Nantucket Rock Run Report (Read 1215 times)

Ok, it was a week ago, but I have to write a report about this race since it is one of the coolest races that I have done so far! The race is a 50 mile run on the beach around Nantucket Island. You can compete as a soloist (yikes!) or on a 5 person team. I was supposed to run on a team with my mother in law and 3 of her friends, but one dropped out 2 weeks before the race and rather than just finding another person, the rest of my team decided to quit too. Since I was already planning on going to Nantucket for the weekend (my first trip there.. what an amazing place!), I really wanted to run so I emailed the race director who hooked me up with 2 other females and we started building an all-female team. We emailed back and forth and figured we'd pick up the rest of our members at the pre-race meeting on Friday night. But at the meeting there were not any other ladies looking for a team. Luckily we found two guys who had just met on the plane and decided to run so they joined our team and we called ourselves "Fast Friends" since none of us had ever met before that weekend. On Saturday morning we met at 7:30 and our Leg 1 runner was taken in a boat to the start at 8:00. She was running a 12.5 mile leg out along the sandbar part of the island to just around the point. The rest of us piled into a jeep and drove out to the beach where we had to let the air pressure out of the tires before proceeding along to the soft sand. We drove about 2 miles out on the beach and met up with all of the other teams waiting for the Leg 2 start. We saw a couple of soloists go by (they started at 6:00) and offered them water. Everyone was talking strategy about wearing shoes, wearing just socks, or going barefoot. One guys had made himself a protective layer of duct tape since it was a little rocky but this wouldn't get weighed down like shoes by the water. Our Leg 1 runner came in and off I started for Leg 2. Leg 2 was 12 miles along an empty beach. This leg was properly titled "No-Man's Land". I was surprised to find as I started running down by the water that even though the sand looked wet and hard-packed that it was actually quite soft. I had opted to wear shoes but I was sinking into the sand a lot. It was also low-tide and the slope of the beach along the waterline was really steep. It was nothing like the flat and hard beaches that I had trained on! After a couple miles my team passed back in the jeep on their way to the next checkpoint. I tried running higher up on the beach in the flat but soft sand to relieve some of the tightness in my calves. I could find an OK spot to run for a few minutes and then the beach would change and it would become hard to run again. I took several walk breaks just to give my calves a break as I tried to find the sweet spot between the waterline where it was soft and steep and up higher where it was very soft but flat. I got passed by someone wearing just socks and since I could feel the slope of the beach giving me a huge blisters I decided to stop and take off my shoes and try running in my socks. I could tell immediately that this was a bad idea for me since instead of your whole foot sinking evenly, my heel really sank into the sand- putting even more pressure on my suffering calves. I took several walk breaks to try to give my burning calves a break. I knew that I was running towards the lighthouse and that my checkpoint was just a little bit past that. I saw the lighthouse getting closer (very slowly...that blinking light was taunting me). For the first 2/3 of my race I tried to avoid getting my shoes wet and waterlogged, but after and hour and a half I gave up and started running in ankle-deep water. The sand was hardest and flattest here, and while an occasional large wave made it difficult to run for a few moments, the cool water was very refreshing. About 20 minutes before the lighthouse I ran out of water to drink and was starting to suffer without it when I came upon a very nice guy sitting alone on the beach handing out waters to the runners. We was my hero . He told me I only had 2 miles left to go so I thanked him and picked up the pace. I rounded the lighthouse and saw... more empty beach. It turns out the checkpoint wouldn't come for another 2 miles, in Siaconset. Luckily just when I thought I would never reach the checkpoint I saw one of my teammates jogging out to me to tell me that I only had a half mile left. He ran in with me and I sprinted out the end and tapped our next members hand for her to start. (yeah, it was a very casual race- no timing, no waters, no course markers) Here's what the beach looked like: Leg 3 was 7 miles, from Siaconset to Surfside, also on very steep soft sand. Leg 4 was 8 miles, from Surfside to Madeket, mostly on very steep soft sand, except for the last half mile when you hit the bay water and the beach gets flat and hard. This leg also ran by a nude beach, but our male team member was disappointed that only guys were on the beach. Leg 5 was 10 miles, back to town. The first 2 were on the road, the last 8 on the beach. This leg sounded like the most adventure on the course, with wading through chest-deep tidal pools and climbing over jetties. Our team member who did this loved it. He said it was so much fun. Afterwards we stayed at the final point cheering on the finishers. The winning soloist finished in an amazing 8 hours and 40 minutes! There were 21 teams, and we came in 13th, in 8:43. 8 soloists started but only 5 finished (the next soloist to cross took over 10 hours). They had a big party with lots of free beer (each team got a mini-keg to take home and share). I have to say that during this race I was suffering- it wasn't so much as a cardiovascular "race" as an endurance challenge since it really beat up your lower body. My right calf was stiff for days and my hips and lower back felt all out of whack from the slope of the beach. I think that the things that really made this run as great as it was were the beautiful setting, the chance to see some hidden parts of Nantucket, the solitude and peacefulness, and the team environment. Even though I had just met my team the night before, I had such an amazing time spending the whole day with them and driving all over the island in the jeep. They were an amazing group of people and I would definitely consider doing this run again! Next time I know that even though I train on an Atlantic facing beach, I need to run in the soft sand much more and run at high tide to get more training on a sloped beach instead of always waiting for low tide. Check out the website if you’re interested: therockrun.com I definitely recommend this race if you're up for a different type of challenge.

Great job, Shaunna! Nice report and sounds like a lot of fun. There's definitely a big difference in 12 road miles and 12 sand miles! I am reminded of a certain limerick, which I won't mention here.

WTG, Shaunna ! That was great! Hope you are fully recovered, now. That beach is gorgeous! Thanks for posting the report. Hey, is there any chance you could reduce the picture size a little bit? I had to do a lot of back and forth scrolling to read your report - of course it could just be my malfunctioning monitor so if that's the case just ignore this part. In any case - I loved the picture

Hey, is there any chance you could reduce the picture size a little bit? I had to do a lot of back and forth scrolling to read your report - of course it could just be my malfunctioning monitor so if that's the case just ignore this part. In any case - I loved the picture

Thanks Cheryl- I had that same problem but thought it was just me. I put the thumbnail of the picture instead.

Wow, what an event! I've never been to Nantucket and have always thought it would be a nice place to visit...don't think I want to run on sand, though--that's some hard work! You guys did a fantastic job under the circumstances! k

No Shaunna - now it's too small!! could you just resize it to say 500 x something ? - It's such a peaceful photo - I want to come back and look at it again

Alrighty Cheryl- I finally uploladed my own pictures so they are the right size (I hope, let me know if it's still too big). The new one is of me running towards the checkpoint. I'm on the right and my teammate who came out to run the last bit with me is on the left. Most of the day was hazy sunshine, but the last hour of my leg it looked like the skies were going to open up and pour. Too bad it didn't, it would have felt good and my shoes were already completely waterlogged anyways. Oh, and here's a picture of "Duct Tape Man" too- he put a layer of guaze underneath for cushioning and to reduce some of the pain of pulling all of that off of his feet!

12 SAND miles?? Wow, that's impressive! Great job !

Thanks Sara. It's a really small race and they don't advertise at all, but it's usually the first weekend in August. They usually get one or two more teams to join every year just by word of mouth. It is weird that even when you are out on the beach running the people at the beach have no idea a race is going on. I'm hoping to do it again next year if I can, so if you decide to do it and want to join a team let me know!