200 Miles To Crazy

Back in graduate school, my friend JD decided to rope us all in to a 200 mile relay.  I had come off a career as a college athlete, so I was in pretty good shape, but it was still a completely insane thing to do.  You make a team of 12 runners, put six people in each of two vans, drive around Northern California, and run three legs of the relay for about 30 straight hours. 

It’s insane at every point, but so ridiculously fun.  So, this has become something we do. We had a family affair with 10 of us from school, plus two spouses.  If it’s unclear whether or not I love my colleagues, remember that I’m about to spend more than 30 hours in a van with five of them.  Yes, I love them more than anything.

Last year, I was running my marathon on this weekend, so I wasn’t in on the fun, but it was raining like crazy and things were a bit more miserable.  This year,  we were greeted with amazing weather.   It was warm and clear and everything that California should be.

KMc drives us over the bridge to get to our exchange point in Napa.

KMc thinks it would be funny to take AL out during his first leg.  KMc thinks he’s in a cartoon, apparently.

JD is off in the distance running to see us.  I’m just enjoying the view.  And preparing for the leg that I’ll do next.   I was slated as the top runner of the group (mostly based on my running in the 08-09 school year because the 09-10 school year has been a disaster). My first leg is this: run about 3.5 miles straight uphill, climbing more than 11oo feet.  Then 5.5 miles downhill through someone’s ranch.  The van couldn’t follow me because I was running through a ranch, so I was on my own for more than 90 minutes.  Yeah, I was slow.

During this first leg, I was roadkill for about 4 teams.  That means that 4 teams passed me during the run.  That’s fair enough.  Everyone doing this leg is the top runner on their team.  I’m just the craziest on my team.

The first leg was hard.  I ran the first mile, but walked most of the next 2.5.  I ran easily downhill for the rest of the leg and was happy to see my team and hand off the wristband to KMc.  I had been gone so long that the mood in the  van had totally changed.  Everyone was tired.  But not me.  One leg down (possibly my hardest one) and I was ready to get the cowbell going again.

Yeah.  This is where I live.  How gorgeous!

 

KMc killed his legs.  Really.  He was so darn fast.  He made up for me by catching some teams and just being a beast.

JD and I wait for KMc to come in.  As you can tell, it’s getting late in the day.

AL enjoys the view of Marin County.  I made a mental note that this would be a really great place to retire.   

Beej proposes to NK with the wristband.  NK always seems to have his tongue out.

This is what you get for proposing on gravel.

Van 1.  Done with one leg.  And man are we happy about that.

The drive to SF.  Cows on every hillside and just beautiful green grass.  We planned to drive to SF to crash in a hotel for a few hours.  On our way, we were smartphoning the traffic and there was police activity on the Golden Gate Bridge (I guess there was a jumper).  So we decided to stop in Marin for dinner and wait it out.  It was the most quiet dinner ever.  We all just sat, staring, hydrating, and chewing.  We were ready for sleep.

Two hours of sleep at the Holiday Inn was worth it.

   

AL gets ready for the handoff on the south side of the GG Bridge.  That headlamp is about to become soaking wet.  AL is about to become delirious as he runs along the Pacific in the pitch black at 12:30 at night.  The Great Highway just looks like an endless string of stoplights.  During his run, AL called us because he thought he might have missed the van.

I’m about to start my second leg in Millbrae and we were lucky enough to have two awesome students of our volunteering from 11pm-5am at this stop.  They were cold, but already talking about how they were going to get a team together for next year.

I ran a fairly easy 4ish miles and handed off to KMc again.  He ran so fast that Beej was just sitting in the van when KMc finished.  We had a moment of panic trying to get Beej out of the van and running.  But then we remembered that we were in no position to win this thing.

Our legs finished in Redwood City and we all went back to Menlo Park/Palo Alto, where half of us live, and got two hours of sleep. 

Starbucks breakfast on our way to leg three.

AL looking a bit suspect about his role as navigator.

Our team was well known for the cowbell that we rang everywhere.  I got the cowbell during the Salt Lake Olympics (from the official website) and always have it with me for things like this.  I was obsessed with ringing it every time we saw another runner (except at night, for obvious reasons).  The funniest part was that when the boys were in shotgun, they would put the cowbell down and then not be able to find it again.  It drove me crazy, but in the way my kids drive me crazy when they can’t find a pencil.  You can’t really get mad at them, can you?

AL started his third leg, which was six miles downhill in the Santa Cruz mountains. KMc and I decided to pump some music and have a dance party on Highway 9 while we waited.

KMc getting down to some Jay-Z.

These are my dance moves.  Sorry you have to see this.

My final leg was six miles: four miles flat and two miles up another 500 feet.  That’s why this set of legs is for the number one runner.  You run up hills that aren’t for running.  Correction: I walked up hills (others ran) that aren’t for running.

Here I am, on my way.  Running skirt and all.  You can’t tell from this picture, but my calves are killing me right now.  They were not happy about all the running up and down hills on no sleep.

This is JD, right after he handed the wristband to me.  It’s been a long relay.

I demanded that my team stop every mile along the way to keep me going.  I think they only stopped three times.  It actually helped me keep running because I kept thinking I was going to see them right around the bend.

Hydrating like crazy as I ponder the uphill in front of me. 

I’m ringing KMc in to the exchange just like I did every other runner I saw.

KMc and Beej go up for a chest bump before the last handoff.  Here we go!

The finish was at a berry farm near Santa Cruz.  It was so, so windy.  The boys had to nuzzle to keep warm while we waited for Beej to finish battling the horizontal winds and Van 1 to join us.

Here we are.  Done with running for the near future.  I think that some of us are bent over from sheer exhaustion because I didn’t have any control over my body at this point.

KMc driving us toward home along the beautiful Pacific.  A gorgeous end to one of the best weekends this year.

  We had dinner at the famous Duarte’s and this onion ring looked like an engagement ring.  So I made HS propose to me.  I’m shocked, of course.