Last weekend, 12 Pinkerton students tackled a very demanding race.
Team captain Lauren Shuffleton, Allie Lane, Sara Hensiek, Rachel Stilling, Matt Stilling, Kevin Kopetz, Chris Blanchette, Andrew Sears, Jonathan Sears, Andrew LeFrancois, Paul LeFrancois, Doug Ainscow all ran three legs of the Green Mountain Relay in Vermont, which took them slightly more than 24 hours to complete.
They expected to finish near the middle of the 48-team pack, but instead finished second, almost 45 minutes ahead of the next-closest team.
Ainscow, who ran a total of 181/2 miles, took the time to talk about how difficult the run was, the race's level of competition, and his summer plans in this week's First and 10:
What is the Green Mountain Relay?
It's a 200-mile relay race in Vermont that goes through the Green Mountains. There were 12 people on our team and 36 legs of the race, and that means if you divide it up for everyone, you all run three legs of varying distances and difficulties. Basically it took us 24:02:00 so we ran straight through the night and we didn't have much time for sleep. It was a fun time.
How did you find out about it?
A friend of mine, Lauren Shuffleton, saw it online and she thought it was a really neat idea and wanted to get a team together. She asked if I wanted to do it and I was totally up for it.
Did it sound crazy to you at first?
I think it sounded pretty crazy to everyone. I had definitely never run for 24 hours straight like that, but it was a very good experience.
Where in Vermont is it?
It starts way up in Jeffersonville, Vt., and pretty much follows all of Route 100 down to Bennington. It's a long way.
How tough is it for an individual?
Well, my distances were eight miles, six miles, and four and a half miles, and it didn't seem like too much of a challenge. But then you get out there and it's in the mountains so it's very hilly and it's much more difficult than I thought it would be. But overall, everyone came together and did very well. I think we were all very excited for it, so we got through that anxiety because we were all very amped, I guess you could say, and that kind of pulled us through, you know?
What is the level of competition like?
It was a mixture of everyone. We were one of two high school teams, but there were 48 teams overall. There were a lot of teams of people that were all 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds but then there were a bunch of people just doing it kind of for fun. Most teams had 12 people, but some teams only had six people and they obviously run much more. I think one team was a two-person team, and that was crazy. Three legs is good for me, I would never think about doing six right now.
Did you expect to do so well over the course of the whole race?
Not at all. We were expecting maybe 20th or 30th place. We were actually on one of the night legs at 3 in the morning. We went into a checkpoint to change runners and they said we were the first team to show up. They told us the next closest team was like 45 minutes behind us.
Would you want to do it again?
Absolutely. We're already talking about it. We were very close to the course record this year so we all want to go for it next year.
Will you be running any other races this summer?
Yeah probably. There are some 5K road races and a couple of five-mile road races that I want to run in. I think I'm done with these big ones for a while.
What else will you do to keep yourself busy over the summer?
Not a lot. Apart from staying in shape for cross country, I don't have much planned. I'm not going on any trips or anything.
