There are benefits in belonging to a running club – for one, we ‘belong’. The world as we know it will probably not exist without organizations formal or informal that bring together like minded people to indulge in their passions.

I have belonged to Community Running Association of Boston for several years now. Community Running has been a laid back club that has promoted non-competitive running for long distance runners. The coaches have provided the much needed guidance that a lot of running groups lack.

This year, the board members and coaches decided to enter teams of 8 for the Fred Brown Winnipesaukee Relay, a 65 mile, 10 hour relay around beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. The course runs through a number of small towns doting the lakeshore and provides wonderful views of the lake and the White Mountains. Lots of hills were included at no extra charge.

With plenty of encouragement from the coaches, four teams entered the race – men, women and two mixed fun teams, setting up an interesting battle of the sexes.

Once the rooms were booked at cottages in Laconia right by the lakeside and very close to the start, the team captains started the task of coordination – ride shares, room shares, food assignments, car assignments etc.

According to plan, most people arrived on Friday night and figured out their rooming situations, sizing up their roommates and carefully studied their leg assignments, pick ups and drop off plans at the exchange points.

Race day dawned bright and sunny with perfect weather for the early runners and it promised to get hotter as the day progressed. The starters, Kelli, Christian, Jim and Tony were dropped off at the start line with plenty of time to spare. As the rest of us drove to the start of the second leg, we got a good idea of the rolling terrain. We knew Jim and Kelli were going to run hard to gain an early lead.

Kelli was the first woman to pass the baton at the exchange point and Megan the second ‘Energizer Bunny’ took off running hard. We were expecting Jim to come in any time and were a little surprised that he had not come in either before or with Kelli. After some more delay, we knew something was definitely wrong. Mike came racing in a little later, passing the baton to Coach Brian, who intended to get as many kills as possible during the 11 mile long second leg. And he sure did get his kills – 44 of them!

Mike explained to us that Jim had injured his calf and was limping, but managed to get word to his teammates. The men’s team, which was already handicapped because they only had seven runners instead of the full complement of eight, now were even more burdened.

Another surprise was that Tony had run much faster than his teammates had expected and there was no one to take the baton from him! After a few minutes wait, Tony decided to keep running.

Soon enough Christian came in averaging 8:45 minutes per mile and passed the baton to me. I ran the second leg taking in the beautiful scenery and got many peeks of the lake. At various points, I was pacing with runners from the Witch City Runners Club from Salem and from the Shamrock Running Club from Woburn. I was very happy to be able to match Christian’s pace and passed the baton to Bill, the fastest runner on our team.

Bill surely had drawn the short straw, because leg three was the toughest with a ridiculously steep hill at the very beginning. As we drove to the next exchange point, we saw plenty of runners walking up the hill, but it seemed Bill had gone fast and gotten ahead at a remarkable pace.

We had now settled into the pattern, driving, navigating, calling out ‘nice ass’ as we passed each of our runners, estimating finishing times and communicating with the team captains. And how did relay races work before there were cell phones???

Sabrina took over from Bill and passed the baton to Cecilia, who was stuck with the fifth leg. Being the middle leg, Cecilia had to ride around all day long, and was pretty tired, not to mention undernourished for a long hilly mid-day 10 miles. Jake and Diane followed Cecilia.

Before we knew it, it was 4 p.m. and everyone congregated at the finish line to watch our teammates finish. Cornelia brought in the women’s team to finish second; Alex finished for the men’s team, having run two legs and was debating which one was harder; Hillary finished for the Hell Raisers and the team newbie Gennet brought it in for the Bees.

Congratulations all around, expressions of thanks to the coaches and board members, followed by replenishing carbs and a great barbecue on the beach at night, swapping stories and making plans for the next big relay event.

Riding around all day long with four sweaty, perpetually hungry people living off Gatorade and bagels is one sure way of establishing great friendships!

Which will be our next big relay event? Will it be the Cabot Trail in Novascotia or the Sawtooth in Idaho?