The big day finally arrived! After over 3 months of serious training, it was finally time to drive to Calistoga and attempt The Relay, a 199-mile relay race from Amanda's home town down to Santa Cruz. In the end, it took 12 of us about 31 hours to run this whole distance, at an approximate average pace of 9 minutes and 25 seconds per mile (6.4 mph).

The approach to this relay was to put 6 people each in 2 vans...Van 1 would carry runners 1-6, and Van 2 would carry runners 7-12. The race started (for us) at about 10am on Saturday morning, so our first runner took off from Calistoga at that time, and then Van 1 shot ahead to the first exchange point, where runner 2 got ready. Since the legs averaged about 6 miles each, the rule of thumb was that each leg was approximately one hour, and each van would be occupied for 6. So Van 2 -- my van -- got to relax for an extra few hours in the morning (which we spent in Calistoga at the Millers' house, thanks guys!!), and then head to the Van Exchange in the afternoon for our first leg. At that point, Van 1 got to rest for a few hours, while we took over until about 9pm.

I was runner number 8, so I did legs 8, 20, and 32. Respectively, these legs were 7.4, 5.9, and 4.7 miles long, with altitude changes of +236/-456, +572, and -697 feet. Regretfully, my enjoyment of leg 32's long downhill was foiled by IT Band pain, a very common runner's injury that I've been fighting during my training, and finally caught up to me after 13.3 miles of hard running. Still, I managed to finish that leg at an ~8:40 pace, and The Relay went on...

Despite the leapfrogging van concept, which would seem to allow each van approximately 6 hours of rest after 6 hours of running, the truth is that there is very little chance for sleep during this event. Between when we woke up at 8am on Saturday morning, until we started the journey home at approximately 6pm on Sunday evening, most of us got fewer than 3-4 hours of sleep despite extreme physical activity. It so happens that I had caught a cold during the week before the race, so I had a particularly difficult time getting comfortable (and, because of the exertion and lack of sleep, a hard time getting well). I think most of my teammates would agree that the requirement of 2 days of alertness is quite possibly harder than the athletic requirement...at least, at our level of competition. Our goal for this first year was to finish, and we did that and more! Go Incredibles!!

I want to give another huge thank-you to all of our supporters for this race. Ivan and Dianne Miller were our conscripted volunteers for the race (a requirement for "competitive" teams with team members who live within 50 miles of the course). They woke up at 5am on Saturday morning to help set up the race start in Calistoga, and both worked there for 5 hours each. In addition, they allowed the 5 of us who were in town on Friday night to stay over, and all 12 of us to gather and have breakfast before starting the race on Saturday. Dozens of friends and family members provided financial support to our team and the race, which benefited a great cause. And of course, all of you (and Amanda in particular) who have supported me during my training, which cost at least an hour per day over the last 3 month. Thanks for your support.