Saints at the Beach

Saints at the Beach, a photo by rmaple_leaf on Flickr.

As part of the continued hype of RTB, I've gone through all my photos and posted them on flickr.

For the abbreviated Scavenger Hunt Set, go here. The photos in this set were taken by several team members, so I've indicated who contributed the photo if it was not mine!

Great job Saints and I am sad that it will be so many months before we do this again.

Ah...the let down

So I went for my first run post RTB today and as I am coming out of the trail and into the last mile I spot a girl ahead and she is walk/jogging.  I am almost up to her when it dawns on me that I had subconsciously geared down and dropped the pace to catch her.  Now keep in mind that "gearing down" meant that I was now running sub 8 minute pace.  I also realized that I had already checked her off my mental tally...is this a problem? Do you think there are counselors who have heard of the post-RTB let down?

In all seriousness it was another great year and I want to thank everyone for an awesome time.  After 5 years I started to wonder if I had another one in me and now as Sammy pointed out, as long as at least one of about 17 different conditions are met, I will be back next year.  A special thanks to Liz for somehow always knowing it will be good for me...

Another RTB in the books

unofficial results on the clubhouse wall.

we finished twentieth overall, second in mixed open. shocking, ie new balance boston won mixed open. we averaged seven oh.three per mile, twelve second aheah of our own projections.

no word on what we quote un quote won. prizes will be mailed

odds and ends, hello kitty won. hey bud, second. then some combo of the four haverford teams... nbb averaged six twenty.nine

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Sunrise! Good morning NH.

From LiZ:

I tried to send this post, but it didn't work. Can you try? Van 2 is running again. This is the coldest RTB that we have raced. It's down jacket cold. EBarr is out running the toughest leg for runner 8. We just pulled into transition area 20 and based on the very long bathroom line it seems like we we about to make a big move and pass a ton of teams.

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wee small hrs of the nite

van one is done with their second set and currently looking for parking @ bear brook state park. i.ve separated from van two in an effort to move my car closer to the beach... i am currently parked with a clear line of sight to my next transition. time to try to grab some shut eye. ebarr told me he effed the shit outta his first leg. hope he is doing likewise to the second as i type this...

Van2 @ the Technical College

trying to get a few zzzz.s before our next set kicks off around four am... spreadsheet is upvtovdate with everyone.s first split. we have already cut six seconds per mile off our projected pace, but everyone is a hero on their first leg, esp @ their first rtb... we shall see.

In the vicinity...

so i arrived in west ossipee and am now sitting in my car in the parking lot of samantha.s inn ...where else?..., which is about two hundred yards shy of the enterance to white lake state park, site of transition between legs eleven and twelve. i am about three hours early, which means it is time to find a lite bite, refuel the car and change into my sub.freezing night fighter gear... i am pumped.

Liz's post try 3

Van 2 has arrived at Attitash.  Due to Irene the race route was a little messed up by a bridge washout on 302 between leg 6 and 7. As a result the Race Organizers emailed out top secret Plan B on Wednesday.  Plan B involves legs 1-6 running to completion and using a timing chip on the 6th runner.  Leg 7 starts at Attitash on the other side of the washed out bridge.  Race Orgs gave teams "restate" times. Our restart time is 7:40pm. So now we have to wait here until Aubrey starts.

Driving from the start at Cannon to the restart we drove 93s to Lincoln, over the Kancamagus Hwy to bear Notch Rd.  For those of you keeping up on SLU AllStarz trivia this reminds me of the year we did girl van/boy van. This is the year Migonis wandered off course, we lost the brakes on the van and Hogan was in the hurt-box.

We are 5 in our van now- we are waiting to meet Sammy at the Brass Heart Inn.
Sent from my iPhone

Van 2 getting ready to start

Van two has arrived at T6B. Liz and Erin have spent most of their time trying to post a blog with very little success. We are excited to finally get underway with our race. It looks like we will probably be starting in the dark. Luckily we picked up extra blinkers as we headed out of town.

First run done. All downhill for 4 miles. 6:45 pace with gravity's help. Maia finished her1.95 miler before I could even post this. Van 1 is done... For now.

Here comes AM to finish leg 2!!

Looks like I can't send photos to the blog right now... Anyway, Matt's out there and AM is warming up for leg 2

Matt is on the start line!

Waiting for Orientation

photo credit liz

What RTB Means To Us

for the first time in seven years, i find myself at work on the morning of the second friday after labor day. the rest of the team is already in motion, assembling, meeting or remeeting eachother and heading toward cannon mountain. many of our team members are new to rtb this year, so i thought i would pluck some blog posts from past rtbs, from team members that werent able to make it this year, that really did a great job of summing up what makes this weekend so special each year. i wouldnt say rtb is like christmas, but it does somethimes feel like thanksgiving, what with all the family that youre happy to see, even if they annoy you, and, of course, the sheer excess of overdoing it...

without further adoo

thoughts of lee pollock, slu class of seventy four

thoughts of amy farrell, slu class of ninety nine

dd

...and one smidgen of reality check

a note of frustration.. blogger, for some reason, doesnt recognize this part of the screen as a typable space and wont acknowledge my keypads shift or alt key, thus i cannot capitalize, type numbers, and have only period and comma as punctuation. i also cannot select text to create a link. buzzkill, i know.

...anyway, there is a link to our oh.eight rtb blog over in the right.hand column. i meant to link to lee pollock.s post from sept twenty.one, oh.eight. that blog has a link to the oh.seven blog, where you can find ruby.s mom.s post from sept seventeenth, oh.seven. i was gonna wrap up with a link to the comments on my own post, titled .one hundred and ten percent,. from the oh.seven blog. i will fix these links the next time i am at a computer that doesnt have the blogger site blocked. for now, it.ll just be choose your own, er, follow my, adventure.y.

Meet the RTB Team!

8 of us went to St. Lawrence, Where do we live? 3 -NY, 1 -AK, 1 -NH, 4 -MA, we are a mixed open team with 8 men and 5 women, 2 of us are brothers . . .

This is our race order! The biggest change to this order is that I will not be running leg 12... Liz

Matthew Millard
Amanda Watters
Geoff Millard
Dave Beaulieu
Tom Wilder
Maia Schierberl
Aubrey Smith
Eric Barr
Dan Bahrenburg
Erin Mallory
Liz Hollenbach
Sammy Wilcox

Ready for RTB 2011. Meeting Waters in Boston tomorrow at 10:15. For now, relaxing at my brother's apt, just outside of Beantown.

photo review, a photo by rmaple_leaf on Flickr.

Here is a link to AM's photos of the race!

Ooops

Vermont is not a state for blogging, or cell phones.

Overall results
1. Hello Kitty AC
2. Saints Six Pack
3. SLU + A Few
...
7. St Lawrence Alumni Masta-Killaz
...
12. Don't Dorry About It

More pics, video to follow in coming weeks. A lot of folks have pics on fb.

The End Has A Start

Here it is, ladies & gents. Right now on the main stage. The Ice House. Tomorrow's finish line, tonight. Now, we just pile into the car, drive 100 miles north; and run back. But, for tonight, we have been to the mountaintop y'all. And our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord...

2011 100 on 100 Relay Coming Up

Next weekend is the 100 on 100 Heart of Vermont Relay. There are 4 (update: 3.5) St. Lawrence Alumni All-Starz teams in the mix, the Masta Killaz, Don't Worry About It (update: combined with another team), SLU Six Pack, SLU Track Starz. Stay tuned next Saturday (August 13) for updates.

Still Standing...

Ungh! What? 12:27 a.m. We ran into members of New Balance White (W) and whichever New Balance tam had the letter A. They are all employees/store owners and found out four weeks ago that they were the winners of a drawing to get an all-expenses paid trip to run RTB. ("Winners") We also learned that the CEO of NB was on the team with A, luckily in van1, because I totally jacked van2 during nap time for our final letter of the scavenger hunt... He would have loved it, I am sure. The CEO was not at the bar, weak. All the NB folks disappeared just before this picture was taken. (No member of their mixed open team was present at any time.)

Back to BTV

It was a painful 3 hour drive back to Burlington from Hampton beach, but the vans were safely returned at 8:16 pm.

We traveled just over 1000 miles in our rented vans in 48 hours.

Average per mile time was 6:25 for 209 miles. great work everyone!

Happy Ending

As if we weren't sleepy enough, Pollock and Sammy convince us to stop in at SLU-favorite Red Bones for a feast of meat. And of course no post-RTB outing is complete without finisher medals! Let the festivities begin...

Beach Is Reached

Finished. 12th overall, 2nd...shocking... in mixed open.

Waiting at the beach

French to Farrell hand-off. Leg 31 to 32.

Van 1 = Done

Van 1 is on it's last leg, literally. One more runner, then we meet van 2 at the beach.

it's a hold up!

Sammy & French just spent 15 minutes planning a hold up for letters from two new balance vans that we just happened end up behind! They used bananas as pistols and their best broken spanish to get us a c and an l! The girl Jon went after was not amused but the 2 guys Sammy attacked were totally entertained! Hold on we got another one! This one will involve more screaming: "GIVE HIM THE LETTERS!"

The sun is coming up...

Gobbling up chum

French caught forty-seven (47) people in nine miles and change. Oh, and he averaged 5:42s... He is a one-man wrecking crew. Farrell is now out and about to wrap up leg 21, circa six a.m.

sandwich ain't no picnic

not when sammy's hell bent on killing us with the van again. Had aagreat stay and meal at the olafsen homestead and now where off to vta 3! He's pushing the limits of this 12 passengar beauty as we tear through sanndwich nh. Smithy's quote was I'm terrified in a van in the middle of new hampshire! I may blow my left rear tire on the next leg :(

A couple of those hills had me thinking, "I want my mommy."

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"NH is not even in my top 50 states" -Folsom

Starting Set #2

Getting ready to roll out of VTA2 at the Brett School in Tamworth as e.Barr hits the road rolling.

BRRRrrrrrrr

Forty-eight degrees, and I tell my van, 'Please, gimme sumptin' with some sleeves, or you'll get none of these.' At ease, as we roll toward Hamton, in the cool night breeze...

But seriously, the National Weather Service says its going down to 39 tonight. Damn, Gina!

PS- new @rtb this year, phenom 3G cell service, tout la monde.

just me, the moonlight, a coyote, & an ultragay

Smithy is ready to unleash the cheatah. Roarrrrr

Finished Leg 8

Frenchie just finished leg 8, @ 8:57pm. We are exactly 10 minutes ahead of pace. (French ran sub 5:30 for 6+)

The SLU Alumni Allstarz are killing it! Up about 6 minutes on our projected time for this point in the race.

Uhn! What?

...meanwhile, back inside...

Smithy puts the MEAL back in pre-race meal with this 2lb sub at the deli in the midst of Leg2. Her first leg has a projected start time of 9:50 pm (5hrs from now). Let's see if this is a beginner's mistake...

Folsom Attacking Leg 2

Git Out Now Norris!

Team Cheer

"We learned this in college!" - Amy Lawton Redman

Spirit squad awaiting team orientation

Sun is shining on the Saints!

Just passing Woodwork and the sun has finally come out! Sammy is cruising and barring any more bathroom breaks we'll be at the start by 1:00. We haven't seen many vans, must be that we're too intimidating.

I've made arrangements with the team should Holly go into labor while we're racing. Our arrengements are... We'll finish the race then go see Holly and Grace.

45 minutes into the drive...

amy lawton barr redman had to pee. After a little harassment sammy obliged and pulled into a nice gas station with 2 sweet porta johns and a stream of gunshots. Live free & die new ampshire. French already moved to the front of the van away from the beautiful ladies :)

from the backseat...

they're trying to crush our spirit with heat. Sammy quickly told abarr that she had to tae it down a notch so wen we entered the van with pep discussing the benefits of the diva cup he cranked the heat. It's so hot that lagos just said it was singeing his ankles. He's also driving like a complete maniac and it makes me want danica, I mean tora, to take the wheel. Theres a lot of oh god! Oh god! Oh god! I love it, love it all

Arrival in Exeter

i would be lying, and you would know, if i told you i was shocked that no one from boston was at here when i arrived... so me folsom and amy are sitting her, enjoying the sweet aroma of a wet lou, amys dog.

i have driven the length of the western side of nh, and through the green mountains, and the entire region is wrapped in a layer of fog and on and off shit mist. it is supposed to burn off, so the later start time may play into our favor. the temperature is most pleasurable.

and in the course of this, amy, smithy, ryan, tora and lagos have arrived. french called around nine thirty to say the were departing logan, so everything is coming together...

Boston crew heading out!

On our way to pick up our token non-SLUser, Lagos, and then sailing past southbound traffic on our way north out of the city. Can't wait to get to the start and rock this year!

- Tora and Ryan

Up & @ 'em! Van1 headed to the rondezvous.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Welcome to Burlington. Beautiful RTB weather awaits you!

Testing out mobile blogging

Are you ready for RTB?

Coach Howard- watch out for some calls during the race!


The SLU Banner had a rough winter in the barn at the pink house.


After a pre 100 on 100 sewing repair session the banner is back in action.

#6

Reach the Beach 2010- Race Date- September 17-18, 2010

Start times are posted; we go off at 3:30pm with 4 other teams (2 in the Mixed Open division).

Eric Barr, Steve Folsom, Jon French, Pete Lagos, Ryan Pollock, Sammy Wilcox

Amy Farrell, Tora Olafsen, Amy Redman, Amanda Watters, Sarah "Smithy" Zentack, Liz Hollenbach

Our oldest runner is 33, youngest runner is 26.

The farthest one of our runners is traveling for this race - Texas.

Estimated per mile times range from 5:30 minutes to 7:30 minutes.

Home States- 1 Vermont, 3 New York, 5 Massachusetts, 1 New Hampshire, 1 Washington DC, 1 Texas

11 SLU Grads and 1 Colby Grad (thanks for the correction Maswick)

Results: 2010 ???, 2009- 7th , 2008- 6th , 2007- 3rd , 2006- 3rd , 2005- 9th