Reach The Beach 2015 Part 1: Day 1 With #NBGirlsRunBeta

In September 2015, I had the pleasure and the honor to run my first Reach The Beach Relay.

What is Reach The Beach you ask?

The New Balance Reach The Beach (RTB) Relay began in 1999 by two multi-sport athletes with a goal of creating a 200-mile overnight team relay event that would run from the White Mountains, to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and conclude at a beach front party in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

How it works

Reach The Beach consists of 12-person standard teams and 6-person ultra teams that will rotate through 36 transition areas as they cover the approximate 200-mile course. Each relay team member will run 3 legs (6 legs for ultras) of varying lengths and difficulty, and will cover an average total distance of about16.6 miles (about 33 miles for ultras). Runners rotate in a set order once the race begins and will be obligated to follow this rotation until the final runner reaches the beach.

I was psyched. What made the experience even sweeter?

I was going to be part of New Balance's all-female influencer team, #NBGirlsRunBeta!

What a group of hotties???

You may recognize some of the amazing bloggers in this photo: Karla from Run, Karla, Run, Evann from Evann Clingman, Ashley from A Healthy Happier Bear, Sashea from Sassy Fit Girl, Rachel from Healthy Chicks and Jessica from Little Miss Runshine.

Let me back it on up. We met at the Lenox in Boston on the Thursday, September 17th (the day after my 33rd birthday). On Thursday we had the honor of touring the brand new New Balance Headquarters in Allston, Mass and the factory in Lawrence, Mass. I will have a whole post about that sweet experience soon. For now here is a sneak peek...

Once we completed our tours, we headed to our hotel for the night in North Conway: Mt. Washington Resort.

I snuck in a quick run before we met up for dinner. Gotta keep that #runstreak live.

It felt great to stretch the legs after spending some time in the van on the way up. After an awesome team dinner, where we got our bibs and our instructions for the weekend, we headed back to the hotel to turn in early. I opted to grab a night cap and work on some foam rolling... while watching Full House. Of course!