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"We are thrilled to be laced-up for another go at a race that should be found
on EVERY southern runner's annual must-do list."
A Blue Ridge Relay Team Captain
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Hokie
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Posted 10:35 am, 10/05/2009
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I ran legs 8, 20, and 32 this year and last year. Leg 20 has some brutal hills. Thank goodness it's at night. If I had to do that leg in the same temperatures as leg 8 I think I'd either have to walk or pass out. I really like leg 32, even though it's 9.4 miles. I know there are runners who say they prefer uphill to downhill, but I'm NOT one of them. I'll take downhill any day. Of course, I will be sacrificing toenails each year I take leg 32. Three more this year. The bee sting on my ear a half-mile into the 9.4 mile leg 32 was no fun either, but all in all, a great race, with leg 20 being my hardest.
That said, just driving leg 31 made me tired. Mountain Goat (31) is another level.
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bk
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Posted 10:52 am, 09/17/2009
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I ran 4, 16, and 28. Leg 4 didn't seem to follow the posted profile too closely, pretty hard hill with heavy traffic. 16 was a blast, like running a long 5k. 28 was a nice leg, I didn't think it was as hard in real life as it looked in the profile.
NightTrain, that was a right at the start of 13.
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JenniferC
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Posted 4:32 pm, 09/16/2009
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I was on Barry's team. I had the easiest legs (thankfully) and feel they were rated accurately. I ran leg 8 moderate+, leg 19 Easy and leg 30 easy. These legs were pretty much as described. The hardest part really was the heat for legs 8 and 30. I would say from the van leg 6 was WAY harder than we all expected it to be and leg 20 was insane!! I did not run either, but I think I would have cried if I had to do leg 20, lol. I guess everyone has a different definition of what is hard though. I am just a novice, so what is hard to me might not be hard to the more competitive runners.
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SanguineToday84
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Posted 3:56 pm, 09/16/2009
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This was my first time running this race and I absolutely loved it! My fellow Blue Ridge Streakers and I will surely be back next year (if they take me back!). I had:
Leg 10: Ran during the hot afternoon which had an effect on my performance at the beginning running along the New River and the end. The bulk of the run being the uphill and downhill was shaded luckily but was fairly difficult. The downhill wasn't too steep so I was able to speed down it without worry of keeping my balance. Overall this leg was the most fun for me.
Leg 22: Ran this at night and had a nice pace throughout. Even though it was the odd hours of the morning I felt that I had plenty of energy to make this a solid run. This was also the leg that I was able to pass the most runners.
Leg 34: Although I figured that this would be my easiest leg because it was my shortest, it was difficult for me. The reasons I attribute this to was my lack of energy and the hot sun. Even during the slight downhill section it didn't seem like I could generate near the pace that I would have liked. This set up the hilly finish to be fairly miserable. I'm sure that if I had been a veteran of the BRR that I would have prepared to have a stronger third leg.
These legs provided an overall pleasurable run with a hill finish on each of them. I agree with the difficulty classifications for each.
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jvetrovec
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Posted 11:24 am, 09/16/2009
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I created a facebook page for the Blue Ridge Relay for '09 that has the links to mapmyrun with all the legs. It also has the beginnings of our teams impressions of their legs. I think 9 legs are currently covered. Feel free to post your thoughts on other legs or add additions to what's been written about.
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cjrun
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Posted 7:57 pm, 09/15/2009
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Someone has already mapped out the course on mapmyrun -- this is from last year so it doesn't have the updated legs:
www.mapmyrun.com/community/groups/810948926641
I also did this year's course in google maps, doesn't have the elevation but you can switch to the terrain view to get an idea:
maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101005935715223406414.000471fa7f0f5676ba2a6&z=10
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wayne.ingram@att.net
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Posted 7:29 pm, 09/15/2009
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I think some time spent on mapmyrun.com would resolve the elevation profile issue. I started doing that this year for our team, but after 60 miles or so I was tired of messing with it. Now I wish I would have completed it and used those profiles to help with the assignments. Maybe I can get this done over the next few months and make them public so they'll be available to everyone.
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Larry
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Posted 5:57 pm, 09/15/2009
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My legs hurt too...imagine that....
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5 dollar footlongs and trains
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Posted 5:53 pm, 09/15/2009
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This is my third year doing the relay. I did it the first two years and did legs 8, 20, and 32 those years. I think there have been some changes to those legs since then but they are basically the same.
Leg 8 - I always thought there was a little more uphill at the start than the map shows. great downhill section and I loved running along the river here. I think both of those years I was around 5:45 to 5:50 pace here.
Leg 20 - oh heck yeah this one was tough. the second year I had practiced all summer just for this section. those uphill section are pretty brutal and the downhills are screaming fast. I did this one 2 minutes faster the second year than the first and I ran 6:15 pace for this.
Leg 32 - I love love love loved this leg. If you can practice on some downhill section this will be the most fun you could have during a race. It's longer now but the second year I ran 5:17 pace and about 1 minute faster than the first year. did I mentioned I loved this leg?
this year I ran leg 1, 13, 25.
Leg 1 - a total blast. don't go out to hard and just enjoy the ride because it's over before you know it. I ran 4:59 pace here
Leg 13 - oh boy I had some trouble here. I went straight when I should have gone to to the left at the very start. I didn't see any signs and ran two miles out of the way. stopped and a subway and had to backtrack. I thought this leg was kind of tough. The uphill section was long and the camber of the road really was bad towards the top of the hill. I ended up with over 9 miles in about 56 minutes.
leg 25 - I like running in the dark and I like running on dirt roads too so this was one I loved. There was a mention of watching for trains when crossing the train tracks. No way a train is going to come when you are crossing right? WRONG!!!!!! Myself and two others had about a two minute wait for this train. Great running along the river but it is DARK and FOGGY and you are going to hear some critters running around. The uphill section for the last two miles wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was still pretty hard for the the last .4 going into the exchange zone. Around 6:40 pace on this one.
Hope this helps.
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joshuarcookson
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Posted 5:43 pm, 09/15/2009
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I agree on leg 6... we assigned legs based on those ratings, and to call that medium really messed us up. I was the weakest runner on our team, and was not prepared for that leg at all. My own fault, of course, but good leg classifications make matching things up a little easier. Leg 6 was by no means a "medium" difficulty.
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cinnapp1
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Posted 4:25 pm, 09/15/2009
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Leg 4: Alot of uphill, very hot time of the day when I ran it. About 12:30 in the afternoon.
Leg 16: Short, but very heavy traffic and dark. I almost twisted my ankle when a truck went by trying to move more off the side of the road.
Leg 28: Beautiful run, I hit this leg at daybreak and it was country roads. I even saw a deer standing in the field. Nice run. Not short but very pretty.
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cjrun
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Posted 2:59 pm, 09/15/2009
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11: very nice 10k, though a little more climbing than I expected from the profile. I walked/ran about 3/4 mile of the climb. I managed 8:16 pace overall, but I think if I ran it smarter could've done 8:00. Rated hard, I found it maybe moderate+.
23: The climb on snow creek seemed comparable to the climb on leg 11. The fog on the gravel portion slowed me down (at one point the road just dissappeared and brought me to a dead stop for 30 seconds). I managed 8:22 pace. Rated moderate, I agree.
35: The climb on Ox Creek is pretty good and brought me to a walk at times. The portion on the parkway is almost all downhill and is very fast. I wore a pair of 6 oz shoes on this run and ran on the grass shoulder on the parkway (the grass really saves the legs). Rated hard, but it was manageable. This was my slowest leg (9:06 pace).
Overall I found all three legs to be maybe moderate+. These three legs are nice because each is shorter than the last, and the total mileage is only 15ish. I really think I got off pretty easy compared to some of the legs my teammates had to run. I dunno, maybe everything just seems harder when you're driving it than when you're actually pounding the pavement.
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Tim
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Posted 1:32 pm, 09/15/2009
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I ran legs 8, 20, and 32.
Leg 8 was pretty close to a straightforward 10K. The only thing hard about it was that it was during the hottest time of the day (4-5pm). A few hills, but nothing terrible.
Leg 20 was at night, so it was much cooler. The first part was fairly flat and easy. The last 2/3 or so got hillier and hillier. There were some pretty serious hills near the end -- those hill repeats furing training really paid off. The downhills weren't easy either bc/ they were fairly steep and the misty night made it hard to see. Still, I felt I ran it the best of the three legs.
Leg 32 was all downhill and was our first "daylight" leg on Saturday. As such, the temperature was perfect. The downhill (4% avg I think) was very tough impact-wise though. I wore my trainers instead of my racing shoes for the extra support and cushioning and still got pretty banged up. The last couple of miles were straight and a gentle downhill, but they just seemed to go on forever. It was by far the toughest of my three legs, even though there wasn't a single uphill section.
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kevo20
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Posted 11:42 am, 09/15/2009
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I ran 3,9,15,21,27&33 and 33 was killer. It was the only leg I had run prior to the race, so I knew what was coming and it still killed me. I managed to run it in 60 minutes, but I was toast after. I am curious if anyone has run both 31 & 33 and how they would compare. The extreme downhill after the extreme uphill has to be a factor.
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malletchicken
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Posted 11:39 am, 09/15/2009
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I also ran legs 10, 22 and 34. A very challenging 18.6 miles. Leg 10 was rough, to be sure. I passed three folks walking it.
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jtbsu05
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Posted 11:07 am, 09/15/2009
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I ran #'s 10, 22 and 34 and can say that I ran harder than I've ever run on #10. That's a tough 8 1/2 miles. If the first part of the climb isn't bad enough you turn onto a gravel road and head straight up with vans stirring up all the dust. Between the heat, the climb and the air quality I was baked when I finished. It was rated "hard" and I thought that was an understatement. Loved every minute of it.
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htapp
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Posted 9:35 pm, 09/14/2009
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I also ran leg 33 starting at ~ 10am saturday in 52.03 10 minute pace. It was the only leg I had to walk, same as you 9ish to start, 12 up the hill and bagged my fastest mile on the way down. I also passed runner No 1 and was able to tell him how admired he was. I thought my quads would be fried from the descent but I went and ran 6 yesterday with little problem. I am counting down already to next year. BRR has been one of the most amazing running experiences ever.
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trailrunner
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Posted 1:14 pm, 09/14/2009
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My 4th year also and I've always thought leg 12 was one of the easiest I've done. I guess that's what makes this such a great race.
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bighorsecreek
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Posted 1:14 pm, 09/14/2009
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I ran leg 31 and when we were in the van driving leg 33, I recall saying that 33 looked much steeper, although not as long. Then that downhill on the second half.....I can't imagine what that did to everyones quads!! Both were sadistic!!
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scotworley
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Posted 09:14 am, 09/14/2009
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The leg classifications have always been debated topic, as well as the leg elevation profiles. Could race management do a better analysis of these? Perhaps. But it's all relative. I like your quote of "It was the hardest, most fantastic race I have done." This was my 4th year running BRR, and Leg 12 was about the hardest leg I have ever done (and I passed 11 people). Once the soreness goes away (hopefully by Thursday) you will focus more and more on the "fantastic" part of the race. Congrats.
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ChrisW
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Posted 10:15 pm, 09/13/2009
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Barry,
I ran legs 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, and leg 6, when I was fresh and ready to roll, killed me. I had figured no matter how bad it was, being first leg would make it easier. It managed to blow my quads and calves in one run, which made 12 and 18 really hard. After running my legs and seeing pretty much all the others, I don't think anyone gets off easy. 33 was nasty.
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