The Mass Dash - A Relay Across Massachusetts to Support the Dave McGillivray Foundation

"Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." -- Mattie Stepanek

It is no secret that I have been eying running across Massachusetts, the long way, for a bit of while now.  Ever since running the Midstate Massive 100 in 2019 (across MA vertically), I have been quietly planning out an attempt from West to East.  

 

This past weekend, 7 of us took on what was coined as the "Mass Dash Relay," running a 146 miles from Great Barrington Town Hall to the Boston Marathon finish line.  This run was made possible by DMSE Sports and fully supported by Ron and Howard Kramer (a father / son duo that have been working the Boston Marathon / Dave's adventures forever) and was a fundraiser for the Dave McGillivray's Finish Strong Foundation. Our adventure started around 10am, Saturday October 22nd, with a 3 hour drive out to western MA.  Our group consisted of 7 runners and a driver crammed into a passenger van.

The team consisted of:

• Becca: our fearless leader, 2X World Marathon Challenge Champion
• Lisa: long time Belmont Track Club runner, marathoner, ultra marathoner, and "expert in these kind of things"
• Cheng: fresh off a 2:49 marathon at Baystate the previous weekend
• Lixin: another Belmont runner and apparently a phenomenal sleeper around noisy rowdy people
  
• Alex, "new to this sort of thing," but supper exited to be tackling more distance then he had ever run in a day
• JP: our out of towner from Colorado Springs, World Marathon Challenge finisher, who runs all his miles in sandals
• Renee: another World Marathon Challenge finisher, ultrarunner, and trans america cyclist who volunteered to be our driver
• Me: obsessive compulsive wise guy, who claimed he was good to run 40-50 miles and then was forced to back it up

Shortly after 1:30, we arrived in Great Barrington and after going over some last minute details and getting some pictures, we started off.  The order was Becca, Lisa, me, Alex, JP, Cheng, Lixin and the plan was just to keep repeating until we finished the 31 legs (3 to 7 miles each).  

I chose to keep Becca company on the first leg as I really needed to do something after sitting in the van for that long. We ran just over 4.5 miles climbing 350' with most of it in the last two miles.  It felt great to get moving.  

Next, Lisa took us into Monterey, mostly uphill, before I got us to Otis.  It was in the 60s with moderate humidity and we all feeling pretty good.  It was one of those times where you knew you should be running slower with still so much to go, but your adrenaline was high and you just wanted to push the pace.  Over the first three legs we ran 15.54 miles in 1:57:28 (7:33 / mile). 

Cheng and Lixin were already getting naps in and hadn't even run yet.  

Alex ran his first leg, 4.1 miles.  As Alex was new to this, we were giving him advice throughout the trip.  After his leg, I told him to make sure he ate something.  About 10 minutes later, I heard Alex say, "I've had three ham and cheese sandwiches, a Gatorade, and a water.  Is that enough?" We just laughed and I added "Better have some pretzels too." 

JP's first leg ended with a monster hill, 6.2 (with > 800' climbing).  As we drove up the final hill in JP's leg we were all happy that we were in the van and not running. 

While we waited for him, an older woman popped out of bushes and interviewed us.  It felt like a seen from a movie.  She is a journalist of the local Blandford paper and found what we were doing fascinating.  

Cheng ran leg 6 (4.1) miles followed by Lixin for leg 7 (5.1).  We were now 40 miles into the run and had reached Westfield State University and were greeted with an amazing sunset.   

Next up was Becca's second leg and I thought I was going to settle into just running my legs for a while and maybe run an extra one in the morning.  When I asked if she was ready, she looked at me and replied, "I'm not running in the dark alone." So I grabbed a vest, my headlamp, and got ready to go.  About a mile into our run, we passed a Dunkin Donuts and saw our team's van in the parking lot.  On the way by I just yelled "I'll take a small ice coffee." The leg was pretty flat and we were able to knock out the 4.8 miles in 35:27 good enough for 7:22 / mile. 

After pounding and ice coffee while Lisa ran, I was up again.  Lisa got us to Agawam and I then got us over the Connecticut river and into Springfield finishing up at the Basketball Hall of Fame.  Maybe it was the caffeine, maybe it was the cooler weather, but I felt like I could absolutely fly.  

As I got back from my run, I found Lisa dosing off in the van.  Becca could nearly contain herself as she quickly snapped a selfie of them.  

Alex was up again next and drew the leg where he got to run through the not as nice parts of Springfield.  He got through it mostly unscathed (minus a wrong turn on a one way street). 

JP's 2nd leg brought us to Wilbraham before Cheng got us to Monson.  Originally, we thought the hill JP had run up earlier was steep.  As we were driving through Cheng's leg we said, wow this is a steep hill.  Then, we saw headlights that looked to be way up in the sky.  I think Cheng described it perfectly in his Strava post, "That damn hill!"

Lixin got us through the end of the 2nd set of legs / mile 70.  It was almost 11pm and we were nearly half way there. 

Sometimes Becca and I joke that we are inviting others to the Becca and Scot show as we have shared so many miles together over the past 6.5 years.  At this point, I think we have run at least a mile in every hour of the day together.  For this leg, we started at 11:11pm and knocked out 4.8 miles at 7:29 pace.  

From here on out, is when my memory starts to get a little blurry.  Somewhere during Lisa's leg, we went by an amazing Halloween setup with decorations that looked like ghosts flying out of windows complete with a smoke machine.  Somehow Lisa missed it.

During my next leg, I asked Ron how many Boston Marathon's he has been at.  He said he ran 15 and then has worked the last 33.  48 straight years.  He called it a different kind of streak. 

During the switch from Cheng's leg to Lixin's, we got questioned by the police on what we were doing and then scolded for our runner that was peeing on a stone wall.  As JP said, "Yeah, he probably shouldn't be doing that."

Shortly after my 8th leg, Alex got us to Hopkinton common and the start of the Boston Marathon.  We were now on familiar ground.  

We stopped for coffee and breakfast sandwiches and took about a 30 minute break to let the sun finish coming up.  26.2 miles and 6 legs to go.  

We were all starting to get pretty tired.  JP, Cheng, and Lixin all knocked out 5 miles each and Dave McGillivray met us on the course.  Becca and I then ran another 3.5 crossing RT 95 and passing Newton Wesley Hospital before Lisa got us through us through most of the Newton hills.  My mind may have been playing tricks on me, but I swear some of our runners turned into a cone, a shoe, and a soccer ball (The benefits of having an elementary school PE teacher as part of your crew). 

It was my job to get us from Centre St in Newton to the finish.  I powered up heart break hill, past BC, through Cleveland circle and then picked up JP at Shaws.  1.5 miles from the finish, the rest of the runners joined in and we ran the final set together.   

 

-- 146.2 miles -- 20 hours, 5 minutes -- 25 towns -- 3 Dunkin Donuts -- $7k raised -- Priceless amount of jokes --

 

All can really say after this is "What an adventure!"  So great getting to spend time with friends new and old.  We even made the local news later that day. 

Special thanks to all those that made this possible.  

- Scot