Race Recap: Great Midwest Relay (GMR)

Posted July 10, 2007 at 03:34 PM by Perry Romanowski

Section: News, Adventure/Relay, Race Recaps, Training, Training Tips

The following race recap was written by endurance “joggler” Perry Romanowski; a unique and talented athlete who successfully juggles while running marathons and other long-distance events at competitive paces.  For more information about Perry, “joggling”, and/or to support his current charity venture, please visit: JustYourAverageJoggler.com.

The Great Midwest Relay (GMR) is a two-day race featuring a 190-mile trek from Madison, WI through Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL.  2007 marked the third annual running of this team event which is the longest distance race of its kind in the Midwest.  Relay teams of 6-12 people run 36-continuous segments along bike paths, wooded trials and streets following red arrows the entire way.  Some of the proceeds from GMR are donated to the Special Olympics and runners of all skill levels are encouraged to participate.

This year, 120 teams started and 115 teams finished.  The winning time was a blazing 19:55, but the average finishing time was just around 27 hours.  It was the first year I participated, so this review is presented from the vantage of a newbie.  Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.  A few minor issues with the event organization were unfortunate but in the end, I’d recommend you try it if you have an inclination for team fitness events.

Quality of the Pre-Relay Race Preparation One of the first exposures you get to most races is their website.  The GMR website is a pretty good one complete with all the critical information you’ll need.  It has a section for registering, event details, rules, maps, driving directions and results from previous years.  There’s even an active message board hosted through Yahoo!  It’s an extremely useful site.

Participating in a relay race is a bit more complicated than a marathon or other solo event.  You can’t simply register, lace up your shoes and show up before the gun goes off.  For the Great Midwest Relay you’ll have to assemble a team, arrange transportation and figure out all of the rules.  You can learn some practical details from other runners at the message board or follow some of these 10 tips for running an ultra-marathon relay.

Race Day Review The race began on Friday morning in Madison, WI.  Each team was assigned a different start time (from 8am through 3pm) based on their expected finish time.  They did it this way so everyone would finish around the same time.  It’s a great idea but only if they give you the right starting time.  Our team predicted we would do a 9 min/mile pace.  Unfortunately, the event organizers started us with the 7 min/mile pace group which made for a lonely race after we were passed by most teams around mile 120.

The packet pick-up at the starting area was well organized.  You were given race shirts, numbers, transition area directions and the relay band.  There was even a table where you could buy things you may have forgotten like light reflectors and vests.  It ran smoothly and would’ve been perfect except for the fact that they didn’t have enough t-shirts for all the teams.  They assured us that there would be shirts at the finish but these never materialized.  It was a bit disappointing.

At the start, all the relay members were together so you could cheer on your first runner.  Then runners 7-12 drove off to the seventh transition area while runner 2-6 went to the second transition area to meet runner 1.  There were 36 race legs which varied in length from a short distance of 1.8 miles to a long one of 9 miles.

The transition areas were manned by volunteers who were really friendly and helpful.  It was these areas that made the event feel like a race.  Here you got to meet runners from the other teams, talk about your experiences and discuss how the race is going.  You also got a sense of how well you were doing compared to the other teams.  In a solo race you can just look around to figure this out.

I was the twelfth runner so didn’t even start my first leg until 9:30 pm.  This was quite a long wait and something you should think about when you are assembling your team.  Other things to think about…

Who will drive Who will navigate When & where to eat When & where to sleep How to pass your non-running time

We didn’t properly prepare for the sleeping part because my team got maybe 3 interrupted hours of sleep at maximum.  If you’re interested, you can click here for a hour-by-hour recap of the Great Midwest Relay.

Great Midwest Relay Finale and Overall Impressions The relay race finished at a great location along the Chicago Lakefront.  While our team wasn’t competitive we did manage to finish in a respectable 88th place.  (We also came in first place in the Joggling division).  Unfortunately, our team was one of the last ones to cross the finish line, so most of the crowds were gone.  In fact, there were very few people there at all.  This was a bit disappointing however, seeing the rest of my team there was great.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the finish was the fact that they ran out of finisher medals.  We spent all day and all night, barely sleeping, not showering and at the end we didn’t get finisher medals.  Since everyone was so nice and the race was well-run overall I won’t complain too much.  But it was disheartening not to get those medals.

Ultimately, I was pleased with the GMR.  Clearly this is a complicated event to organize and a challenging one to participate in.  But there’s an excitement about doing a relay and being on a team that is unmatched in solo events.  The pressure to perform is different and your times just don’t matter in the same way.  Sure, you want to get out there and do your best but when you have teammates around you to help pick you up, it makes things a lot more enjoyable.  I’ll probably do the GMR next year.  And if you’re looking for a challenging race like this, you should consider doing it too.