Texas is a big place. Bigger than most (damn you, Alaska). So why not have a big race run from one major city to another? The Texas Independence Relay is a 203 mile journey from Bastrop (right outside of Austin) to Houston.

It’s setup to have teams of 8 – 12 runners make their way east, completing each of the 40 relay legs. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I just registered myself onto a team!

I was recruited by some running friends to be a part of the team. So far there are 6 officially registered for the team, which means we’ll need at least 2 more to be able to run, and 6 more to fill all the spots. With 8 people on the team, each person would average 5 legs of the relay and about 25 miles. With 12 people, it’d be 4 or 5 legs and about 17 miles.

There will be two vans of 6 runners plus a driver. While one van-ful of runners are tackling the course, the other van will head way up ahead to where the last runner from van 1 will finish. This leapfrogging of vans will continue for the whole race. As night approaches and sleep becomes necessary, the vans will take turns stopping at a nearby public school and sleep in what I imagine is the gym. Other, more hardcore teams sleep in the vans in parking lots.

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p>Depending on everyone’s pace (and this team is not made up of any slouches) we’ll probably look at an 8 minute per mile pace. That’s wholly subjective based on very little information. In that case, the overall run would take just over 27 hours. I’m really excited to be a part of the team and do my part to tackle this small piece of Texas. It spans March 31st – April 1st, so be prepared for updates as the relay gets closer.