Notes
After waiting around for a few hours to race, I had a bit of pent up energy. I took the ankle chip from the biker and took off quite hard (it is mandatory, of course, to run faster than you should when many others are watching...). Even compared to my last relay (Ragnar), this was pretty ridiculous in terms of my speed relative to others around me. My team had to start with the non-elites so I was basically passing walkers and 1st timers. At first this was exhilarating but soon was a distraction. Probably started out sub-5 pace and mile was about 5:05.
Right before the mile was a 180 turn that zapped my momentum and took me a few minutes to feel good again. 2nd mile probably 5:15. By this point I was tired of passing people, feet were overheating, and I just wanted to be done. The only motivation was trying to look fast for the spectators and personal pride as I figured we were way ahead of other relays (correctly assumed, we got 1st and even beat the "elite" relays). Finished with ~5:25 mile feeling about as overheated as I have in a race in a long time oddly.
Afterwards my lower back was killing me, not sure if I didn't warm-up correctly but my form must have been off a bit. Though my hamstrings were fine which was what I was concerned about previously.
Not too happy overall with my performance but it was the fastest relay run and 2nd fastest among the actual triathletes (not including pros). Not particularly fun either as I just waited around for a long time and then time trialed with people in the way. I doubt I'll do it again unless we can get all 3 of us back for the elite relay next year.