Rainier To Pacific Relay

What's become an annual tradition for myself and the Y run club is as unpredictable as the weather! For our third relay, I was for the third time in the 2nd van. I was apprehensive about this as I really had wanted to be in the first van due to the timing. It was more of a regular schedule. But this year, with the addition of a twelfth leg and a 9am start time, these timing issues worked themselves out for both vans.

Some of our beautiful van decoration!

Just home from a trip to Texas to visit family and rest to hopefully heal up my knee issues, I was also apprehensive about running. A pre-relay run on Thursday improved my hopes for a pain free relay. I was able to run 4.65 miles with a run/walk painfree. I felt ready to go

Eric, Michelle, Rob and Steve picked me up and we were ready to head up to meet Van #1 at the first van exchange. We were lucky enough to meet up with Annette and Kristina, both from the blogosphere. We had a nice relaxing wait in the warm sunshine and cool shade before our exchange. We spent the time decorating the van and preparing our gear for our legs.

At about 1:30-2:00pm we were off. George K, in the first van had created a time chart with every one's paces and ETA's. Rob was assigned a 6:30 pace and he was determined to meet it! I believe he did too! I was assigned a pace closer to my normal pace of about 8:30, but I knew I didn't want to run that fast with my knee. I had already decided I was going to try and keep a 10:00 minute pace while running and the just power walk on my walk breaks.

The bloggers!

Rob handed off to me and I took off. My Garmin hadn't really set because i turned it on in The Yeti (our Expedition). So i turned it off and had to let it find the satellite while I was running. I had to guess at how long I had been running in order to take my walk break. After the first break, I had the satellite and could track my distance and pace. The plan was to run a half mile and walk 2 minutes. I realized I was running way under the 10:00 minutes I wanted and tried to slow down. It was difficult. My run felt really good. I was so happy to be running. The hardest parts were the hills. I haven't run much since the Tacoma City Marathon because of my knee and sprained ankle. I didn't want to overdo it. The temperature was also a challenge. Somewhere in the mid 80's. It felt HOT!

Steve cools down before his first leg into Yelm where he beats the van to the exchange.

Michelle cools off on her leg, with George C from van 1 cheering in the background.

Emily from Van 1, Me, and Rick all matchy matchy. Perils of all of us participating in the same events!

After Michelle's run, we headed to dinner in a rural area at a place called "The Red Barn." Here the waitress thought Michelle was crazy for asking if the had veggie burgers, and where most of Van #2 ordered normal hamburgers and Rob, our larger than life, out of this world, fearless trailblazer, ordered the "Mound" bacon cheeseburger Deluxe!

The "MOUND"

Burger

Watching Rob eat this burger was quite an experience!

I'll let you ask him about it!

After our beautiful meal, we decided to digest in Elma, where there is a high school that lets you sleep in their wrestling room, or in your vehicle etc... Problem was, it was like 6:30pm! We tried to rest, lay down and just talk, but it was too difficult to sleep. Here was the only major issue we had with the relay. The supposed layover. We debated among ourselves about taking it, and decided we must. We are people with integrity. So we did. First though, we had to take Rob to his first leg, then come back to the school for the 1 hour layover, then it would be my leg. Rob's dinner was trying to get the best of him, so we had to encourage him a little to be his old self. Along his leg, Michelle and I were his cheerleaders with bright green glowsticks as our pompoms. Rob came in even faster than his first leg, the Mound didn't get him after all!

After the layover, Rob ran my leg with me. He wanted more miles and the company was great. After all, I did have to run past a cemetery at 12:30am! I bumped up my run/walk ratio to .60 mile,two minute walk. It was hard to keep track while talking and paying attention to the dark road. I did kick what felt like a railroad tie along the road and just catch myself from falling flat on my face. I was glad Rob was there. If I was hurt, my van had already passed me. The next runner would have found me! This leg felt great. Rob and I ran slow. I kept my 10:00minute pace. We just talked and kept it easy. Lots of people passed us though. People who's teams did not take their layover.

The night legs went well and were fun. The night air wakes you up and refreshes you. Again, we had a snafoo with the Steve/Michelle hand off. Somehow, we missed Steve run past us. We thought it was because we were all looking for his waterbottle, but he said that he said hey to Eric as he ran past him. So, we went to look if he missed the tune and was running on the freeway. We didn't think this could happen, so we went to the exchange and there he was waiting for us! We don't know how we missed him the little speed demon! By the time Rick had run his leg, it was near 3:30am and I was getting very sleepy. We headed to the next van exchange and tried to sleep for a couple of hours. I had planned to sleep outside, but decided to stay in the van. I left my earplugs above the van in the box and had to manage without them. That is difficult as I listened to Rick snore in the back, and Michelle's stomach right behind me! Her stomach was growing at me I swear! I think I managed about an hour and a half. Every time a van would pull in, I'd wake up and make sure they didn't run over Rob, Eric and Steve who were outside. This didn't help my sleeping. When it was 6am and time to roll, I had to drink a Starbucks doubleshot and a mocha frappacino just to wake up!

It worked! The coffee was just what I needed to get going. We decided that Steve and I would trade legs for our third run. Mine was labeled hard and his was easy. I had run his leg before and I knew it was easier than what I was supposed to run. Even though the "hard" label should have been a "moderate." So that's what we did.

Rob started out with a 2 mile uphill and then down and handed of to Eric again. At that time, Rob was done and broke out his favorite running food, Raspberry filled powdered donuts.

Contemplating and worshipping the jelly donut, and then stuffing face with the jelly donut!

Somewhere during this time, Steve and Rick were providing aide to Eric and Rob decided he would also provide aide to Eric, in the form of a raspberry filled jelly donut..... here is the hand off

and here, a mile or so down the road is the frightening aftermath! Try to click on and enlarge this photo for the full effect! I am sure Eric scared away some of the competition with this one and gained us a few extra minutes!

I ran after Eric and had a great final leg. I felt good and decided to change my run/walk plan yet again. I did 1 mile run and 1 minute walks and would go back to the original if I needed to. I felt good and decided to run at a faster pace too. It felt like old times. I tagged Michelle this time and I did not beat her to the exchange! She had a record breaking run and you should visit her blog to read all about it! Rick brought us in with his first time run on the beach. Rob gave him a pep talk and told him if he ran in 45 minutes we could beat 24 hours! Rick did not let us down!

Rick ran well and we came in under 24 hours! We were very happy! Another mix up with our first van and they missed us at the finish. We'll have to get together for a group shot of all of us and then I'll post a complete group. For now, here we are under the finish line in Ocean Shores, Wa.
We had a fantastic time along the course and after the finish. We spent the night at Rob's family beach house and watched some old school running movies for inspiration. We ate and ate and ate. In the morning we went for a run on the beach. I'll leave you with this dancing starfish, a tribute to Rob. Maybe someday he'll tell you about it, maybe someday he'll share his dance. Then again, maybe it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. :)

Thanks Van #2 for a spectacular time. Van #1, you are not too shabby yourselves!

Grace and peace to you.