VINE SWINGERS MENS CLUB: New Blance, Reach The Beach Relay a 200 mile Race!

Expedition Date: May 21st-22nd

Crew: Ryan DeVesty, Jim, Andrew, Justin, Peter, and Hector

Distance: 200 miles

Summits:0

Elevation Gain and loss: unknown but extremely hilly

Average Temperature: 50-70 degrees
Completion Time: 25 hours
Place: 8th Overall out of 160 Teams, 3rd Overall out of Ultra Teams

Let the story begin. So I received an email that was forwarded to me from my girlfriend Elizabeth's best friend Kira on Sunday May 15th asking for my contact information. Kinda weird, but ok. Elizabeth soon filled me in that a man named Hector, that I briefly met at a NJ Winter Trail Series race, was wondering if I would be interested in joining his Ultra Team for a 200 mile relay race. Soon after I was filled in, my phone rang and who was on the other line - Hector. After receiving all his information I told him I was very interested, but I would have to talk to my loved ones and get back to him. 2 hours later I had spoken to my family and Elizabeth when I had decided to commit and take part in this epic challenge. I had to immediately prepare for this race considering we were leaving Thursday morning for Massachusetts and it was Sunday late afternoon.

I had been training through the winter for my summer tri season, but when an IT Band injury in February hit me, I took a few months off. It was in May when I had slowly started to get back into my running and biking routines feeling about 75% healthy at best. Now, in just 5 days, I will be running my longest mileage to date. What was I thinking? I just locked myself into a 200 mile relay blowout of a race, with my 6 legs totaling up to 34 miles. This soon started to make me very nervous considering I had never run a half or whole marathon. The rest of my team had planned and trained for almost a year and were very prepared. You can see our team vans below on the wet gray Massachusetts morning when we started the race.

Team Photo at Wachusett Mountain before our 2:30pm start time. The 160 teams started in 10 team increments, 30 minutes apart. Our team went off in the second to last wave of teams who were all ranked the fasted. You can see Hector below started us off.

My 3rd leg started and night began to fall. All dusk through dawn legs have mandatory headlamps, 2 blinkers and a reflective vest. Let me give you a brief breakdown on how this race works. As you race your leg your teammates have to drive the van while reading directions and navigating to the next transition zone. We had 3 team members in each van and continued to leap frog each other as everyone ran their legs.

15 hours into this epic race we found our selves in a state park where teams were tryin to get any rest they could. I don't think I slept throughout the whole race. I felt sick most of the time just knowing I had to run again. It started to become literally torture around my 4th leg. I needed to eat for fuel but didn't have an appetite in the slightest. I hardly ate at all during the 25 hour race span.

Night turns into day and there's only 2 legs left for each of our team members. I kept having to talk to myself to push through and just get it done. My muscles were fully torn apart by now. I had taken 4 ibuprofen and coated my legs twice with icy hot right before my last leg. I can honestly say I didn't know what pain was till this race. Its amazing what you can put your body through if you focus and stay motivated.

In the end we all pushed ourselves to the limit and came together for an 8th overall win and 3rd overall out of ultra teams. Finishing in 25 hours with a 7:30 pace throughout the whole 200 miles. We also were the 25th team to cross the finish line which means we passed some 140 teams from start to finish. Wachusett Mountain to Westport Beach, what an amazing experience! These guys are the real deal and I'm honored I got to be apart of it.