...2010 Cape Relay...

I am not going to do a traditional writeup of the weekend of the Cape Relay - it feels like it'd be too tedious and I honestly don't think I could paste together all the events in any kind of real order, but I do think I owe the weekend some kind of posterity, aside from the flip videos I have stored on the old hard drive.

The Cape Relay for those who don't know, was/is a 12 person relay running race that started in Quincy, MA and went 198 miles (or so) to Provincetown, MA, which ran overnight and without a break.

We threw together a squad that really had 1 common thread - every single person on the team is a great person. Nobody cared how fast anyone could run (I'll get to that later), and some of the people didn't know each other well, and had only met once or twice, or maybe not at all, but that didn't slow our team down at all in any way.

In alphabetical order by first name: Allan MacLean, Alison Fisher, Andy Wurtzel, Brian Cullinan, Jeff Graham, Josh Shea, Kristen Graham, Lauren Epstein, Marc Johnson, Nick Fisher, Rich Sanda & Steve O'Keefe made up the team. If you know any or all of them, you cannot argue that 26 hours in a row with this group, with basically no sleep, is a recipe for awesome awesomeness.

Here are a few things that come to mind that serve as big time highlights of the weekend:

1. The weather was incredible. As a matter of fact, the single biggest "i am not sure if i want to do it ever again" factor is that the weather could not be better than it was. yes, it was a TAD hot on Sunday, but overnight we had temps in the 50s and I, for one, sweat like a pig during my 4.8 mile run at 2:45 AM through Marstons Mills.

2. Running alone at night in the dark, but knowing you are part of a collection of hundreds of teams, is a completely magical experience. You know nobody is around you, and you cannot see anyone, but you know there are at least 175 other people running somewhere within 50 miles of you, and we all have the same goal. I don't know if anyone else got choked up by that thought, but I did.

3. Our team came in 10th. We had zero, literally zero, expectations or thoughts that we'd perform on any kind of real level. But we did. We came in 10th place overall out of nearly 200 teams. That is something I still cannot understand.

4. I am not entirely sure, but I think that every single person ran their 3 legs faster than they had anticipated doing so. I know I broke my goal pace by 2 seconds/mile.

5. The team came together in a really magical way for the last 4 legs of the race. Starting with cheering on Al MacLean, and the ensuing handoff to Steveo, which led to his amazingly grueling run, was really awesome. Steve was the MVP of the weekend, in my opinion. He blasted through his first 2 runs, and then was greeted with not only the most exposed to the sun leg of the whole race, but arguably the most difficult given its 8 (or was it 9?) mile distance. Steve did it all with a smile, kept us entertained and had a great time to boot.

6. Getting 2+ hours of shuteye on the front lawn of Nauset Regional High School was really exciting. We fell asleep with barely anyone in the grass or on the lot, and ended up waking up to a sea of sleeping bags and vans. A crazy irish team talking too loud, a bunch of people looking like they had been through hell, and all of us excited about our final leg to finish off the race. I just can't describe it all.

There were plenty more highlights, there are moments I'll never forget and the pictures and video I have tell a huge story in my brain.

This is what I think I have to end this with, and I'm sorry if it comes off as preachy.

I cannot stress enough how good it feels to set some kind of goal, in this case a physical one, and accomplishing it. Furthermore, I cannot express how gratifying it is to have people around me in my life that enjoy setting and reaching goals with me. Every single person on the team had a great time, and it was because of every other person on the team.

I don't know what miraculous twists of fate occured to all of us that allowed us to land on the same small plot of earth together and become friends, but it is beyond unreasonable that we managed to find each other, not screw it up, and work on working on it together.

Thank you to the Windham Whippets, the 10th place team at the Cape Relay, 2010.