Relay Iowa is an annual relay run in which teams of up to twelve people run across Iowa over a weekend, this year from June 6 – 8. The path for the run spans 339 miles from Sioux City, Iowa, to Dubuque, Iowa, making it the longest relay run in the United States.
Esti Brady, Alice Conroy and Charlie Duffy are three University of Iowa students ready to accept the challenge of this intrastate relay run.
Their team, which has been labeled Legs Misérables, is smaller than most, with only five runners. The other two runners are Ignatius Brady, Esti’s father, and Chad Weyant.
At just 23 and 21 years old, respectively, the three students have already accomplished a lot athletically. They like to go on casual half-marathon runs, enter random races for fun and find running slower mile times is actually harder than running at their usual pace.
“I went on a 15-mile run with Charlie a couple of weeks ago, and it killed me,” Conroy said. “By mile 13, I was nonverbal. I was not speaking anymore. I was so mad, but it was slower than I was used to. It’s a whole different kind of running than I’m used to.”
The three runners usually run much faster, with Brady claiming that running slower than a 9:30-minute mile physically hurts their body. Duffy bragged about running 40 miles on the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center track at a 7:35-minute pace.
Because of their previous feats, Relay Iowa was underwhelming for Brady, who has run the relay in the past. They claimed that there was a disproportionate amount of sleeping and mileage.
“My dad and I came up with the idea, what if we just cut the number of people on a team and amped up the miles like a ton, like double or triple, so that people could sleep more and run more,” Brady said.
Now, instead of running 25-30 miles, each team member would be running around 70 miles over the course of the weekend.
To the typical person, this mileage may sound daunting, but to these runners, long distances are preferred.
“It’s definitely the most meditative part of my life, for sure. That’s when I’m at the most peace, when I’m running on a long run,” Brady said.
Despite the general runner’s high, all three runners like to have some fun when they enter races, especially when running so many miles that can almost become mindless.
“I want to run one mile at like sub-five pace. and everything else normal … I’ll try and throw myself something funny, because I can’t realistically do 70 miles and not lose my mind,” Duffy said.
The team joked about different challenges they could set for themselves, including running miles backwards, blindfolded and in the dark, or drinking a beer every five miles.
Even though they all love running, the sport can have its setbacks. This particular group of runners is worried about an unusual issue as they prepare for their 339-mile trek: their digestion.
“I mean, we gotta talk about it because on that 15-mile run, my stomach…” Conroy said.
After this confession, both Brady and Duffy shared similar close encounters they faced while running, as well as disorientation that occurred after running such long distances.
However, the adventure and thrill of the run overpowers all of the possible bad for these three runners.