199 miles, 36 legs, 12 runners, 2 days...what do all of these have in common...The Relay.
The Relay is an annual event that starts in Calistoga, CA and ends in Santa Cruz, CA. It even has it's own web page http://www.therelay.com./
I had the privilege this weekend of participating in this event. I was not crazy enough to run it, but my husband and 11 of his running buddies were. No, I was a driver for 6 out of the 12 runners.
Besides driving the largest vehicle I have ever driven, being sleep deprived, and dealing with 6 sleep deprived runners, the weekend was a lot of fun.
Here's how it went:
On Friday, I met Mark at Budget rental to pick up the van I would be driving around 4 pm. I then drove the van to Mark and Jill's home where everyone was going to meet. I got there about 5-5:30 pm, and no one else had shown up. Shortly after that, the team started to trickle in. Rick was the first to show up, followed by Michael, and then Courtney. Dave C. (the other driver) and Jason showed up about the same time, then Jim finally arrived. Jim was followed by Anise and Bill, Dave A., and last but not least, Denny and Lisa.
Now that the whole team was there, we loaded the vans and set off toward the Napa area, but not before making a stop at Carl's Jr. to eat dinner. We ended up leaving town around 8 pm, which meant a really late night for my van.
The runners in my van were the first six to run, so we had to drive all the way into Calistoga for the night and be at the start line at 6 am. In my van I had Courtney, Anise, Dave A., Jason, Bill, and Michael (and they would run in that order). As we were nearing Napa, we got a call from the other van. Somehow Courtney's bag ended up in there van, so she would be running in her PJs. By the time we arrived in Calistoga, checked into our hotel, and finally was able to go to sleep, it was around 1 am.
I was staying in a room with Anise, Bill, and Courtney. Anise, being the team captain, was trying to fill out some of the last minute paper work when she discovered that she had made a huge mistake. We woke up Michael, Jason, and Dave, and got the problem resolved, and were still all asleep by 1:30 am.
5 am, came awfully quick. Bill and Anise got up and took showers while Courtney and I waited until 5:30 am to actually roll out of bed. We were all ready to go at 5:45 am and headed to the van (the other room got to sleep in). As we were getting ready to pull out of the parking lot, a volunteer for the relay stopped us and informed us that there was no need to drive to the start line, it was only less than 100 yards down the road. So I re-parked the van, and we walked.
Once at the registration booth, we realized that we were the first ones there, and even though it was 6:05 am, the volunteers at the booth were still not ready for us. While we were waiting to receive our goody bag and shirts, we listen to an elderly couple (the lady sorting the shirts and her husband), swearing at each other. We also talked to another team that was going to be starting with us. Our start time was at 7 am, it was the earliest start time. Other teams would be starting every half hour after that until 2 pm.
Around 6:30 am, we headed back to the van to prep it for the relay. We had a huge orange sign that read CAUTION RUNNER ON ROAD, to tape to the back of the van, and we also has our team number signs to tape to the inside of the windows. Come to find out, the other van had the tape, so we had to bum some off of another team.
By 6:55 am, we were standing back at the start line waiting for Courtney to go. At 7 am, the runners left the start and Anise, Bill, and I headed back to the hotel to get Michael, Jason, and Dave. Upon arriving at their room, Michael and Jason were MIA, and Dave was in the shower. We found Michael and Jason at the continental breakfast and sat down to enjoy it our selves (we had time).
We were all finally on the road by 7:45 am. We drove to the first exchange and Anise got ready to run. We were at the exchange for about 5 minutes before we spotted Courtney. After Anise began her leg, we all piled back into the van, and headed toward the next exchange. This was the general process we did for Dave and Jason as well.
Since Jason had the first leg to be over 5 miles, we decided to stop about half way and see if he needed anything. While we were waiting for him to show up, Michael was getting very ansey. To put it more plainly, he was like a kid with ADD on sugar. So when Jason showed up, Michael ran the rest of his leg with him.
We met the rest of the team at the 6th exchange. While we were waiting on Michael, we helped the other van get ready to go. After the exchange was made, we were done for about 6 hours (we figured). It was close to 1 pm and all of us were hungry and tired. We decided to drive to the next van exchange (exchange 12) which as at the Marin County Cheese Factory. Once we got there, we then decided to drive into Navato, which took about 15 minutes.
In Navato, we filled the gas tank, and stopped to eat at the local McDonald's. Well, I ate at the McDonald's, everyone else went across the street to some Italian deli. As I was sitting in McDonald's, enjoying my peaceful meal, I began to realize just how tired I was. I guess it was obvious to the others too, because when they returned to the van, Jason offered to drive. On the way out of Navato, it was discovered that Michael had just lost his $300 pair of sunglasses. We ended up stopping back at the gas station to see if they were there, and then we went to the local Rite Aid and Michael bought two new pairs of sunglasses.
At the Cheese Factory, I layed in the van trying to sleep for about an hour. When it was obvious to me that sleep was never going to happen, I got up and chatted with the runners.
Around 7 pm. the other van showed up, and we knew it was time for us to get ready again. Lisa was the last runner in their van, and Courtney was anxious to get going again. After the exchange was made, I kissed my husband good bye (that was only the second time I had seen him that day) and drove to the next exchange.
By the time Courtney arrived to make the exchange, it was dark outside. The exchange was made at a school, and we were greeted by little girls with brownies!
Since it was dark, Bill ran with Anise.
When Anise and Bill showed up at the next exchange, it was noticeable that Anise was hurt. Bill told us that she has stepped into a pothole and wretched her leg. OUCH! We all eventually piled into the van and drove to the next exchange.
We got out to the exchange, just in time for Dave to pass off the baton to Jason. As Dave was running in, Jason made the comment, "He looks as happy as a snow cone," and that became Dave's nickname for the rest of the weekend. However, as luck would have it, Snow Cone had lost the baton. I guess that is what happens when they give you a rubber bracelet for a baton. After going over so many wrists, it just fell off with out him knowing it. We told him that was ok, we had just seen another team earlier that had lost theirs too.
On Jason's leg, he encountered a group of partying cowboys, who were more than happy for flash the passing runners. As we drove by this group, we saw a man pulling up his pants on the side of the road, we could only imagine what Jason saw.
Jason passed of to Bill, and we drove to the next exchange.
While Jason, Michael, and I were waiting for Bill, we encountered one of the most anal volunteers. I swear this guy was Toll Booth Willie. He told us not to cheer for our runners and he wouldn't let us stand on the other side of the sidewalk (the place were there was about 3 feet of grass before the road, OH NO, I might be dumb enough to stand in the road if he turns his fat back to me!!). He was just plain rude. Bill and Michael made the exchange, and we were off to the Golden Gate bridge to meet the rest of the team.
After the exchange was make, I handed the keys to Jason and told him I was not comfortable driving through San Francisco. Jason drove us to the next van exchange (exchange 24) at Canada College. It was about 1 am when we arrived. There, I layed on one of the benches in the van, and feel fast asleep.
I was awakened around 6:30 am by Bill. He said we hadn't heard from the rest of the team yet, but that there was breakfast in the mess hall. I got up, went into the gymnasium bathroom and freshened up. When I went back outside to the van, Jim was there. Great, I thought, that means it was time to go.
Our last set of legs seemed to go by really fast. Bill once again ran with Anise, and even though Jason, Bill, and Michael all had legs with a rating of Hard or Very Hard, they all made extremely good time, and we were finished by 1 pm.
We then decided to go and check into our hotel in Santa Cruz. We had reservations at the Seabreeze Hotel. Upon entering the rooms, it was discovered that we might not want to stay there. The rooms were filthy, one room smelt of smoke, one room had had a huge party in it the night before and the maid was still cleaning it (she had 5 boxes full of beer bottles sitting right outside the door, why they gave us that room when it wasn't ready, I have no idea), and the topper was the bathroom counter being held up by a can of Spam (I kid you not).
Needless to say, we got our money back and searched for another place to stay. We found it at the Seabreeze Inn. This place was heaven compared to what we just saw. We checked in and all went in and rested until we heard from the others.
About 5 pm, Michael knocked on my door and told me they were on their way. That was impossible, we couldn't finish before 6:12 pm, or we would be considered sandbaggers (this just means we came in 2 hours earlier than our pace times predicted and this was also terms for disqualification). It was then explained to me that the officials wanted to wrap this thing up, so the last teams were told to drop their runners off at the exchanges and have them start running, staggering the start and finish times for each runner. That made sense, so we all headed down to the finish and line and the rest of the team, except Lisa (she was still running) and Jim (he ran out to help run her in).
The Relay results currently have us posted as finishing at 34 hours, 55 minutes, 40 seconds because we crossed the finish line at 5:55:40 pm on Sunday afternoon. However, when you account for the staggered times, our total running time was more like 35 hours 20 minutes (I don't remember the exact time, I just know we went longer than 35 hours 12 minutes, which was all that mattered).
That night we celebrated at the Ideal Bar and Grill in Santa Cruz. I had the most expensive steak I have ever eaten, and it wasn't even really that good or filling.
All in all, the weekend was a blast. I got to know some really great people and had an awesome time.