Blue Ridge Relay Overall Team Victory ...

... with an ultra team to less. That's right my friends, team KTC - Shaving Time, showed the running world, that 6 are stronger than 12. Our main goal was to win the Ultra Category and attain the Ultra team course record. But once we got going, we noticed that it wasn't out of the question to take down the overall course record as well, which was set last year, by the 12-runner team, Norm's Maggots, who have won the Blue Ridge Relay the past 3 years.

The Blue Ridge Relay consists of running 208 miles along the Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding mountainous country roads. Most of the trendy relays that have sprouted up over the past decade were formed to attract 12-person teams. But this event includes an ultra category and that was right up my alley, so to speak. This is the second year that I have been on the Shaving Time team. The first year, one of our runners went off course and we were penalized an hour for the mistake. Either way, we weren't going to make the same mistake again this year.

We came into this year with a strong team. Five out of the six runners, had run on this team before, so they knew what they were getting into. The sixth runner was my brother, who has run a 50-miler before as well as a 12-person relay, so he kind of knew what he was getting into. From the get go, we took the lead and no team came even close to catching us. As a team we were averaging sub 6:00 per mile pace through the first 120 miles or so. The key was to replenish and prepare to be ready to run again within three hours or so. Each runner on the team ran six different times, and on pre-determined distances. I ran 34 miles, while some ran a few more miles and some ran a few less. After it was all said and done, we finished in 21 hours, 25 minutes, which ended up being about 6:10 per mile pace, which was fast considering the last 50 miles go up and down some tough mountains. That time beat the former course record by 18 minutes, so we couldn't really let up as we approached the finish.

There is so much more I could talk about, like how we all grew mustaches for the event, my love for Monster energy drinks before running my legs of the relay, to counting the amount of "kills" you claimed as you pass other teams, but I could write all night if I started down that road, so I must digress. My legs are still sore, but I'm already craving defending the title next year!