...HOW COOL////////

except

for the Part

about Not Going to Heaven

since I haven't been on a RelayTeam with Opie.....

Don't buying him NACHOS count?????

those of us who

have seen him eat

would think so.

....very nice Racing guys, and Wonderful RR

 As a veteran of too many relays, this was the bestest group I can imagine.  No ego's, no badgering...

 Um, what are you precisely trying to say?

Hmmm?

Hmmmmmm?

C'mon, Kelly.  Out with it.  I can take it.

--Mustang Sally, alumna Cascade Lakes Relav Van #2, 2010, which also contained Wine "Waaaa!  I want my donuts!" Junkie.

This looks like it was a blast...except maybe for Winejunky's last leg.  Ouch! 

Here's my belated Relay report:

Lessons from a Relay Newbie

When Mike contacted me about possibly joining Team Trout Slap in a relay, I was super excited.  The timing was perfect.  It was a few weeks after the last race in our spring racing series, and I thought it would be a great cap-off to my return to running after knee surgery last summer.  My training had been going well, although there had been some ups and downs.  After resuming training in earnest in January, I had built up to a solid 40-45 mile/week running schedule from February on. Getting strep throat the week before the first two 5K races in our series didn’t help, but I was able to come back and race a reasonable 10K on Memorial Day.  I felt I was prepared to handle the relay.  And I had always wanted to run a relay! (Me: Running a relay has been on my bucket list for years! Kelly: I hope you aren’t expecting to die out there).  Well, what an adventure we had!  I learned a few things too.

1)   Choose your van mates carefully

I couldn’t have asked for a better van to lose my virginity in... Oh wait, that didn’t come out quite right.  But it’s true that we had the no-drama, super-supportive van. 

Debbie and I fussed for days before hand as newbies about what to bring, etc., but she was a great supporter and greeted me at every finish with a huge smile and warm hug (even if I was all stinky and sweaty). 

Karl was a trooper for volunteering to be the second driver (and getting me off the hook).  He ended up driving without complaint during Kelly’s leg, which was right before his, even if it meant he wasn’t able to visit the “honey buckets” before his last leg.  He also folded himself into the back seat with me when all six of us where together.

Bill was just as I expected: incredibly thoughtful towards everyone and so even-tempered.  I was shocked when I heard he was so grumpy that he initially thought he wouldn’t want to run another relay.  If  that’s Bill’s “grumpy,” I’ll be in his van any time!

What made the experience so fantastic, however, was our pilot and co-pilot, Kelly and Betty Lou. I loved watching them interact – they balanced each other perfectly.  I knew we were in good hands about five minutes after getting everyone into the van when Kelly said he couldn’t find his wallet.  Betty Lou calmly took charge and the wallet was found a few minutes later.  What could have been a source of major drama was a non-event. 

Betty Lou took control of the navigating with style.  She was able to figure out where to go when the directions were obviously wrong (not THAT left, the OTHER left) – an ability she tapped into while running her second leg in the middle of the night on a poorly marked route while dealing with intestinal distress. 

Kelly was simply incredible. He took it upon himself to shepherd the newbies through our first relay experience in the most gentle manner.  He took charge from the get-go, driving every leg except the ones he was running, making sure we got to the exchanges (and porta-a-pots) on time, telling us to sleep during the night runs while he personally met everyone at the exchange.  AND running the gnarliest leg of the relay (though Betty Lou’s was a close second).

Thanks to all of van 2 for making this a great experience.  I wish I had more time with van 1 peeps, but we did get to have our girlie experience in the hotel the night before and the night after.  How wonderful of Renee to let us crash in her hotel room, and then to sleep on the floor! 

2)   Pay attention to the scale of the y-axis when choosing relay legs.

When our most-awesomest-relay-captain-of-all-time asked us to indicate our preferred relay legs, I decided that three things were important to me: run the hardest leg first, when I’d be the freshest; avoid steep downhills, in deference to my rehabbing knee; & finish with a short moderate/easy leg, since I figured I’d be toast by then.  The legs for runner #12 seemed to fit the bill. 

I started getting a little nervous a few days before the relay when I looked at the elevation gains on my legs a little closer.  I worried that my ~150ft climbs of my typical hill repeats on Strawberry Hill might not have prepared me for the 110% grade at an elevation of OMG ft that was my first leg. Luckily, I was right about doing the hardest leg first.  This was the most fun! Being the final runner in the rotation meant that I had to wait nearly nine hours after seeing Erica off at the start.  I hadn’t run for 60 hours, was antsy to get going, and took off like a bullet after getting the handoff from Karl.  After a few yards, however, my tingling hands and feet made it clear I needed to calm down a bit, and I settled into a manageable pace as I made a steady climb for the next 3.5 miles.  This was a non-supported leg, but some of the vans were illegally stopping to cheer on their runners.  Near the top of the final hill, a van filled with pink-clad 20-something women stopped to offer support to a woman who was catching up to me.  I yelled, “Go, old lady power!” and the women’s enthusiastic response to me helped me to get up and over that last bit of hill.  I hadn’t noticed my surroundings until I began the 300ft drop over the next mile.  That mile was glorious!  The sun was setting, and the views were beautiful.  How lucky I was to be able to run this leg.  After another slight uphill, I made it to the exchange and sent Erica on her way.  EVERYONE was there to celebrate my first leg.  What a high!

As I had feared, the next two legs were more difficult in spite of being rated easier. On top of that, the unusually severe spring weather meant that many of the legs had to be redesigned at the last minute.  All my legs were extended; with the last leg being affected the most.  My second leg looked flat compared to my first, and I was disappointed that I didn’t go a bit faster, but upon looking at details of the leg when I came home, I realized it was a steady uphill climb for most of the 7 mile distance.  So my pace wasn’t too horrendous, considering.

My last leg felt the hardest, and this leg was changed the most drastically from the original plan.  My second two criteria for picking legs were thrown out the window when a steep downhill (500ft over less than a mile – on a loose gravel trail) was added just after mile 1, and the leg was extended to over 7 miles (from the original 4) making this “moderate” leg a “hard” one.  Before heading out on this leg, I kept telling my van mates that distance isn’t issue for me, hoping to convince myself it was really true.  But the altitude and lack of sleep and food really got to me, and I ended up alternating 20s of walking with 60s of running on the molehills in the middle 3 miles of this leg. But even with the walking, I passed quite a few people, including the “censored” girl in the flesh-colored body suit.  It was great to see Jeb meet me about 400m from the finish, and as I entered the stadium, the rest of team joined me.  I realized afterward, I probably was supposed to stick with everyone so that we could cross the finish line together, but it’s hard not to push on the gas when I see the finish, and I stepped across the line a bit ahead of everyone else.

3)   (Wo)man cannot run on frosting (gels) and kool-aid (sports drinks) alone.

Going into the relay, my biggest concern was probably the nutrition aspect.  As most of you know, I have had issues with this in previous races; sometimes ending spectacularly catastrophically (RoadID testimonial, anyone?).  After one relay, I can’t say I have this figured out, but I do know that some sort of real food is important between the first and last legs.  I’m sure the food situation affects everyone’s performance, mine included, but then again, I really wasn’t here to race.  Which leads me to point #4…

4)   On the right team, no one but you really does care how fast you go.

Thank God I was on the right team! I still felt bad not hitting my estimated paces, but after obsessing over what to put down (hi Debbie!), I finally gave up, pulled some numbers out of a hat, and listed some incredibly optimistic times based on the reality I ended up facing.  And while I felt bad letting the team down and causing us to be late, no one but me made me feel bad. You guys are the greatest.

In the end, the question is: Do I want to do another relay after all this? Yes, I think so, but sea-level would be nice.  Napa Ragnar sounds good (though that’s our hot weather season) – it starts in SF; our house could be home base. Or how about The Relay? Exchange 18 is 2 miles from the house: free showers and beds to anyone wanting to do this one.

And the most amazing one to me was the Backcountry guy who ran his legs while wearing a tent.  Yep.  A 1-person climbing-a-mountain type tent.  He wore it the whole way and passed many runners.  And it wasn't folded up or anything.  It was out and his head and arms stuck out of it while he wore it and ran..

 

 

How funny! 

What a great experience this sounds like, most of all because of the awesome folks participating!  Thanks for the details and congratulations!