Oregon Epic Relay

I somehow got tricked into doing one of those really long relays where you don't get any sleep over a 30 hour period. Here I am with half of the team, the group of people I would spend the next 30 straight hours with. I can't complain too much though because I'm glad I did it and I had some fun while doing so.

The race was from Portland to Eugene, in a very roundabout way. It was 178 miles and we had 12 people on our team. I ended up being assigned the longest total milage at 21 miles. I ran 5.5, then 7.6, and finally a 7.8.

Thomas and Robby enjoyed a little chess during the downtime.

Jackie was a volunteer at one of the exchanges so we got to kick it for a little bit.

As soon as we took this picture, I set my glasses in the truck and have not seen them since.

The handoff from Jeri.

I tried posting the picture that made look like I was running the fast but who am I kidding?

Hello sunburn on the right side of my body.

Douglas had too much energy.

Thomas getting in on the action.

Everyone after our first legs

Here is where we were supposed to sleep before our 2nd leg. Who can sleep from 7 to 9 pm?

The night run was painful. I was way too hot and should not have fun in my jacket. I did not like running with a headlamp either. I'm also just out of shape and my knees were killing me. Luckily there are no pictures from this part. I think my leg was from about 11:30 to 12:30.

The rest of the group ran until 5 am and I drove the truck the entire time so I got no sleep. Thomas was passed out in the bed and simply woke up 10 minutes before he had to run and was out within 10 minutes of finishing his run. I'm not even sure he was awake during his run.

Once we finished we drove around the OSU campus and then went on to the next vehicle exchange area. But not before we stopped at the only diner in Harrisburg, OR for a little breakfast. Robby is a vegan so you just feel bad eating meat and bread in front of him but I was so hungry at this point that I didn't really care.

Eventually, we got to the school and I got to sleep from 7:15 to 8:45, in the rain.

That's right, it rained during those 2 hours we had a solid break. It stopped once our team started running but started up again when it was my turn.

Here I am about a mile into my last leg of 7.8 miles. My left knee was not working at this point. Everytime it hit the pavement it was just pain. Walking felt fine, so I would walk and jog, walk and jog. An older gentleman passed me around this point so I followed behind him for a mile or so until I couldn't keep up because all I wanted to do was walk. I tried giving his team my bracelet so they could run my leg for me. Didn't work.

My team was waiting at mile 3 to get me some water. About 1/4 mile from the truck I started to sprint and magically that didn't hurt the knee very. As soon as I got to the truck, I finally got the knee loose and made the turn to start running into the wind. D'oh!

The heavy t-shirt felt like 20 pounds so I had to shed that. I actually felt pretty good and kept telling myself that I could do hard things. I even caught the old guy and when his support vehicle saw me, the pulled out of their parking spot and backtracked to see how their guy was doing. At the finish line they called me a hustler because when their team passed me, they thought I was a goner. They said they would never play pool with me.

I was so glad when I finished and knew I didn't have to run anymore. I put the only dry piece of clothes that I had, the free t-shirt, left on.

Here we are at the finish line, waiting for our last runner.

Here he comes!

Finishers! Second to last place of 39 groups!

Get me home