Mastering the 24 hour Relay Race

You’ve been recruited to be part of a 24-hour relay race. Now what do you do?  How do you train for something like that?  What can you expect? What can you prepare for?

There are many popular ‘overnight’ relay races and relay series now.  The basic layout for these races is that you collect a team of runners and take turns running a course of 200 miles or so.  Most average teams will take 24 hours plus or minus to cover the distance – hence the ’24 hour relay’ moniker.

What this means is that your team will be running, sleeping and eating continuously through the course of a day and night.  This brings interesting physical and logistical challenges.  Those physical and logistical challenges are the fun part of the 24 hour relay.

There’s a high probability that something will not go according to plan and hilarity ensues.  Mix in screwed up plans with sleep deprivation, extended effort and lack of showers and it gets really fun in a summer camp kind of way.

Typically a 200 mile relay race will have a 12 person team that rotates across 36 legs.  Do the math and this means the average relay participant on a 12 person team will run 3 times at an average of 5.5 miles per leg, or somewhere around 15-16 miles all told across 24 hours.

The relays typically have designated ‘harder’ and ‘longer’ leg choices to accommodate different abilities among the team.  Your strongest runner will get longer and more difficult legs and someone else will get less.

No matter what happens you’ll be running a minimum of 3 times over the course of 24 hours.  Your first leg will typically be during the day of the first day.  Your second leg will typically be in the middle of the night.  Your third leg will be the morning of the second day.  If everything goes to plan (a big if) you’ll get 9 hours of rest in between your running assignments.  Piece of cake.

How do you train for a 24 hour relay?

If you’re in decent shape and are running the relay for fun it shouldn’t be that much trouble.  You can run one of these on a decent base of 15-25 miles a week with no issues.  Run for 40 – 60 minutes 3-4 days a week and you’ll have plenty of juice to complete a relay.

There are a couple of quirks that you may want to test out in your training.  The first unique thing is running in the middle of the night.  You may want to schedule some of your training runs for an odd hour, like midnight or 4:00 AM just to see how that feels.

The second quirk is running multiple times in short succession.  If you want to test this out you can schedule in some ‘two-a-days’.  Go for a run in the morning and then do another at lunch.  Or go at lunch then at night.  See how it feels to run on tired legs.

Other than that there’s not much else to it.  You might want to practice running that second run of the day on gas station pizza or donuts, but that’s another story!

What do you prepare for?

You may have noticed that I said “If nothing goes wrong” a couple times.  Something always goes wrong.  These are the typical things…

• Runners no-show or get injured/sick early in the race.

Even if you have your full complement of 2 vans full of 12 runners someone is going to not be able to run on race day.  Maybe it’s the flu, maybe it’s a torn muscle or maybe they just don’t show up, but someone is going to have to run their legs.  The last 12 person relay I ran we ended up with 8 people and I ran close to 30 miles.

If you have to run extra legs you have two choices; either add legs together or speed up the rotation.  If you add legs together, i.e. instead of running leg 5 you run legs 5 and 6, you run longer but get more rest in between.  If you speed up the rotation you may be running every 4-5 hours.

There is an ultra-team version in most of these relays where you can run a team of 6.  If you combine the legs it boils down to 3 ½ marathons over 24 hours but it makes the logistics much easier.

• Runners miss an exchange or get lost.

There’s nothing sadder than watching a runner who has just blasted out their leg wandering piteously around the exchange area looking for someone to hand off to.  It happens. Especially with 12 person teams on some of the shorter legs.  There is traffic or someone takes a wrong turn.

Before the race starts take a look at the course and see where the pinch points are.  Consult someone who’s done it before and identify the risky bits.  Then decide what you’re going to do if there is no one at the exchange.  Does your runner wait or keep going to the next exchange?

• Someone pulls something.

Someone is bound to pull up lame with a sore knee or hamstring during all the enthusiasm.  It makes sense to pack enough tape or whatever else you need to fix someone up so they can limp through another leg.

• You won’t get enough sleep and you won’t eat well.

It doesn’t matter how well you plan.  You just don’t get much sleep during one of these events.  Typically you’re riding in car or a van and you’ll have to catch what sleep you can sitting up.  Do whatever you have to do to prepare to sleep sitting up in a moving car.  Eye shades, earplugs and your favorite Teddy Bear?

Typically people bring enough food, but for some reason you always end up eating inconsistently and crappy with all the running and driving.  If there is some go-to staple you like that will keep you going, like smoothies or Cliff bars bring them with you.

• The weather is unpredictable.

I have run at midnight in driving rain.  I have run a 10-mile 35^th leg directly into the teeth of 70 mph winds and rain.  You never know what’s going to happen in these races.  You can’t control the weather and you just have to roll with it.  It’s frankly part of the fun and part of the adventure.

Pack clothes for every occasion.  At a minimum you’ll need 3 complete changes of clothing.  Include some foul weather gear, like a rain shell jacket, gloves, and warm hat as well.  Pack for a broad range of temperatures and conditions because the weather can change while you’re on the course.

Make sure to pack some anti-chaffing lube.  As you get wet things will start to rub.  You’re going to have to run again and if you get chaffing it can make that last leg uncomfortable.

This is my best tip.  Buy 2 or 3 cheap beach towels from the big discount store.  These will cost less than $10 and you can abandon them as needed without remorse.  They can be used as towels, sleeping pads and impromptu pillows.  While you’re in the store see if they have any cheap blankets as well.  You may not want to keep these when you’re done so don’t bring anything you’re emotionally attached to!

Bring 3-5 plastic trash bags to put your wet and stinky stuff into. Otherwise the van will start to smell horrible.

How should you execute the race?

• Pace yourself.

If you ever look at the team pictures from one of these relays you will see a definite pattern.  For the first legs everyone is smiling and crazy-happy.  For the second legs everyone looks miserable and sleepy.  By the third legs people are back to being happy and look like they are ready to be done!

That should tell you how to pace yourself.  Most people will spend their energy on the first leg and then suffer through the second.  The basic emotional and energy arc is going to go from high to low and then back to high at the end.  Be prepared for it.

As I saw written on a van once “The middle leg is the hardest”.

Take it easy on that first day.  Pace yourself.  Don’t go all out on the first leg.  Save something.

• Sleep when you can, eat when you should.

You may not feel like sleeping but you’ll eventually regret missing the opportunity.  If there was one thing I’d say the ultra-teams do better than the 12 person teams is they sleep when they’re not running.

The cadence is Run, Eat, Sleep and Repeat.  Understanding that, you want to pace yourself accordingly.  When you finish your run eat something and rehydrate.  Then sleep whether you feel like it or not.  It may seem overly-simple but will save you some misery as you progress through the 24 hours.

• Have fun – it’s not brain surgery

These 24 hour events are not intended to be competitive per se.  They are intended to be fun.  So, have fun. Don’t be grumpy.  Be that person who sings songs in the van.  Wear your fancy dress costumes.  Paint the van.  Have fun!

You’re part of a team and there will be some potential friction when you bring different people together.  Roll with it.  It’s supposed to be fun.  Take the high road.  Give encouragement.  Help where you can.  Smile and be a good teammate.

Life’s too short to waste on internecine van conflict.  Be a leader.  Make it fun for everyone.

Cheers,

Chris,