Announcement
THE OVERNIGHTER - HOW THE RELAY WORKS
The relay starts promptly at 7:00 pm, with one or more ‘teams’ of Mustang XC runners participating. The relay ends promptly at 7:00 am (students are NOT dismissed from the event until complete is complete -- usually after 7:30). Set up begins at 6pm. All MV XC athletes need to be at the stadium by 6:30. Plan on being picked up AFTER 7:30 am due to the event clean up.
Each team member runs one mile at a time. You carry a baton to pass. You sign up for your mile time at practice - Seniors sign up first, then Juniors, etc. Yes, Freshman run in the late time slots, typically between 3am and 5am. Yea for traditions!
At the conclusion of your mile (actually 1600 meters), the coaches or event volunteers will record your split as you hand the baton to the next team member.
Depending on how many team members participate, you may only run one mile. If you do run again, it will be hours later. In between your miles, you can eat, sleep, play frisbee or football, dance, sing, play cards, and generally just hang out. (see Coaches official rules). You also can help time, and help make sure that the next few runners are ready and in position.
Someone needs to be running with the baton at all times. If everyone goes to sleep at 4am, the relay will be broken and we will all go home. It's up to YOU to keep it going.
You generally run your mile as hard as you can, understanding that you have a long time to rest between each one.
Do Your Best - it does not matter what specific mile time you get - only that you have participated, and tried your best. Over the course of the evening, there will be some outrageously fast miles run… and some amazingly not fast miles. The faster the team averages, the more miles you complete - towards our team goals. Give an honest effort.
For many years, the goal was to break 100 miles. To do so, the team needs to average 7:12 per mile. To break 110 miles, that average pace needs to drop to 6:33 per mile. To break the all time record of 115.8 miles, the team will need to AVERAGE 6:13 per mile. wow. As a point of reference, the 2009 team that ran that 115.8 mark, had a slowest recorded mile of 8:17 (several other 8+ miles) and a fastest boys mile of 4:49. The fastest girls mile on the night was a 5:37.
