Last weekend was the annual Beach To Bay Relay Marathon.

This is the largest relay marathon race of its kind and had 1,543 six-person teams entered. Multiply that by six and you have 9,258 runners converging in Corpus Christi for a weekend of fun and exercise. There were 1,446 teams that finished the race, so that total was down a little; but it still left a huge crowd of runners.

There were several teams from San Marcos that participated in this event.

The “Smirkers” (runners from the San Marcos Runners Club, where the name came from) finished first in the Odds and Ends division out of 608 other teams. Members included Brian Suiter, Elizabeth Wills, Mark Brendalen, Tim Bayliss, Randall Wood and Doug Framke.

David Alexander gathered a team together called Fiesta on Foot with Laura Mason, Elma Minor, Michael Wills and two local Corpus Christi runners in Tony Martinez and Manuel Marquez. As is often the case, a team for one reason or another finds that a team member decides not to run, misses a bus and doesn’t show or whatever. Fortunately, there are usually runners around looking for a spare team or to help a troubled team out. David said the only problem he had was after finishing his leg, the team member he was supposed to hand off to was absent. After a few minutes, the shuttle bus carrying Tony showed up and the team was able to continue.

I was not able to get team member names, but San Marcos also had “The Sea Six” team in the Mixed Division who finished 10th in a time of 3:13:49. The “Girly Men Team” of men ran a 3:18:51, and a group of women runners signed up as the “Buenoritas” and finished in 4:08.

The winning overall team was the Zapata Runners with a fast time of 2:17:28, and the last-place team came across in 5:58:59 for just under six hours. I may have missed some teams, but trying to scan 1,446 entries was a little hard in a short time. There were some good teams from Kyle, Wimberley, and Buda as well as Seguin and New Braunfels from the central Texas area.

The one thing that stood out as I was scanning the entries is the number of teams from Lockhart. Tim Bayliss, cross country coach at Lockhart and a member of the Smirkers team, must have encouraged his team and others to enter this race. Talk about building for the future track teams; Tim is certainly doing a good job.

The Lockhart Roadrunners took first in their division of Mixed Juniors in a time of 2:30:20 and ninth overall in teams. The Lockhart Roadrunners II finished 24th overall in a time of 2:41:46. The Lockhart Junior High Roadrunners took first in their division of Mixed Middle School with a time of 3:13:49 and the Lockhart Lady Runners took second in the Female Junior Division with a time of 3:16:40. The Lockhart Junior High Lady Roadrunners gathered a fourth-place finish in the Female Middle School event with a time of 4:04:04. The Lockhart Lady Roadrunners were in the Women’s Division and ran a 3:37 time.

There was one team of Odds and Ends from Lockhart named “First Times plus One” that came across in 4:34:47.

The fact that Tim had his teams running and participating was amazing. He had five different teams from the high school and junior high school with six runners each out having a great time and doing very well. The coordination of organizing five, and maybe six, teams and the pickup and drop-off points must have been something to behold. I am sure he had a lot of parents helping out.

All in all, it was a good thing to see so many students running and setting up a healthy lifestyle so early in their careers. And a weekend in Corpus Christi after the race could not have been all that bad as a reward for their efforts.