This weekend was a whirlwind of adventure! Some friends and I formed Team Siren and we ran in The Relay, a race benefiting organ donation.

199 miles. Did I mention that yet? Together the 12 of us ran from Calistoga to Santa Cruz!!

There were about 185 teams of runners participating in this great event. Every team split into 2 vans and leap frogging their turn to run every 6 runners.

Friday:
Met at Claire's house in Santa Cruz where we all loaded our gear and ourselves into the 2 15 person vans we'd rented. Each van had a driver, except Van 2's driver got called into jury duty!!! so they took turns driving their own van throughout the event.

The vans drove up to Cloverdale, about 4 hours of driving including a well needed stop at Strawberry in Mill Valley for Starbucks, bathrooms, Safeway and a Taqueria for food.

We'd reserved 3 lodges at the KOA camp in Cloverdale, the closest and most economical place we could find to sleep 13 people!!

Cloverdale is interesting. Beautiful Anderson Valley, orchards and vineyards everywhere and a sweet downtown with great old homes. The local market was more than odd; and all their food was due to expire the next weekend. We went in looking for jelly for peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast... the they were THAT old.

We decided not to spend more time in the van and passed on our original plan of driving back to Calistoga for the kick off dinner for The Relay and to hear Dean Karnazes give a motivational speech. Instead, we found a great Italian restaurant in Cloverdale and had a delicious dinner there. Back at the KOA most of the runners hit the hot tub and others showered and tried to rest for the big event.

Big Event: Saturday
The Relay begins at 7:30am for our team, based on our estimated finish time. You must check in 1 hour before and it was an hour drive to Calistoga from Cloverdale. We got up at 4:45am and had all our stuff and runners back loaded into the vans (soon to become our home for the next 35 hours!) at 5:30am. We were off.

There's very little light at the Race start. We had heard there would be an expo and some of us were looking forward to picking up some cheap gear or GU or such.... there was a table. That was the extent of the Expo. A table. Hats, tshirts and I don't know what else. Too funny. Obviously this is not some slick event, The Relay is 6 years old and still is very grass-roots in feel.

Buff, a Harley bike club man with Clean and Sober embroidered on his leather vest was our kick-off MC. (I said Grass roots right?) He read us the rules of the road and told us about all the ways we could be disqualified: running naked, making noise at night, honking at night, using an iPod.... Ok.

Van 1: Heather, Kathy, Audrey, Sara M. (me,) Krista and Claire. Gary, Claire's husband, was our driver.

Van2: Sara C., Lara, Lori B., Bob, Dawn and Lori C. Still, with no driver.

Heather took the first run and started out with a group of other runners at 7:30am. Van 2 took off to find breakfast and meet us closer to Napa where our vans would exchange places after our van of 6 runners ran, and then they would begin. A lot of waiting for them....

I was runner 4, so my first run began at 11:21am and was 7.4 miles in Yountville. Spectacular scenery!! rolling hills and so much to look at. It was a great run for me and I'm thrilled with how I did. I'm not a fast runner, and I'd been SUPER sick with some kind of intestinal bug for a week and half before the race. So no running and barely any eating for the 2 weeks before The Relay. I was nervous I'd be able to do well, but I ran my 7.4 miles with a 13:06 pace, which was great for me. It probably helped that I didn't bring my camera, which I usually do, so no time was wasted taking pix along the way!!

Each of us ran until the van exchange point in Napa. What a cool sight it was to pull into the parking lot of a church and see a 100 vans all decorated with their team names, margarita glasses or grass skirts!! We met up with our other van and when our last runner came in, it was Van 2's time to run and Van 1's time for quick showers, re-org of the van (which looked like an old roommates room, crap thrown everywhere, you couldn't see the floor of the van!) We found a Trader Joe's and got food then went back to the church and tried to grab some sleep on the lawn. None of us really slept I think, we just rested and stretched our legs!

About 5-6 hours later we met our other van again near Petaluma at The Cheese Factory. The sun was setting and everyone was putting on warmer clothes to run in and the required hi-vis vests, headlamps etc. so we could be seen running at night.

Here I saw 2 vans from other teams both with Yahoo written on them; Yahoos Your Daddy (Yahoo Mail folks) and Yahoo Personals (not a great name, some creativity is required here!) I even recognized one of the runners from the Personals team, Ram, and we had a brief chat. It was his 3rd time running this event! Wow!!

Van 2's runner Lori C. came barreling up the hill to the exchange, and our Van 1's Heather took off. No shoulder to run on, windy curvy country roads... seriously dangerous run even in the daytime! She ran faster than we estimated and our next runner Kathy, wasn't at the exchange in time, I walked up to check things out and saw Heather run up so I had to run to the van to get Kathy! Very funny really.

We drove on to the next exchange in San Geronimo where they had a sign all lit up reading Welcome Relay, hot coffee and tea and yummy soup (so I heard, I wasn't about to eat soup an hour before my run!)

Sunday:
Soon it was my turn to run again. At 12:09 am I took off from San Anselmo on my 5.3 mile run to Corte Madera. Yes, it was dark! I've never run in the middle of the night and it is a strange feeling to be out at night, barely able to see and running. I had my headlamp and a flashlight, which was brand new and died a half hour into my run!!! My legs were a little heavy but I still ran well, despite some kicking of my own ankle (that takes talent I tell you!) and a few near stumbles. My team mates in Van 1 waited for me at 2 turns to make sure I didn't get lost, which was really helpful. Again, for me it was a great run and I finished at 1:10 am at the Peete's in Corte Madera for a 13:18 min mile.

I slept in the back of the van or at least tried to, while Krista ran to Sausalito and Claire finished us off with a run from Sausalito up and over the GG Bridge. It was now 2am! Right after the bridge was the next Van exchange and Van 2 took over running while we drove to Canada College for sleep.

I stayed in the van with Krista and Claire, while our driver Gary and Kathy, Heather and Audrey got a little sleep in the gym at the college.... with 100s of other runners. I think we may have gotten 2 hours of sleep. Oy! 5:30 am we were up, Krista and I hobbled to the cafeteria where volunteers had scrambled eggs or bagels for the runners, and all money going to Organ donation.

Down the hill from the college was the van exchange and Lori C. came in to meet Van 2 and Heather from our van took off.

It was Hot. Hot already. Hot like high 80s by 9:30am. Kathy ran next through Menlo Park and then Audrey ran through Palo Alto. My run began at 11:16am in Los Altos at Foothill Expwy and Grant Road. I'd trained on this leg since it was close to home and my most difficult run: 5.1 miles UP HILL from the expressway up and around Stevens Creek Reservoir. UGH.

This was hard. More than hard. My legs were so heavy, I was thirsty from the get-go because it was so hot and very dry. I ran the fist 2 miles fairly well and then the really steep part started. I ran the first tough hill and was greeted by my teammates with ice and water and a cool towel.
My feet were killing me. Both second toes were swollen and looking like the nail might come off, after my night run... so they were taped up for my last run. They felt better but I soon realized they weren't better, I just couldn't feel them anymore.

I ran up until the next steep hill, and I had to walk it. I ran down. Next hill; I walked it. I could see the reservoir now and Claire from my team was around the next bend with more ice water. It was 90 degrees.

I ran some more, but ran out of steam. I knew I was done when I couldn't even run the down hill portion. I was hobbling and shuffling along, my feet aching.

At mile 4 my van was waiting for me. Krista, who runs after me and is our strongest runner, was ready to go and offering to run my last mile for me. If the van hadn't been there I would have continued my shuffle to the end, but there they were and I accepted their offer. I found out I'd run an 11:11 pace for my 4 miles up hill - so that is amazing to me. I'm glad I let Krista run my last mile too, I just had to.

While Krista ran my mile and her 3 miles rated VH for very hard, she's a machine!, I inspected my feet. Swollen, both nails on second toe blistered all around and blood blistered under the nail. Lovely. But I was done. No more running! Phew.

Claire was next from Congress Springs up to Skyline; an insane 3 mile run super steep Up Hill. She was great and at the top both vans were waiting to cheer her on! It was our last exchange and Van 1 was officially done running!!!!

Van 2 would take our team from Skyline down through Felton, Boulder Creek and into Santa Cruz.

Van 1 went to Claire's house where this all began, for food and organizing. I just was starving and needed real food. No Cliff bars, no turkey lunch meet no GU. Food.

We put on our Siren's tshirts (which I designed for our team) and made our way to the Boardwalk where we waited for the rest of our team. Dean Karnazes was giving a speech (oddly enough about himself) and teams that had finished were getting their medals.

At about 7:15pm our last runner came towards us and both vans of teammates joined her and we ran together through the finish gate on the beach. WE DID IT! 34:58:25 hours of running!!!

A fantastic event. I wish I could have shared more with the other teammates in the 2nd van. I would do this again!!! What a blast!

One of our other runners blog'd the event for us here:
http://www.therelay-teamsiren.blogspot.com/