I’m excited to announce that I finally have signed up for my first big challenge of 2012. I will be running Reach The Beach on May 18th with a team of bloggers, headed by Tina of Carrots ‘n’ Cake.
What is Reach The Beach?
Reach The Beach is a 200 mile relay race that you compete in with 11 other team members. Over a 24 hour period, runners take turns running different legs of the race ranging from 2.8 to 8.3 miles each. There are 36 legs and on average, each member will run about 15 miles. While one person is running, the others are in a van (I think) following along. You start between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Friday and run throughout the night until your last team member reaches the beach! I will begin my training in early February and plan to follow a half marathon program. I will not be running at 11 pm and 5 am the following morning to train. I plan to rely on good old-fashioned adrenaline. I will be sharing my training here like I did with the Urbanathlon.
Who is on my blogger team?
Tina of www.carrotsncake.com
Theodora of www.losingweightinthecity.com
Monica of www.runeatrepeat.com
Ashley of www.healthierhappierbear.com
Anne of www.fannetasticfood.com
Jess of www.fitchickinthecity.com
Elizabeth www.ontapfortoday.com
Bridget of http://yogurtberries.blogspot.com/
Gretchen of http://honeyishrunkthegretchen.com/
Melissa of http://fitnessnyc.wordpress.com/
What is our team name?
While officially we have not named our team, we are looking for suggestions so if you have one, please leave it in a comment or tweet it to me! Obviously, we are not opposed to making fun ourselves with our team name. There have been a few hilarious suggestions. One of my favorites is “Fueled by Expensive Nut Butter.” I think it’s a little too wordy for an official team name, but props to the witty author of this anonymous suggestion.
Any races before hand?
I was originally going to sign up and run a half marathon this winter or Spring but I have been dealing with what might be my first sports related injury. Instead of push it, I’ve been trying to lay of my running hoping that it heals without having an officially diagnosed injury.
What do I think is the culprit? My lack of a proper warm up. I’ve been busy and rushing my workouts. I have not been using a foam roller with all the travel I have been doing recently. Dedicated runners know how important it is to foam roll before and after a workout to prevent injuries. This Winter/Spring, I’m traveling to South America for 10 days and Mexico for 7. I’m not complaining but going that long without any proper myofascial release, it going to set my body up injury.
About a year ago, I was introduced to this really cool portable device that acts like a foam roller but is smaller and hits the smaller spots much better. It’s called The Body Wrench and will be perfect to bring in the van during Reach for The Beach in between my race legs. It has a cult following among Spartan Race enthusiasts and traveling triathletes.
They asked me also to shoot a video since I was so excited about how well it got out the knots in my back. It was fun. If you are addicted to foam rolling but are looking for something that hits deeper, tighter, more specific areas that will travel with you to races, see what you think. Since I know these guys, I asked for a 20% discount for my readers if you are interested. Just use the promo code “SarahFit” (not case-sensitive) and go here. If you don’t like it, you can return it within 30 days and get your money back.
