A couple of weeks ago Dale (a guy who works for my former employer) asked if I'd like to join a team for a relay race in town. I didn't have any other racing planned so I said sure. Dale, who's just coming back from a stress fracture assured me that it'd be "just for fun." Not that that would make any difference.
Most of the 23 teams that competed in this 5 person relay were made up of "hard core" runners that represented the top teams in the area. Each member ran 1 lap on the dirt/gravel trail around Pike Island, which is part of historic Fort Snelling. Our team of 3 men and 2 women was one of two teams in the co-ed division, which guaranteed us a trophy.
Robert lead off with a 20:31, Dale followed with a 20:52, Robert's wife Ellen went third in 24:53, Sandy was next in 24:41 and I ran 19:52 (6:20, 6:26, 6:32, :34) as the anchor. Times are basically meaningless unless they're used to compare to other runners. When I do that I see that I'm basically where I "should be" compared to a few people I raced earlier this summer. We ended up placing 18th overall and 2nd in the co-ed division.
I should mention that this was a solo time trial for me. The only runners I saw on the course where the ones that were cooling down. There weren't any other teams with +/- 3 minutes of us. Still it was a unique, fun event - something different than just racing on the roads all the time.
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