Live blogging Ragnar Cape Cod…

En route to the start in a huge rental van. I hear the other blog is up too – check it out. It won’t be as interesting as this one though.

Transitioned to the Honda small van. Much easier to handle. Race seems bigger than last year – up from 150 teams to over 300. Should be fun as we start picking some slower teams off!

And…. We’re off!

To breakfast to plan Van 2′s strategy

At exchange where Van 2 (Seal Team 6) starts (Checkpoint Alpha) – in two hours. Here are the runner breakdowns:
Runner 7: Patrick
Runner 8: Rob
Runner 9: Jim
Runner 10: Kate
Runner 11: Sean
Runner 12: Joe the Bull
Here are the routes

Checkpoint Bravo – Patrick is on the road, Rob is prepping. Van 2 on the move.

Major exchange. Patrick ran low 8s, Rob in the 6s(!), I was in at a 7:20 avg, Kate at 8:14 avg, Sean ran great but I don’t know his time and we forgot to accurately time Joe. Starting to get dark at the beach – when Joe comes in, we’re back to the house for some meatballs, a shower and maybe a nap before the late night shift – 1:30 or so ’til 6ish. Woo hoo! Van 2 has rocked thus far!

Everything good until van died at exchange 19 at 3 a.m.. Had to do some crazy hitching with some kind folks from Norwalk, car switching, waking Kevin with about 2 minutes of “sleep”. Overall time loss estimated at THREE MINUTES! Go Heavy Weather! (Joe promised to make it up on his 3.7 miler he’s about to do)

I’m done! 19.75 miles for me after picking up a leg for an injured Kate. Joe’s off for the final leg. The Bull is back!

Joe brings up the rear in P-town. Made it in before noon (11:45 or so) which means we finished in about 22:45, beating last years mark of a hair more than 24 hrs. Average pace of around 7:22/mile! Real stats to follow…

UPDATE – the final stats are in. Heavy Weather finished 19th out of 343 teams that ran with a time of 22:41:29. Nice! Our final pace averaged around 7:43/mile. By using Runkeeper, I can compare my last year to this year – 2011: 21.15 miles, 7:50 pace; 2012: 19.64 miles, 7:39 pace. Can’t wait for next year! Huge debt of gratitude goes to sub-team Cassidy for organizing, photographing, cooking, providing home base support, and just an overall kick-ass attitude that makes this event something to look forward to every year.