Participants say the annual relay is about pushing personal goals, teamwork and encouraging others before Saturday\u2019s race. \n<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Runners across the Coastal Bend are preparing for this weekend\u2019s Beach to Bay Relay Marathon as teams and first-time participants get ready to hit the course in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
For some runners, the race is about more than competition. It is also about personal growth and setting an example for family members.<\/p>\n
Celeste Ruiz said this year will be her first half relay race as part of the \u201cBlessed Believers\u201d team. \u201cI\u2019m very excited. This is my first half,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cI\u2019m kind of nervous but more excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz said she decided to participate to challenge herself and inspire her children. \u201cI\u2019m doing this for myself and to show my kids that they can do hard things,\u201d she said. \u201cMy son is a runner, he\u2019s 6, so he\u2019s excited for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her goal for race day is simple. \u201cMy goal is just to finish,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cOnce you get out there, everyone\u2019s hyping you up and the energy is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other teams are also preparing for the relay, including the \u201cBlackbeards Rum Runners.\u201d Team captain Ariel Alaniz said members have spent weeks getting ready for the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all excited. We\u2019re all ready to go,\u201d Alaniz said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working hard for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaniz said the biggest goal for the team is making sure runners stay healthy and enjoy the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely hope everybody\u2019s injury free, everybody has fun and everybody tries their best,\u201d Alaniz said. \u201cMost of all, everybody shows up for themselves, and that\u2019s what counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The annual Beach to Bay Relay Marathon draws thousands of runners and spectators to the Coastal Bend each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Participants say the annual relay is about pushing personal goals, teamwork and encouraging others before Saturday\u2019s race. CORPUS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-294812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}