The adventure started back in May as I was walking through the Bloomsday trade show. I happened to walk by the Spokane to Sandpoint booth just as the video clip of Totally Tubular (my team last year) was playing on the TV. Memories of the fun times had with that team flooded my mind. I was sad that we couldn't get the team together for this year's S2S, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from running this year's race. So, next thing I know, I am signing up as a "runner looking for a team."
As I was signing up, I didn't actually think there was much of a chance of a team asking me to join their team. Boy was I wrong. About a week later I was contacted by Art, a guy from Issaquah whose team was looking for a runner. My first response was "Ack! what have I done? I don't randomly sign up to run with people I don't know. What was I thinking?" But then I decided "what the heck" and e-mailed Art a series of questions that I hoped would help me decide if I would be a good fit for the team.
These are the questions I asked:
- Are you in it for the competition or to have fun?
- What are the ages of the other teammates?
- Female to male ratio?
- What are the paces of the other racers?
- Previous relay race experience?
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So Friday morning I assume my familiar position of "navigator in Van 1"and are our adventure begins. First adventurous moment at the starting line, a guy on another team, who happens to be wearing the same Speedo that the little dude on our shirts is wearing (red, white, blue striped with stars). I will spare you the picture that we took with him at the starting line. I'm still trying to recover from that scarring moment. Next starting line adventure moment, our first runner sees that people are lining up at the starting line so she goes over and as the race gun goes off she starts with the group. But wait! It's only 8 o'clock and our start time is 8:30. We finally get her attention after about a minute to tell her that she has started too early. Talk about a buzz kill, but fortunately she was able to psych herself back up and was ready to rock it when the 8:30 gun went off.
I was runner number 2 and had an 8 mile run. My run was 5 miles of a gentle grade as I finished coming off Mt. Spokane and then 3 miles of mostly flat. That last 5k felt incredibly long and hard. It was a little warm and muggy, but I think the hardest part was just hitting flat ground after running down hill. I managed a 8:07 pace for the 8 miles, but I certainly was glad to reach the exchange point and hand off the baton to the runner 3.
Things stayed pretty adventure-free until runner 4 was about a mile from his exchange point. We were already there waiting for him to come in. We had passed in on the road and he was looking good. His pace was nice and even and he was passing runners. So, as those runners that he had passed began to come in and still no Art, I was beginning to wonder what had happened. Next thing we know, Art is behind us, in the parking lot, saying "Here I am and here's the baton". What?! Some time after we passed him, he had a horrible cramp in his calf and couldn't hardly walk. He was fortunate that another team's van was happening by and could pick him up and bring him to the exchange point.
Runner 5 was off and an adventure-free run. The baton is passed to runner 6 and we think "yes, the home stretch". Now, since I have been in Van 1 on my previous two S2S experiences, I knew that runner 6 had to veer off the road and run a trail across some empty acreage. I had our van stop to make sure she made the trail turn-off; no problems there. We then proceeded to the lane where the trail ends. It's a good thing we stopped because another adventure was about to occur.
The trail T's into a dirt road. For some reason the race organizers did not mark which way to turn off of the trail. Going to the left goes up a hill and is the wrong way. However, going to the right looks like the wrong way because there is a gate across the dirt road and it would be easy to decide there was no way through, although there is a small trail along side the gate.
Our runner was closing distance to the runner ahead of her and just watching that lead runner. We were watching from the end of the lane (about 400 yards away) and cheering her on. But then we had to change our cheers to yelling "Come back! Turn around!" because the lead runner had turned to the left instead of the right and our runner followed right behind her. We continued to yell and caught the attention of a couple of runners who were behind our runner. They also tried to yell up the hill to get our runner and the other runner to turn around. Our runner had slowed down because she thought she had heard us yelling "Turn around, wrong way" but she wasn't sure until she heard the closer runners yelling the same thing. Oiy! She wound up running about an extra 400 yards because of this adventure. (We never did see the lead runner turn around so we have no idea how long it was before she realized she was going the wrong direction).
Finally we make it to the first major exchange and happily hand off the baton to Van 2. Yay! Now time for food, shower, and rest. Or so we thought. We have gone about 5 miles down the road when we receive a phone call from Van 2 asking us to meet them at their next exchange point. They have picked up a stray dog and want us to take care of it. Seriously, people?! We are in a race and you pick up a stray dog? I have to admit that I was a bit annoyed at this disruption in my plan on what Van 1 should be doing. In fairness to Van 2, they thought we could just take the dog back to the major exchange point because Spokanimal was there collecting pet supplies and offering kittens for adoption.
Unfortunately, Spokanimal no longer has animal control licensing so all lost/stray animals must be taken to SCRAPS out in Spokane Valley. So here we go. Instead of heading to my house for a shower, food and rest we are taking this lost dog 30 miles from his home to SCRAPS. It takes about 30 minutes at SCRAPS because the intake officer couldn't decide if the dog was a schnauzer or a wire-haired fox terrier. It was eventually decided that it was a fox terrier and after we received a case number (Art was very concerned about the dog and wasn't ready to leave him without knowing how to find out if the dog made it home), we were on our way again. We made a stop at the grocery store and then eventually made it to my house. I ate and took a shower and was NOT the hostess with the mostest at this point in time. I told people where the bathroom was, had food set out, and then pretty much let them fend for themselves as I took care of myself.
About an hour later it was time to head to the next major exchange point so we could start our second set of run legs. Now, the one good thing about having all of the extra travel time in the van as we were dealing with the dog, was we had time to figure out how we were going to accommodate Art, the runner who could no longer run. It was decided that I would run legs 14 and 15 which would give me just a little over 6 miles. Julie (runner number 3) traded places with Lori (runner number 6) and Lori ran Art's leg 16. Whew, craziness. Of course, Art was super bummed that he couldn't run and probably a bit annoyed at his team for insisting that he sit this one out, but as one of my teammates said "We have to save Art from himself."
Since my leg was going through a section of the Centennial Trail that isn't far from Liberty Lake I had asked a couple of my running friends to join me. Jen was able to join me for Leg 14, which was 3.3 miles. It was so nice to run with her and catch up since we haven't run together all summer. Our original plan was to run 8:45's but once I found out I was running double the distance I asked her to help me keep the pace at about 9's. We hit the exchange point for Leg 15 right about 9's. Dave was able to join me for Leg 15, a 2.8 leg. I finished the whole 6.1 miles in 58 minutes. Initially I was not happy about my final pace (which worked out to be about 9:50), but I later realized that I had stopped for about 1:30 between the two legs to put on my lights, reflective vest and get a few swallows of water to wash down my Gu.
The rest of this set of exchanges was again, adventure-free. We met up with Van 2 in Coeur d'Alene and passed off the baton again. And then we were off to our sleeping place at the next major exchange at Timberlake High School.
This was the first time that I had experienced sleeping at the major exchange point. I was spoiled in my previous S2S races to have a house to crash out and a bed to sleep in. I missed the bed, but what I mostly missed was the dark and quiet. Sleeping in the school with 100 racers was not so quiet although it was dark. I will need to remember an eye mask and ear plugs if I find myself in a race situation like this again. We arrived at Timberlake at about 11:30 and got the wake-up call about 3 a.m. I wish I could say that I got some sleep but mostly I was just lying still with my eyes closed.
Van 2 arrived at the exchange at about 3:30 a.m. and Kristen (runner 1) was off. The rest of us spent a few moments chatting with Van 2 and planning on how to tackle the rest of the race. Art was feeling better, but we were facing our toughest legs yet. He probably wouldn't be able to run the tough 9 mile run that he was scheduled to run. Van 2 was feeling bad that we were facing such a tough situation so it was decided that they would take our final 9.4 miles (giving them 7 legs for the final stretch and us 5; up until this point it had been 6 and 6). That proved to be a very serendipitous decision for our next adventure was just up the road.
We decided we better get on the road and check on Kristen. It was pitch black and the highway doesn't have a very large shoulder. As we are driving we see a runner down. It is clear that the runner is hurt and can't get up. When we get closer we see that it is Kristen. She has stepped off the lip of the shoulder and twisted her ankle quite badly. Ugh. She is almost a mile into her 6 mile run but it is clear that she is done. Art gets his wish. He is going to get to run after all. He finishes up her leg without incident or further cramping and passes the baton on to me for my final 6.01 miles.
Now you might think this would be my worst leg, but it wasn't. I was running in my element. It was early (about 4:30 a.m). It was cool (about 60 degrees). And I had runners to chase after. I passed my first runner after about 5 minutes. That gave me a little confidence boost. I kept my eyes on the blinking red lights on runners ahead of me and just fell into "the zone." It took me another mile or so to pass the next runner. After I passed that runner I could see in the distance a glowing green light. I was like a moth pulled to the flame and that green light beckoned me to come catch it. It took me almost 3 miles to catch that light. But with a little under a mile left I almost caught the lady running with the green light. I say almost because once I was upon her shoulder, she started running again. I said in my mind, with a smirky smile, "That's fine. You go ahead a run. I've been watching you run/walk for the last mile so I know this burst won't last long." And I was right; about 100 yards later she was walking again. This time she didn't have any juice left to start running as I grew close so I was able to pass her. Because I had been so focused on passing that runner I hadn't realized how close to the finish I was and before I knew it I was at the exchange point. I slapped that wrist baton onto Julie and did a little happy dance because I was DONE! I felt a little guilty for being so jubilant about being finished but honestly, I couldn't help it. After running 20 miles in under 24 hours I was happy to say "I'm done" I think running 20 miles this way is more difficult running 20 miles straight for marathon training. It's the starting and stopping, the sitting in a van, and the not stretching that makes it so hard and makes my muscles so stiff.
The rest of our race was adventure-free. We finished about hour slower than our projected finish time, but considering all of the adversity we faced we were pleased with how we did. Would I run S2S again with US Department of Awesomeness? Absolutely. But next year I want to be in Van 2.
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| Van 1 couldn't let me leave without a group hug |
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| US Department of Awesomeness: still smiling at the end |
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