The #5 rendition from my teammates’ recap of the GAP Relay is from Brett Mason. Brett is a true renaissance man; painter, musician, runner. From having one of his paintings in the Tom Hanks movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, to playing guitar and singing in NYC’s East Village, to placing 10th at the oldest ultra marathon in the US, the prestigious JFK 50 miler in 2019.
The GAP trail relay: From getting lost before the race began, to the GU, guts and glory of breaking a Velcro banner. If at halfway, the scene around your team van doesn’t look like the classic cliche scenario of a zombie apocalypse: guys dragging their legs, faces distorted, lots of groaning and moaning…, you’re probably doing it wrong. I mean, Scott literally ran his ass off (30% glute tear, in medical terminology). What more could you really ask of your teammates? My own personal experience went like this: Leg one, 6.4, fairly flat. Leg two 9.3, steady uphill Leg three 6.9 steady downhill.
The basic and full disclosure on my fitness: Relative to my own prior experience, I was in pretty good shape. Compared to 2019 when I’d done the relay, my mileage was slightly lower, but in the ball park. I’d done very little speed work, so I was a little curious about how the paces would feel. I knew I wanted to hit just under a six minute pace when possible. All in all, my turnover felt decent. My mileage leading up to the relay had averaged between 60-70 a week, with a couple weeks at 80 and one at 93, depending on how the week was divided. All mileage came in singles, no doubles. I’ve been taking days off here, usually one every 7-10 days just to let things come together. With all this being said, I ran a little more than 22 miles at a 6:06 average. With my daily runs covering between 8-12 miles, the individual runs felt pretty good. There was never really any big leg fatigue, and I felt the the effort was a just a notch above steady state. One surprising factor in this years relay, compared to the last, was how rested I felt. I never really felt too sleepy. There was never a “damn, I gotta get out of the van and run” factor. It’s surprising how the body just kicks in and does what it does, when the “gun goes off”. The first steps from the van just prior to running the successive legs are always a bit labor intensive. As per usual, I tried to keep moving whenever possible- A little after each run and a little before. The body does better in a steady moving state, no surprise. You see what happens to a car when you park it in a field and don’t drive it. In terms of the bigger picture, and what it took to get us from point A to B, I saw a handful of guys, both runners and drivers, come together and make impromptu and unplanned decisions, to get the job done. A relay of this nature involves so much more than running. If it were up to me to navigate, we’d still be in the UPMC parking lot, listening to me talk about my new Hokas. Because we are/we’re a team of masters runners, ages ranging from 43-60, our roster is that of local/regional running veterans. Our names are as deep in the Runner’s High and Smiley Miles archives as the bullshit stories we tell, or worse yet, the remnants we left behind for the poor souls following our lead into the portable toilets. Our team possesses a diverse skill set. Details such as securing team sponsorship, van rental, and team singlet design, are just a few of what it takes to make the event work. Having a van centerpiece, a big red cooler, containing a varietal cornucopia of lagers, ales, porters and stouts, also helps give incentive to just get it done. I find that 35 varieties of running snacks: waffles, GU, gummies, are universally balanced by being paired with 35 varieties of beer. We got it all covered.
2021, from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, via a slight detour at Costco- DiMarco Workhorse 3, victorious again.
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