Cap to Coast Recap

I know it took me a while to find the time to write this post, but here it is: My Cap to Coast Recap. The Cap to Coast relay was my first race of this kind and I went into it without any specific expectations. But I was excited for the opportunity after hearing everyone in my running group talk about it for months after last years race!

Our team had two vans with 6 runners each. I was in van 1 and our assigned start time was 4:30am. This meant that my alarm went off at 2am, after only 3 1/2 hours of sleep. We were supposed to meet up at 2:30, so I started getting nervous when no-one was there yet at 2:35. But everything went smoothly and we made it to the start around 3:30, in time for check-in.

Obligatory pre-race picture.

Before we knew it Andrea, our first runner, was off. We got into the van to cheer her on at different spots throughout her run. Thanks to the race day adrenaline, I felt nowhere nearly as tired as I thought I would after only 3 1/2 hours of sleep.

Next up was Kelly. Her leg was probably one of the most difficult legs of the race, thanks to the early morning traffic. The street she was running on for a large part of her leg was starting to get really busy, there was not much of a shoulder, and it was still dark. The street seemed not very safe to run on under those conditions, but luckily everyone was fine.

During her run, the rest of us made a quick stop at Taco Cabana for breakfast tacos. Not until after they opened the door for us, we realized that we were there 10 minutes before their usual 6am opening time. I myself chose not to eat anything since my run was coming up soon and I didn't want to take any chances. I'll never pass up a chance to use the restroom, though. ;-)

Waiting at the first exchange point.

After Jenny ran leg 3, I was up. My first leg started at sunrise. It was so beautiful! The road I started on was very busy, but luckily we turned left after less than a mile, onto a much smaller side street. In fact, I started to get nervous that I had taken a wrong turn, I didn't see anyone (no runners, no vans, no cars) at all for a while! I started way faster than I had planned to. When my watch beeped at the end of mile 1 after only 7:11, I knew I had to slow down. I still kept pushing myself though, passing 6 runners during this leg, and finishing my 5.4 miles with an average pace of 7:21.

It was a great run, but I was glad when it was over. Considering that my current 10k PR was run at a 7:30 pace, I should probably have taken it a little slower... As soon as I passed on the baton to Carlos and stopped running, sweat started pouring down my face and into my eyes. All I wanted at that moment was something to wipe my face with, but our van was nowhere to be seen! Only Kelly was waiting for me, explaining that they had had to do an emergency bathroom stop, but should be back any minute. Luckily, I was able to get a baby wipe from another van that was waiting at the exchange, so at least my eyes felt better. But as soon as that was taken care of, I started sneezing uncontrollably. It must have been my allergies, or the dust from the dirt on the road! Either way, I was happy when my van finally returned.

At the end of my first leg.

Only two runners in my van were lef: Carlos and Janna. Both of them did an awesome job, especially since the weather was warming up quickly now that the sun was out!

Carlos handing over to Janna.

After leg 6, it was time to hand over to van #2. They had taken advantage of their later start time to sleep a little longer and have breakfast together, so they were still full of energy.

Team meeting at the first major exchange point (Delaney was running).

After handing over to the second van, it was time to decorate our van. Other than being attacked by fire ants, we had a lot of fun doing so!

Showing off our team pride. Of course we're "The most interesting team in the world"!

Andrea posing in front of the finished piece of art.

After decorating our van, we headed to Lockhart for lunch. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant (I forgot the name) that was already decorated for Halloween. I was not expecting to find many vegan options in a relatively small town in Texas, so I was happy with my guacamole salad. I was definitely still hungry after that, though, so after we returned to the car I helped myself to some leftover birthday cake I had brought with me from Austin.

After lunch, we were all really tired. Most of us were already half asleep when we were driving down a very bumpy dirt road to exchange #13. I think we slept for maybe one hour, then hung out there for a little longer, until we started wondering where everyone else was. This was supposed to be a major exchange point, and we had yet to see a single other runner! That was when we realized that exchange 13 meant we were at the end of leg 13, not at the beginning! Good thing we noticed it almost two hours before our runner #12 (Chris) was supposed to finish his leg...

On the drive back to exchange #12, we drove past a runner getting a massage and eating a snack on the side of the road. We figured that that had to be one of the solo runners! So of course we stopped to say hi. One of the guys that was with his team came up to our van with his notepad to ask us questions. I am not sure if he was some kind of journalist or blogger, or maybe he was just writing some kind of diary?

We got to exchange #12 with plenty of time. It was nice to just hang out at the exchange and watch people from other teams. We sat on the side of the road, in the shadow of the trees, having snacks and chatting. The temperature was surprisingly nice, at least when you were not running and in the shade. The runners however, were struggling in the heat. Chris looked very tired and dehydrated when he finished his run. Andrea took over, and she was having a hard time as well. She kept pouring water over her head to cool down, but was able to keep up a strong pace.

Meeting up with the other van at exchange #12.

Chris handing over to Andrea.

After Andrea, it was Kelly's turn again. Her leg was was another tough one, thanks to the combination of the afternoon heat and the rocky road. Towards the end I decided to jump in to keep her company, and together, we pushed through to the end.

Strangers practicing rodeo and throwing lassos.

By the time it was my turn again, it was luckily starting to cool down, as the sun was about to set. Just as Jenny was about to hand the baton over to me, we crossed paths again with Roel. He looked tired and asked if no one was about to start from that exchange point. I told him I was, and wished him a good run, but then took off at a faster pace. I felt somewhat bad for leaving him behind, but I was feeling competitive and wanted to see what I could do.

During my second leg, I again passed 5 runners. However, I had underestimated how tired I was, so even though this leg was even shorter than my first one (only 4.4 miles), I was unable to keep up the pace until the end. I don't know if it was the dust from the dirt road I had started on (I had turned onto a highway almost immediately after the start), or if I was just exhausted, but I felt more out of breath than usual. My legs felt extremely tired, too. In addition to that, at one point I was almost hit by a car. I was wearing reflective gear and a headlight, and was running against traffic on a broad shoulder. Oncoming cars were not an issue at all, they all gave me plenty of room. However, at one point as I was crossing a crosswalk (after the sun had completely set), a car wanted to turn right on red and started to give gas just as I was in front of his car. I was startled and made a sudden jump to the side, and that's when he luckily saw me. I guess for next time, I'll try to bring those glowing bracelets in addition to the reflective vest, for better visibility from the side... After that experience, I somewhat lost focus and slowed down even more. My overall pace for the leg was 7:35, which is not bad, but considering that I had started out at 7:20 pace and slowed down to about 8 min/mile my pacing could have been better.

Impressive solo runner Roel.

Start of my second leg at sunset.

After my run, I was completely exhausted, my calves and hamstrings felt like they were about to cramp up, and I was worried about my knees, because they hurt every time I got into our out of the van. In addition to that I was starving. Those crackers with almond butter were the best thing I have ever eaten!

Carlos was the last runner from our van again. He ran strong, but at one point he reported that he had stepped on a (semi?) dead armadillo. Gross!

At the exchange point after his leg, we stopped at a gas station that was about to close. Due to the relay, they had remained open for an extra 15 min, which we took advantage of to stock up on snacks and use the restroom. I had realized by then that I had brought too many sweet foods with me, but not enough salty snacks. At that point, I was really craving potato chips!

From there we headed to the school we would stay at over night. The school was near exchange 23, which was closer to where we would start running again in the morning than where we were at at that point. During our drive, we kept getting updates from the race organizers, that one bridge we were supposed to run on had somehow mysteriously vanished. They had been unable to find a safe alternative route to run on, so now we were supposed to skip legs 26 and 27. The details of the logistics of that were not clear to us until the morning after, but skipping those legs turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Carlos seemed to have injured his hip during his second leg, so it would not have been smart for him to run another leg. Now Jenny, whose leg was skipped, was able to take his leg, allowing him to rest. Kelly's leg was also skipped. I think she was a little bit bummed that she would not be able to complete all three legs, but her toenail was probably grateful for that...

When we arrived at the school around 11pm, they were not quite ready for us yet. We were told that the mats would be there soon, so we headed to the locker rooms of the school gym to take a shower. When we were ready to go to sleep, we were told it would be another 30 minutes until the mats would be there. At that point it was only 3.5 hours until we had to get up again, so waiting another half hour did not seem appealing. Finally, they told us to sleep on the library floor, which at least had a (very hard and thin) carpet. Considering the circumstances, I slept surprisingly well. I fell asleep pretty quickly, and didn't wake up until two minutes before my alarm went off at 2:45am. I guess I was tired enough!

Again, Andrea was the first runner in our team to run. During her run and in the 90 minute break after her run that we were forced to take due to the skipped legs, we stopped at two different "breakfast places": McDonalds and Whataburger. They don't really have anything I would want to eat there, but I was able to get a coffee and an orange juice, which I had together with some of my fruit and oatmeal squeeze packets before my run.

It was still dark when I started my run a little before 7am. As it started to get a little bit less dark, I started noticing movement in the grass next to me. I was slightly nervous about it at first, not knowing what it was. After a while I figured out that those were toads! Not nearly as scary as other animals I was able to think of! Around 15 minutes into my run, the sun started to come up, which meant that I was treated to another beautiful sunrise run on my birthday morning! I really lucked out with my legs this year! I decided that marathon pace sounded good. After all, I ran 26.2 miles at that pace two weeks earlier, I should be able to run 7.3 at that pace on tired legs, right? In the beginning of my run, my legs felt really heavy, and my shins, quads, and knees were hurting. However, after 3-4 miles it got better, and I was even able to pick up the pace a little bit!

Ready to run my third leg!

From the beginning, we were slightly worried about Janna's route. The people who did it last year had had a bad experience with some free running, aggressive dogs, so we decided to stay just a few meters behind her at all times. And indeed, when we came to the same house with the problematic dog, the dog came running towards her. We were trying to get our van in between Janna and the dog to keep her save. All the while, the owner of the dog was standing at his porch calmly watching the scene, not even trying to call his dog back. What was he thinking?!

Meeting up with van 2 after our van was done.

After everyone in our van had finished our legs, we calculated that we were right on schedule if we assumed the two runners on the deleted legs would have run their predicted pace. That means on average we hit our predicted paces almost perfectly! I thought that was kind of cool. 

Since our van was done running, Carlos, who didn't run a third leg and instead took a nap, offered to drive for the second van. I think they were grateful for that. Unlike our van, they didn't have a driver, so the runners had to take turns driving the van... 

We wanted to stay relatively close to the 2nd van, just in case they needed our support. However, we were also both hungry and tired, so we decided we needed a breakfast stop first. We headed over to the closest Starbucks to grab coffee and oatmeal. That felt so good! The morning before, van 2 had their time at breakfast when we were already running, and rubbed it in by pointing it out to us. Now it was our turn :-)

After breakfast, we met up with the other van and picked up two of their runners after their cool down, so their van would be able to support the runner who was currently running. Then we went ahead and drove to the finish, where we would finally meet up with everyone to join our last runner, Chris, to run through the finish together. 

It was an exciting moment to be done after so many hours of the race. I would have liked to jump into the water, but as soon as I was taking off my shoes, someone pointed out the fishbones that were lying around everywhere. And as soon as I had made a few steps, two of them were sticking to my feet... Later I noticed a lot of dead fish lying around everywhere on the beach. I am not an expert, but I feel like that is probably a sign that something is off with the water/the ecosystem there. I have been to other beaches and never experienced something like that.

We also met up with the other team from our running group, who had finished 2 hours before us. I think they were competing with us, but we were just out there to have fun! ;-) 

Good motto!

After arriving at our hotel, we got assigned to our rooms. Most rooms had four to five people. I was sharing a room with Sarah, Chris, Kay, and Steven. Considering that the room only had two beds, a couch, and a foldable bed they added for us, it should have felt very crowded. But compared to the van and the library floor, where we had spent the previous night, it was pure luxury.

Our post race festivities involved barbecuing (veggie burgers for the three vegans), and of course beer. They also surprised me with a tiny birthday tart and sung happy birthday for me. So sweet! We ate, took a walk on the beach, then hung out at the beach front of our hotel, enjoying the view and the company. We also ran into Roel again, and could not pass up the opportunity to congratulate him, ask him a couple of questions, and take a picture with him.

We were all super tired, so we headed to bed around 9 pm. I did not expect to sleep well, since I don't like hotel beds in general, and was sharing the bed with Sarah, so I had less room than I usually like to have. But again, the exhaustion won and I fell asleep as soon as I laid down. I first woke up at 6 am, because I had forgotten to turn off my alarm, then fell asleep again until 7:15.

Having fun at the after party!

Pretending to blow out the birthday candle.

Happy birthday to me!

Our third time running into Roel!

Both teams reunited.

After breakfast, I decided to go have a look at the USS Lexington together with the runners from van 2. Van one had decided that they preferred to head out earlier, so that they would get back to Austin at a more reasonable time. I could write another blog post just about our visit at the Lexington, but I will just leave it at saying that it was very interesting and we could have spent a lot more time there than we did, there was so much to see! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

In front of the USS Lexington. 

Those chains are heavy!

Volunteer Bill, telling us about the history of the ship and the different airplane types.

On the Lexington.

Before heading off back to Austin, we grabbed lunch at a Thai restaurant. We chose the restaurant because it was close and one of the few vegan friendly restaurants that the Happy Cow app suggested. The food was very good and the presentation was impressive. My curry was served in a young coconut, and with a big slice of pineapple for decoration.

As we were hitting the road, van 1 texted us that they were stuck in traffic due to an accident on I35. We decided to circumvent the traffic jam by taking the back roads. However, while Google maps is very useful in more urban areas, it led us astray in the countryside. We were driving down a dirt road, but when we were supposed to turn, both directions had locked gates. We had no choice but to turn around.

We decided to check out another possible route, even though signs on the side of the road were warning us pretty early on that the bridge was out. We just wanted to see it with our own eyes. Indeed, when we got there, the road was first blocked by a road block, then they had heaped up a pile of dirt to make it impossible to pass. We walked from there to where the bridge had been. The actual bridge cover was now lying several meters downriver. It looked like it had probably been washed out earlier in the year when there was flooding around Memorial day. There was even a car lying in the river bed!

In the end we ended up returning our van late. However, so did the other van that had left Corpus Christi earlier, and did not have a day that was nearly as fun and adventurous. So we have no regrets!

We were supposed to turn right here.

We found the missing bridge!

In summary, it was an exhausting but fun filled weekend. Would I do it again? Definitely!