I ended up taking on 4 legs of the United Relay for the Blue Team. I started at 8:30 at night and ran until about 3:30 am and ended up with 37 miles. I love the whole relay concept from the money going to different charities, raising awareness for serious issues and just tons of athletes joining together to form one big relay across the country. Some of my Bibrave friends ran a couple weeks before me in Iowa and Illinois. It was so cool to all be a part of something together yet we were all doing our own thing. I also enjoyed watching the journey of the 3 different routes on social media. It was exciting to see the progress.

I, myself, LOVED the chance to run at night especially that kind of mileage as it was excellent ultra training. That said, my situation was not safe. The Blue Team support met me at the beginning of my route and said they would meet me at the finish. I ran in the middle of the night completely alone. I don't blame the support crew. It was only two of them for the entire length of the relay and they had started in Santa Monica, CA about 25 days before they reached me. They also were biking some of the legs themselves as there were not enough runners/bikers signed up. I think in the future, they should either consolidate to one route so that all the support people are together and can share the duties or each route needs to have more people. That way they can take turns be on/off of support duties and when they are on they can fully support the runners/bikers. The red route seemed to have a bit more resources and those runners had more support during their legs which is definitely what is needed for safety.

The other recommendation I make is for them to start promoting this WAY in advance. I think that would really help boost the numbers and get more legs filled.

That said, I do think it was a good first year and a good start. If they can make a few of these changes, I think it could really take off and be a very popular event. I definitely enjoyed being a part of something so big.

you can check out more details of my adventure here: http://runningmarathonmom.blogspot.com/2016/06/united-relay-of-america-my-blue-route.html