receiving his post-run beerita.

Kristin and Ben coming in strong at Transition 6 to 7.  You are ready for your half-marathon for sure!!

My Gatorade Commercial

Shane and I taking off at Transition 7 to 8.

Shane and I coming into Transition 8 to 9.  GRAVEL!

Stephen just finishing leg 9 and prepping for Leg 10.  Me tweeting.

TKB and I's favorite photo of the day.  Ben's look is priceless!!

Bonus - Beerita
Many people wonder what the heck Beerita is.  Well, here it is:

Four 12oz Cans of beer
1 Cup of Tequila
1 Jar of frozen Lime-aide

Serve on ice with a slice of lime.

This recipe may sound absolutely disgusting but is 100% delicious.

This is simply a ratio, so expand as needed.  For instance, our 10 gallons of beerita was 60 cans of beer, 15 jars of frozen lime-aide (I hope no one else at Walmart needed lime-aide that day), and 3.5 liters of tequila.

If you are spending more than $8 - $9 making a gallon of beerita, then you are doing something wrong.  You MUST use the cheapest beer, cheapest tequila, and cheapest lime-aide you can find.  If you use quality ingredients, it will suck.

2010 Season - From four to twenty six point two

As promised from my initial post....  This will be my race reports for 2010.  I don't ever plan to have posts this long, but I'm consolidating a full years worth of race report here.

St. Patrick's Day Run - 4 Miles
THE first race.  Met up with Joe, Danny, and Shane before the race, which started at 10:00am.  This was a good start because the pre-race jitters weren't further complicated by a pre-dawn start (of course I wouldn't know what that meant for many months).  After hanging out in Kelly's at Westport, we finally made our way to the start.  The weather was chilly.  I stripped off my running pants at the last minute (don't worry, I luckily had shorts on).  Wore a long sleeve shirt with gloves.  My training would place me in the 7:30 pace group by I decided to hold back and see where Danny, Joe, and Shane lined up.  Off we went!

After the first mile I ended up getting lost in relation to Danny, Joe, and Shane and knew I was on my own.  My second and third miles averaged 7:30 pace and I hit 7:00 on my fourth.  I crossed the line in 30:17.

Post-race food: Banana, Krispy Kreme donut, Yogurt, and Water.  Oh.... and about 6 beers at Harpo's and Sharps 63rd Street Bar and Grill.

I remember thinking how everything was so surreal during the first mile.  Hearing nothing but foot steps was hypnotic and tantalizing all at once.  I was hooked.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26894631

Brew to Brew - 11 Miles (3 Legs)

Two races in a row that revolve around beer.  LOVE IT.  This race is a 44 mile relay race between Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City to Free State Brewery in Lawrence, KS.  Joe asked TKB (aka, Wife) to organize the event back in February and she did a great job. There were 16 runners to manage.  We ended up running two people at the same time.  I signed up for two legs but was designated as sober runner for Kyle and Joe on the last leg.  If you haven't heard of Beeritas, you need to.

This was the most fun.  Ken and Kyle flew in from Greensboro and that's always a great time.

Due to our start time and the fact that we actually completed the 44 mile race, we came in last and too late for the post-race food.  That's no joke.  We crossed the finish line and the timing clock put away.

It was a great time and plans were started for 2011.

Trolley Run - 4 Mile

My first early morning race.  Pre-race meal was my fruit smoothie with protein powder.  Start time was between 7:30 and 8:00am and it was cooooold.  I still wore running shorts and short sleeve tech shirt. The best part of this race was it was the first with my brother Mike.  We all met up around 6:45 to take the buses from the Plaza to 75th Wornall Road.  Along with the cold, it was rainy but by the time the race started the drizzle subsided.

After St. Patrick's Day run, I definitely left a lot of energy on the course.  This time I started fast and ended fast.  I averaged a 6:54 pace.  I definitely felt spent by the end of the race.  Even felt nauseous part way through the run, so that means SUCCESS!

With my brother's family there, we had a great time watching the niece and nephew do their fun runs!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31239970

Hospital Hill Run - Half Marathon

I decided to sign up for this race after Brew-to-Brew because I figured if I could run 11 miles over a 10 hours, maybe I could 13.1 around 2.  After getting fitted for a pair of kicks and a physical with the doctor, the race was on.

This was the first race that I actually devised a race plan for and did a decent job sticking to it.  My biggest issue was a shin splint.  This caused me to cut pack some of my training but I took the advice of "if I can still run on it.. run on it".

(note:  The rest of this report came from my race report I posted on Facebook)
Clock Time 1:54:32 
Overall Place 699 / 2966 
Gender Place 519 / 1502 
Division Place 104 / 258

My first half-marathon! This was apparently one of the warmest Hospital Hill runs with the temperature at 76 degrees at the gun. The day before I attended a seminar by a running coach who talked about what to do during the race and talked about hydration, especially in the heat. He helped re-affirm my strategy. Start slow! Like so slow you think you'll never finish.

My goal was to finish under 2:00 hours, so I lined up behind the 2:00 hour pace group and stayed with them until after two water stations (3 miles). My plan was to then catch up to the 1:55 pace group and, if able, continue to the 1:50 pace group. So for each water station I walked, drank two cups of water or PowerAde, and then dumped one water over my head (and in my hat). I only grabbed the third cup because of the high heat and humidity of the day.

The other advice I took to heart was to take it EASY on the hill ups and go fast on the downs. This helped me catch back up to the 2:00 hour pace group by the Nelson Art Museum (more on that later).

The route was still very tough. Just when you thought you had crested a hill, it just kept going and going. Just when you thought there couldn't be anymore hills left, there was one waiting for you and it was worse than any previous hill.

Overall, I executed my race plan quite while. Obviously, I did make it under 2:00 hours. I separated from the pack after the 2nd water station. I took advantage of the downs whenever possible. I hit the right song on my play list when I started to separate myself from the 2:00 hour pace group (Black Eyed Peas: Let's Get Started). I admired "Pace Booty" when I could ;). What I didn't count on was my "wardrobe malfunction". 

After I had officially warmed up by the 2nd water station, I began my pursuit to pace group 1:55.  I noticed the small bag on my race belt was flopping around a bit more than normal. This bag is just big enough to hold my cell phone, which was in it at the time. The loop that held the bag to my race belt was ripping. I really didn't want it to rip off and then have to deal with retrieving it, so I popped over to the sidewalk and started walking while I attempted to rip the bag off of the belt. Unfortunately, that took about 60 seconds. So for nearly 10 miles, I had to hold the bag, with my cell phone, in my hand. While doing this I had fallen behind the 2:00 hour pace group instead of running to the next group. Eventually I caught up to the 1:55 pace group around mile 8 and stayed with them the rest of the way.

Now I am looking forward to doing no training for one or two weeks to allow my shin to heal fully. While I could tell shin splint was there, it didn't bother me at all or impact my form.


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35762707

Susan G Komen - 5k

TKB and I have done this event many years but this was the first time it was a run... for both of us (TKB had finally gotten into running events by this time).   By now I was 6 weeks into training for the Kansas City Marathon.  My weekend training partner, Kristen,  had also signed up for the marathon as her first race ever, so I convinced her to sign up for this race to get a race under her belt.

Since I had run a 13 mile long run the day before I used this run as an active recovery; therefore, I didn't put a major effort into it.  So my official time was 28:35.  Slower than my Trolley Run time, which was .9 miles longer.

Kansas City Marathon
This was a year of firsts.  First race.  First half-marathon.  First FULL marathon.  I had been debating this since the end of Hospital Hill.  Doing another half marathon to end the season just didn't seem good enough.  While walking the dog one late June evening, I got a call from Joe.  "Let's do the KC Marathon."  "OK!"  Training plan was set the next day.  The race was already 15 weeks away, so we started week 3 of Hal Higdon's plan.  Work got in the way during the second half of training and I ended up getting the sick the weekend before the race (DOH!).  But I managed to get in most of my long runs (weekend and midweek).  I hit 346 of the 430 miles I planned to run.

I normally train by myself but ever other week or so I would meet up with Kristin and TKB on my training runs.  It was nice to have someone to talk to during the runs.  I generally prefer to train alone but it was a nice change.

The night before we had a pasta party in which we had a fun guest as part of the invitee list.

(5lb Gummy Bear anyone?!)

Pre-Race
I'm very much a control freak when it comes to pre-race now.  I have my routine.  I don't want pre-race stress to cause any additional stress.  We parked at 6:00am and waited 45 additional minutes for friends and family to show up.  I would have preferred to start hitting the porta-potty and doing my pre-race mental checkin.  Instead, I ended up running towards my pace group, downing my pre-race gel on the way.  I wasn't able to hit the bathroom due to lines and the fact that I only saw a small set of them (apparently there were a lot more a block away from the start.  I figured I'd have to eventually anyway, so no big loss. I would just have to do it earlier than expected.  At 7:30am, our pace group was on its way!

Race
To be honest, I really don't remember a lot of the race.  I think my brain has mentally erased it so I'd be willing to do it again (Of course it helps to do the race report within days of the event, not 3 months later).  Here are the highlights:

• I fortunately knew the one of the two pace group leaders for the 3 hour, 55 minute group, I had met Ashley at work just a month before. It was nice to be able to chat with someone.  The other pace group leader was her sister.
• The first couple miles were exciting and slow.  Ashley and I got behind her sister and the rest of the group at an aid station but caught up with them by the time we hit the first hill.
• This course is hilly.  It follows many of the same streets as Hospital Hill Run, so I was at least familure with a third of them, even if we were running them the opposite direction.
• About mile 4 my brother and I caught up to each other and so I got to run with Mike (who was running the Half) for a while.  He is such a great person and very supportive.  I look forward to running races with him whenever I can.
• Miles six through 12 were through Westport, the Plaza, and on to Ward Parkway.  About this time I noticed my legs were starting to talk to me.  After being sick the week previously,  I was afraid I had lost some strength but eventually that went away.
• About mile 16 I noticed I was no longer with my pace group.  I had pulled away from them and was heading towards 3:50.  I still hadn't hit the bathroom.
• Mile 21 brought another aid station and my time to take a minute.  I stretched, took in extra fluids, and stared down miles 21 - 26.2.
• The last couple miles were tough but I loved seeing people along the path cheering people on.  Having aid stations every mile was great.  Having people's names on their bib was great too.  In fact, I even congratulated some half marathon finishes watching the full participants come in.
• Seeing the finish line and my family at the end was great.  I kicked it up pretty hard for a strong finish (which means I left a lot on the course.  I'll work on that).  

Post-Race
Considering I had just completed a marathon, I was definitely expecting a lot more.  One bottle of beer and beef sticks.  Seriously?  They need to work on that and could learn a thing or twenty from Hospital Hill.

Race Photos

Luckily you can't see my feet shuffling along.

Myself, TKB (5k), and brother, Mike (half)

Mike coming in strong!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/53214393