Every year in September, about 100 teams of 8 members each gather at Jones Beach and set on the course North finishing at the T. Roosevelt Park. More general info about the relay is in my previous post. Since each team consists of 8 members, it’s really difficult to get the team together. Our masters team wasn’t an exception. Two members from the previous year couldn’t participate, so we had to scramble to replace them. And we were lucky. We were short of those 2 runners one week before the event.

We could have ended right there at the start like one other team whose member simply didn’t show up. Fortunately, we arrived in full count. I distributed the bibs, t-shirts, and party passes. We took the Lynbrook Runner’s Stop team photo, confirmed the legs, and transportation of each member.
At 8:00, the runner of leg 1 left the starting gate formed by 3 ladders. All of us remaining legs wished good luck to each other and we dispersed throughout the course of the relay. The weather at the start was OK, but humid. Both, the temperature and the humidity were increasing reaching the peak at about noon or shortly after. It took its toll on all of us. We finished the relay in 6 hours 23 minutes. It was slower than last year, but with different members.
I ran leg 6 which is short (5.4 miles), but very hilly. You can see the elevation with 2 impressive hills in the picture. I ran this leg already in 2009 and I was faster then. I try to run every year a different leg, so I get to run them all at some point, but I had to take in consideration the strength of my team members.