Frostbite Marathon Relay Race Recap

2011 Frostbite Marathon Relay

8 Flakes
+
1 Van
+
26.2 Miles(ish)
=
Quite the Winter Adventure!!!

Team Frosted Flakes

Pre-Race: Bright and early this morning Spike, Jessie, Tim, Kevin, Jennie, R-rizzle, S-shizzle and I all met in a parking lot (It was literally our first time meeting Kevin, Jennie, Riz & Shiz!!!) put on our homemade tu-tu's, sprinkle hats, and headed over to the Curragh Pub to run the Frostbite Marathon Relay. This is a fun-run relay put on every year in Holland, MI, famous for it's Dutch heritage, that's an out and back from the historic downtown area into the country and back. We were easily the most festive team there, certainly the only ones that dressed up! The race started at 8am with a rather unceremonious group start and away we went...
The Race: The team line-up went: Jess to Start (3± M), Tim (3± M), Kevin (3± M), Jennie (4± M), Riz (3± M), Shiz (3± M), me (3± M) and Spike to bring it in to the Finish (3± M). Our "baton" was a Tony the Tiger borrowed from my beloved B.o.B. (Thanks Boo!) cuz we are GGGGGRRREAT and lucked out with an absolutely GORGEOUS day! 26* clear and sunny skies! Most of us intended to use today's race as a recovery run from our respective Saturday long runs but you know how it goes when you get in a race atmosphere... we all ran our brains out instead! Everyone except Spike and I were relay virgins and it was even Shiz's first race EVER! Because the distance is much shorter than that of Ragnar, I felt like each leg went so freaking fast! Because we were all couples everyone did their own variation on the kiss-off at exchanges and Kev & Riz even ran with their significant others all gentlemanly like. :)

Jess kissing off to Tim

The boys opted for the action hand off...

Kevin gave Jennie a big dip before sending her on her way!

Jennie was happy to hand off to Riz after her leg was way longer than expected!
What a champ!

Riz sends Shiz off on her first race!

Ready to rock my Leg!

My own leg, Leg 7, started off on a country road and ran towards town. I forgot to start Hermes when Shiz handed off to me but realized it within a 1/10th of a mile and got him going. I didn't see a soul the first mile but as I rounded on to South Shore I saw a guy in the distance and decided that no matter what he was getting chicked! Within the second mile mission was accomplished and shortly thereafter I crested a hill and saw tu-tu's in the distance! (7:23, 7:08, 7:08 - 2.9 M - Recovery Run = Notsomuch.)

Gee can you tell I'm having a blast?!?!

Dutch kiss off in spirit of being in Holland!

After I sent Spike on his way the rest of us Flakes headed downtown, parked and entrusted another team with our camera to document us running into the Finish as a team. You know what they say about team's that Finish together... they have the most fun!!!

Team Frosted Flakes for a 3:30 Finish!
(Surely the closest I'll ever get to such a Marathon Finish time! Great job team!!!!)

Post Race: All of our hard work was paid off with some award winning white chicken chili, treats, and for those who indulged, some local brew. The swag was a super cozy sweatshirt that actually fit and we also received coupons for our next visit to Curragh's.

Mmmm... chili & brownie's!!!

The Swag

Post Race Thoughts: This relay was a TON of fun and my teammates rocked! Extra special shout out to Kevin for scoping out this race and getting us all together! As for the race itself, the course and directions were clear and easy, they had a few aid stations set up with water and gatorade for the runners. You could run this relay as a 2, 5 or 8 person team and they capped it at 450 runners total. My only complaint at all about the race was that the Finish was rather confusing; as we waited on Spike a few runner's came in and didn't realize that Curragh's was the Finish. I would have liked to have at least had a "Finish" banner or maybe some balloon's at the intersection to indicate the Finish and for some team photo ops. But besides that, it was an absolute blast and I can't wait for next year!!!