Sunday, July 09, 2006
Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay or better known as "Wrong Way Shlep Rock"
I really love running relays, honestly, I do, but when you are short runners, you take a fun experience and turn it into a serious workout. The week started off fantastic. The girls and I headed to Tahoe for a much deserved vacation, and I was looking forward coating my body with sunscreen and soak up some rays.
We drove up Saturday and arrived around 4:00 pm, traffic was a bit dicey for the holiday weekend, but we managed ok. Since we got up there so late, we had dinner at the cabin, and planned to spend Sunday at our favorite beach, Sand Harbor. I got up very early, and logged in some miles (12 to be exact.) I wanted to get acclimated to the oxygen conditions - plus I also signed up for the Lake Tahoe Marathon that will be taking place at the end of September. Even though I've run Tahoe many times, it's always very hard the first day out there and I really struggled with the lack of air during my run, in fact, I was out of commission for a couple days.
Wednesday came rolling around and the girls headed back home, while my brother came up to hang out. I got an email from Meghan who was suppose to run with us with some bad news, she couldn't make the relay as she's being pulled out of town to Arizona for a work thing. Meghan said, she'll see if she can find someone last minute to fill in. She couldn't. I also took a wild stab and see if I could recruit a runner, unfortunately, I struck out too.
Eric came up Thursday and at dinner, we came up with as to what we should do. Eric suggested we get a hold of the race director, Eric, and see if we can start earlier, as we'd be short three runners. I made a couple of calls, one to Rebecca (my ole relay mate) who happened to be a VIP for the relay. She tried to help out and find us some bodies but at least we had our early start time :)
Friday morning comes, Eric and I hit the road real early for the drive to Reno. I tell ya, the drive up there isn't really pretty, unless you take the route over Mt. Rose. I guess, being born and raised in the Bay Area, I've become a tree lover - and I need to be around trees. Kinda makes sense as I love running Huddart every weekend. We show up at Melanie's house (our team captain) in Reno gated community and park Eric's car in the drive way as no cars are allowed on the street. I really wasn't looking forward to running extra legs as I think it could have been avoided. To say I was less than thrilled would be an understatement. Let's just say I was in a bad mood.
When we arrived where the course begins - in Wingfield Park, an island park in the middle of the Truckee River in Downtown Reno, to wish Van 1 good luck, I ran into my old team from last year. It was great to see them all. 9 o'clock came and team started. Since we had several hours to kill, we all headed back to Kelly's house to have some lunch and watch a movie - The Wedding Crashers.
Around 2:00 came the call for us to start our portion of the relay. We met up with Van 1 outside of Truckee. Eric, or Big E as I like to call him had the first leg. It was hot, but not as hot as last year, so that was good. We decided earlier that I would run a total of 6 legs as I am in the midst's of training for the Lake Tahoe Marathon - but we might be able to find someone to help out last minute and run a leg or two for us. I ended up running legs 8 and 12, Melanie said she'd run the 9th and 10th leg. Eric and Kelly would pick up extra legs later on.
I started off with a casual pace as I knew it was going to be a really long weekend. But once you are out there, the competitive juices start to flow, and what we affectionately call road kill, or overtaking other relay runners, presents itself, you just take it. So, my first leg, I chalked up 4 road kills. I handed off to Melanie and her leg was a nice 3.3 mile jaunt, and she was then suppose to double up and run the next leg of 5.5 miles. Eric and Kelly ended up covering the distance as she wasn't feeling so well. Finally, it came back to me, and my leg traveled along the west shore of Tahoe, all the way to Homewood, which by the way, is where my clan spent the 4th of July. Since this was my second leg already, I really wanted to go casual, but damn, that road kill presented itself again, and yes, I had to take it. The run down to Homewood was beautiful, it was in the early evening, the sun had gone down but still light out, the air was cooler, but still warm from the day. In retrospect, that probably was my best leg, or at least most scenic. I also happened to bag 5 road kills, and covered the 6.2 miles in an 8 minute pace. Not too bad for my second run of the day.
After the run, we headed to the pizza parlor to pick up our dinner and ate along our way to our rest spot. Our resident quick chick, Lauren, who is in Spain right now, offered up her parents cabin in Tahoe for us to bed down. Thank you Lauren!! I think we managed a couple of hours of shut eye and a hot shower, but the cell phone rang and it was time to go back to work. Van 1 was finishing up there legs and we were suppose to meet them at the van exchange near state line. The local Starbucks stayed open, and I purchased a large coffee to get my engine revving again. This time, we actually had a couple of runners, so all of us only had to run one leg each (like we were suppose to), so, I was very focused and determined to blow out a good leg for the team. Our particular set of legs took us over the Kingsbury Grade and along the highway back to Genova, Nevada.
The evening air was still warm and I had a long sleeve shirt on, Melanie suggested I'd be too warm in it, so, I took it off and just ran with my headlamp and reflective vest. I was plugged into my iPod getting all amped up for a promising leg, I glanced at the map and noticed I was suppose to be on state route 206. This wasn't my normal leg that I was originally scheduled to run. But you know me, go with the flow. Big E came barreling down the hill, and handed off to me. I took the wrist band which was glow in the dark, slipped it on my wrist and proceeded down the highway. I had a really nice smooth gate going, my pace was consistent, I was running around 7:40's per mile.
Running in the middle of the night is most excellent. Most normal people don't run at that hour, but with the coolness finally setting in, the stars lighting the sky, the moon out shining, the evening was perfect for some good mile splits.
Mile after mile, even on the inclines, my pace was pretty consistent, this was my chance to really bag some extra road kills, but by mile 4, this weird feeling came over me. I haven't seen my van yet as they usually follow the runner along the road. Speaking of vans, I had not seen any vans from other teams. All of a sudden, I felt all alone and started to get nervous.
I stopped, turned around, hoping to see any headlamps or vehicle traffic. I glanced up and did see some activity, so, I figured I was ok. I turned off my headlamp to see if I could the relay exchange point up the road and I did notice some lights. I figured I only had less than 2 miles to go so what the heck. As I was getting closer to the 5.8 mile mark on my Garmin, I was really getting nervous, shit, did I go the wrong way? No, I wouldn't do that, I am a veteran of many relays, and I just don't make those type of mistakes.
Sure enough, mile 5.8 came and no relay exchange point. I even ran a bit further, just in case the gps was off, but it wasn't. I went the wrong way. Now I was pissed off. Where was my van? Didn't they notice I was missing? I am in the middle of no where, and I am all alone. No traffic, no lights, just strange noises coming from the side of the road. I turned around, and started to run back up the hill. I normally don't get freaked out, but it was almost 3:00 am, and I am right in the middle of BFE.
I hear a loud noise coming from the side of the road and when I turned to look at it, my headlamp illuminated a set of green mystic eyes. As I rotated my head more and more eyes reflected back at me, I felt like I was in a Stephen King movie so I stopped looking at the eyes and focused on the road ahead of me. Where is my freekin van? Don't they know by now, that I went the wrong way?
After about an hour and 10 minutes, Big E pulls up and yells out the window: you went the wrong way. No shit. Disgusted, I opened the van door and took a seat in the rear. Kelly and Eric proceeded to fill me in what they did to try to find me. They went to the relay exchange point, thinking they already missed me, the drove the entire leg back and forth searching for me. When they didn't find me, they dropped Melanie off and set her along the path. Eric spoke to the volunteer working the exchange and asked them what's the protocol for a lost runner. They were this close in sending search and rescue to come find me.
Where I made my critical mistake was at the beginning of my leg. Instead of turning left, I went right. I don't know how I made such a mistake - the leg instructions were very explicit, turn left along highway 206 and make your way to historic Genoa. I remembered the 206 part but not the turn left part. I don't like to make excuses, but I usually print out the legs I normally run, study them, and then proceed. Since we were short runners, we had to make adjustments to leg asignments and things were just crazy, I really wasn't in the best frame of mind, so my concentration was off. None the less, I still went the wrong way.
What happens in Van 2 stays in Van 2 was not the case. My cell phone rings and it was Rebecca. Joe, I heard you got lost. No, I wasn't lost, I just ran the wrong way. Big difference! Rebecca asked me where was your van, didn't they follow you? I said, not exactly. It was just one of those things.
I stayed pretty much in a sour mood for the rest of the evening, shaking my head in disbelief. I ran my guts out with zilch to show for it. My pride and ego were shot- I just wanted to go home, it wasn't worth it anymore. By the time we got to the van exchange point, the news traveled quickly about my extended adventure.
We made our way back to Melanie's house for our final rest period and I sacked out on a fouton mattress. They had a dog that kept coming and kicking me in the face, so, I covered my head with the sleeping blanket to protect myself. Around 6:30 in the morning, Kelly comes in and says were late we slept in, we got to go. I looked at her and said go back to sleep, we just got here. I got up, took a shower, and proceeded back to my sleeping bag, trying to sneak in a few extra minutes of shut eye.
The call did come and van 1 said they should be done around 11:00 am. We unloaded some stuff back into Eric's mustang, and drove up to Virginia City. We hooked up again with our team from last year and by this time, they were all teasing me about running the wrong way. I told them that I was just going to run back to the Bay Area, or make this really an adventure race.
Anberlee, van 1's 6th runner made her way up the hill and handed off to Big E. We said our goodbyes and headed off. The temps were starting to climb, someone said it was 100 degrees. Ouch. I slathered sun screen all over me - and took in extra fluids and salt tablets. I really didn't want to dehydrate out there. Another team was hot on Eric's tail, they were from Texas, and I think the name of their team was Texas Road Kill. I tried to stay in front of their runner, but he passed me going up the highway. This particular leg was 3.7 miles long, and it went up Geiger Pass and then down along the highway back to Reno. I wasn't about to end up being someone else's road kill. As soon as the leg hit the summit and started down hill, I opened up my pace and figured I'd return the favor. I didn't want to make my move too soon, but I picked a point where I felt he couldn't catch me. With about a mile left in my leg, I got into one of my up tempo runs and quickly closed the gap, once he was in striking distance, I picked up the pace even more and zoomed right by him. I said something encouraging to him as I passed and also told him we had about a mile left.
I looked at my Garmin, and my last mile split was 6:05! Not too bad for wrong way shlep rock. I powered myself to the end of the leg and handed off. I was finally happy, I got to open it up and run really fast! But then it hit me, I have one more leg to run. Oh no. The runner I passed came in, and I went over and shook his hand and congratulated him on a good run. He returned the favor.
The last 4 legs seemed like the Bataan Death March. Melanie, Kelly, and Eric all had long distances to run, it was extremely hot and if it wasn't for Van 1 sticking around and helping everyone out, I think we'd still be there. Kudos to Van 1, for most of them, this was their first relay experience, and judging by their enthusiasm, they did an awesome job.
Now came my turn, again with the sun screen, I dunked my cap in ice water to keep the ole head cool, and got ready to run the last 6.1 miles in. The instructions were basic, stay on the bike path until you get back to the park (where it all started.) E shows up and there I go again. I am not loving life as my legs are dead and I have nothing left in the tank. I knew that 6 minute mile pace was going to come back and haunt me. About 1.2 miles into my run, I see Kelly on the path, she stops me and says, you are going the wrong way. I said you're kidding right? The instructions said run along the bike path, that's what I am doing. She told me I turned the wrong way at the beginning, I was suppose to turn right and not left. They wanted to know if they could drop me off further along the path, I told them no, take me back to the start, and I'll begin again, this time, heading in the right direction.
This last leg took every ounce of strength, will, determination just to finish. I didn't care what my pace was, I just wanted it to be done and over with. You try to trick yourself or make deals. You come up with crazy math scenarios to make it logical to run. The closer I got to the finish line, the better I started to feel. Van 1 was fantastic. They did such a great job in keeping me cool and hydrated, I tip my cap to them.
As I made the turn with Nate (he ran the last mile with me) I saw the rest of the team there waiting. We all ran in together across the finish line. Phew, we were finally done. A finish line never looked so good. After being out there for over 30 hours, it was good to be done. Again, we ran into our old team, they had already finished ahead of us (they had 12 runners to our 9).
We came in around 3:19 pm, and the place was slowly dying down. There were only a few teams left out there - at least we didn't finish last :) The food was good at the end. I had a Mahi Mahi burrito with a mango salsa in it. Very yummy - compliments of the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay by the way. There was free food and beer/drinks to be had by all participants and volunteers. A really nice touch of class by Eric.
This was definitely a difficult situation, and I am sure I wasn't the most pleasant guy to be hanging around with. But all in all, it was a good mental test for me. I wanted to know how much stress I can subject my body to in high altitude and not crash and burn. I think the Tahoe Marathon will be very interesting.
Next year though, I am going to take things in my own hands if we don't go to Italy . Rebecca asked me if I could pull together a competitive team, she could come up with a full sponsorship,(entrance fee and van rentals) I said sure, I know Burlingame Track Club would love to post a team. You know how competitive BTC is :)
We drove up Saturday and arrived around 4:00 pm, traffic was a bit dicey for the holiday weekend, but we managed ok. Since we got up there so late, we had dinner at the cabin, and planned to spend Sunday at our favorite beach, Sand Harbor. I got up very early, and logged in some miles (12 to be exact.) I wanted to get acclimated to the oxygen conditions - plus I also signed up for the Lake Tahoe Marathon that will be taking place at the end of September. Even though I've run Tahoe many times, it's always very hard the first day out there and I really struggled with the lack of air during my run, in fact, I was out of commission for a couple days.
Wednesday came rolling around and the girls headed back home, while my brother came up to hang out. I got an email from Meghan who was suppose to run with us with some bad news, she couldn't make the relay as she's being pulled out of town to Arizona for a work thing. Meghan said, she'll see if she can find someone last minute to fill in. She couldn't. I also took a wild stab and see if I could recruit a runner, unfortunately, I struck out too.
Eric came up Thursday and at dinner, we came up with as to what we should do. Eric suggested we get a hold of the race director, Eric, and see if we can start earlier, as we'd be short three runners. I made a couple of calls, one to Rebecca (my ole relay mate) who happened to be a VIP for the relay. She tried to help out and find us some bodies but at least we had our early start time :)
Friday morning comes, Eric and I hit the road real early for the drive to Reno. I tell ya, the drive up there isn't really pretty, unless you take the route over Mt. Rose. I guess, being born and raised in the Bay Area, I've become a tree lover - and I need to be around trees. Kinda makes sense as I love running Huddart every weekend. We show up at Melanie's house (our team captain) in Reno gated community and park Eric's car in the drive way as no cars are allowed on the street. I really wasn't looking forward to running extra legs as I think it could have been avoided. To say I was less than thrilled would be an understatement. Let's just say I was in a bad mood.
When we arrived where the course begins - in Wingfield Park, an island park in the middle of the Truckee River in Downtown Reno, to wish Van 1 good luck, I ran into my old team from last year. It was great to see them all. 9 o'clock came and team started. Since we had several hours to kill, we all headed back to Kelly's house to have some lunch and watch a movie - The Wedding Crashers.
Around 2:00 came the call for us to start our portion of the relay. We met up with Van 1 outside of Truckee. Eric, or Big E as I like to call him had the first leg. It was hot, but not as hot as last year, so that was good. We decided earlier that I would run a total of 6 legs as I am in the midst's of training for the Lake Tahoe Marathon - but we might be able to find someone to help out last minute and run a leg or two for us. I ended up running legs 8 and 12, Melanie said she'd run the 9th and 10th leg. Eric and Kelly would pick up extra legs later on.
I started off with a casual pace as I knew it was going to be a really long weekend. But once you are out there, the competitive juices start to flow, and what we affectionately call road kill, or overtaking other relay runners, presents itself, you just take it. So, my first leg, I chalked up 4 road kills. I handed off to Melanie and her leg was a nice 3.3 mile jaunt, and she was then suppose to double up and run the next leg of 5.5 miles. Eric and Kelly ended up covering the distance as she wasn't feeling so well. Finally, it came back to me, and my leg traveled along the west shore of Tahoe, all the way to Homewood, which by the way, is where my clan spent the 4th of July. Since this was my second leg already, I really wanted to go casual, but damn, that road kill presented itself again, and yes, I had to take it. The run down to Homewood was beautiful, it was in the early evening, the sun had gone down but still light out, the air was cooler, but still warm from the day. In retrospect, that probably was my best leg, or at least most scenic. I also happened to bag 5 road kills, and covered the 6.2 miles in an 8 minute pace. Not too bad for my second run of the day.
After the run, we headed to the pizza parlor to pick up our dinner and ate along our way to our rest spot. Our resident quick chick, Lauren, who is in Spain right now, offered up her parents cabin in Tahoe for us to bed down. Thank you Lauren!! I think we managed a couple of hours of shut eye and a hot shower, but the cell phone rang and it was time to go back to work. Van 1 was finishing up there legs and we were suppose to meet them at the van exchange near state line. The local Starbucks stayed open, and I purchased a large coffee to get my engine revving again. This time, we actually had a couple of runners, so all of us only had to run one leg each (like we were suppose to), so, I was very focused and determined to blow out a good leg for the team. Our particular set of legs took us over the Kingsbury Grade and along the highway back to Genova, Nevada.
The evening air was still warm and I had a long sleeve shirt on, Melanie suggested I'd be too warm in it, so, I took it off and just ran with my headlamp and reflective vest. I was plugged into my iPod getting all amped up for a promising leg, I glanced at the map and noticed I was suppose to be on state route 206. This wasn't my normal leg that I was originally scheduled to run. But you know me, go with the flow. Big E came barreling down the hill, and handed off to me. I took the wrist band which was glow in the dark, slipped it on my wrist and proceeded down the highway. I had a really nice smooth gate going, my pace was consistent, I was running around 7:40's per mile.
Running in the middle of the night is most excellent. Most normal people don't run at that hour, but with the coolness finally setting in, the stars lighting the sky, the moon out shining, the evening was perfect for some good mile splits.
Mile after mile, even on the inclines, my pace was pretty consistent, this was my chance to really bag some extra road kills, but by mile 4, this weird feeling came over me. I haven't seen my van yet as they usually follow the runner along the road. Speaking of vans, I had not seen any vans from other teams. All of a sudden, I felt all alone and started to get nervous.
I stopped, turned around, hoping to see any headlamps or vehicle traffic. I glanced up and did see some activity, so, I figured I was ok. I turned off my headlamp to see if I could the relay exchange point up the road and I did notice some lights. I figured I only had less than 2 miles to go so what the heck. As I was getting closer to the 5.8 mile mark on my Garmin, I was really getting nervous, shit, did I go the wrong way? No, I wouldn't do that, I am a veteran of many relays, and I just don't make those type of mistakes.
Sure enough, mile 5.8 came and no relay exchange point. I even ran a bit further, just in case the gps was off, but it wasn't. I went the wrong way. Now I was pissed off. Where was my van? Didn't they notice I was missing? I am in the middle of no where, and I am all alone. No traffic, no lights, just strange noises coming from the side of the road. I turned around, and started to run back up the hill. I normally don't get freaked out, but it was almost 3:00 am, and I am right in the middle of BFE.
I hear a loud noise coming from the side of the road and when I turned to look at it, my headlamp illuminated a set of green mystic eyes. As I rotated my head more and more eyes reflected back at me, I felt like I was in a Stephen King movie so I stopped looking at the eyes and focused on the road ahead of me. Where is my freekin van? Don't they know by now, that I went the wrong way?
After about an hour and 10 minutes, Big E pulls up and yells out the window: you went the wrong way. No shit. Disgusted, I opened the van door and took a seat in the rear. Kelly and Eric proceeded to fill me in what they did to try to find me. They went to the relay exchange point, thinking they already missed me, the drove the entire leg back and forth searching for me. When they didn't find me, they dropped Melanie off and set her along the path. Eric spoke to the volunteer working the exchange and asked them what's the protocol for a lost runner. They were this close in sending search and rescue to come find me.
Where I made my critical mistake was at the beginning of my leg. Instead of turning left, I went right. I don't know how I made such a mistake - the leg instructions were very explicit, turn left along highway 206 and make your way to historic Genoa. I remembered the 206 part but not the turn left part. I don't like to make excuses, but I usually print out the legs I normally run, study them, and then proceed. Since we were short runners, we had to make adjustments to leg asignments and things were just crazy, I really wasn't in the best frame of mind, so my concentration was off. None the less, I still went the wrong way.
What happens in Van 2 stays in Van 2 was not the case. My cell phone rings and it was Rebecca. Joe, I heard you got lost. No, I wasn't lost, I just ran the wrong way. Big difference! Rebecca asked me where was your van, didn't they follow you? I said, not exactly. It was just one of those things.
I stayed pretty much in a sour mood for the rest of the evening, shaking my head in disbelief. I ran my guts out with zilch to show for it. My pride and ego were shot- I just wanted to go home, it wasn't worth it anymore. By the time we got to the van exchange point, the news traveled quickly about my extended adventure.
We made our way back to Melanie's house for our final rest period and I sacked out on a fouton mattress. They had a dog that kept coming and kicking me in the face, so, I covered my head with the sleeping blanket to protect myself. Around 6:30 in the morning, Kelly comes in and says were late we slept in, we got to go. I looked at her and said go back to sleep, we just got here. I got up, took a shower, and proceeded back to my sleeping bag, trying to sneak in a few extra minutes of shut eye.
The call did come and van 1 said they should be done around 11:00 am. We unloaded some stuff back into Eric's mustang, and drove up to Virginia City. We hooked up again with our team from last year and by this time, they were all teasing me about running the wrong way. I told them that I was just going to run back to the Bay Area, or make this really an adventure race.
Anberlee, van 1's 6th runner made her way up the hill and handed off to Big E. We said our goodbyes and headed off. The temps were starting to climb, someone said it was 100 degrees. Ouch. I slathered sun screen all over me - and took in extra fluids and salt tablets. I really didn't want to dehydrate out there. Another team was hot on Eric's tail, they were from Texas, and I think the name of their team was Texas Road Kill. I tried to stay in front of their runner, but he passed me going up the highway. This particular leg was 3.7 miles long, and it went up Geiger Pass and then down along the highway back to Reno. I wasn't about to end up being someone else's road kill. As soon as the leg hit the summit and started down hill, I opened up my pace and figured I'd return the favor. I didn't want to make my move too soon, but I picked a point where I felt he couldn't catch me. With about a mile left in my leg, I got into one of my up tempo runs and quickly closed the gap, once he was in striking distance, I picked up the pace even more and zoomed right by him. I said something encouraging to him as I passed and also told him we had about a mile left.
I looked at my Garmin, and my last mile split was 6:05! Not too bad for wrong way shlep rock. I powered myself to the end of the leg and handed off. I was finally happy, I got to open it up and run really fast! But then it hit me, I have one more leg to run. Oh no. The runner I passed came in, and I went over and shook his hand and congratulated him on a good run. He returned the favor.
The last 4 legs seemed like the Bataan Death March. Melanie, Kelly, and Eric all had long distances to run, it was extremely hot and if it wasn't for Van 1 sticking around and helping everyone out, I think we'd still be there. Kudos to Van 1, for most of them, this was their first relay experience, and judging by their enthusiasm, they did an awesome job.
Now came my turn, again with the sun screen, I dunked my cap in ice water to keep the ole head cool, and got ready to run the last 6.1 miles in. The instructions were basic, stay on the bike path until you get back to the park (where it all started.) E shows up and there I go again. I am not loving life as my legs are dead and I have nothing left in the tank. I knew that 6 minute mile pace was going to come back and haunt me. About 1.2 miles into my run, I see Kelly on the path, she stops me and says, you are going the wrong way. I said you're kidding right? The instructions said run along the bike path, that's what I am doing. She told me I turned the wrong way at the beginning, I was suppose to turn right and not left. They wanted to know if they could drop me off further along the path, I told them no, take me back to the start, and I'll begin again, this time, heading in the right direction.
This last leg took every ounce of strength, will, determination just to finish. I didn't care what my pace was, I just wanted it to be done and over with. You try to trick yourself or make deals. You come up with crazy math scenarios to make it logical to run. The closer I got to the finish line, the better I started to feel. Van 1 was fantastic. They did such a great job in keeping me cool and hydrated, I tip my cap to them.
As I made the turn with Nate (he ran the last mile with me) I saw the rest of the team there waiting. We all ran in together across the finish line. Phew, we were finally done. A finish line never looked so good. After being out there for over 30 hours, it was good to be done. Again, we ran into our old team, they had already finished ahead of us (they had 12 runners to our 9).
We came in around 3:19 pm, and the place was slowly dying down. There were only a few teams left out there - at least we didn't finish last :) The food was good at the end. I had a Mahi Mahi burrito with a mango salsa in it. Very yummy - compliments of the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay by the way. There was free food and beer/drinks to be had by all participants and volunteers. A really nice touch of class by Eric.
This was definitely a difficult situation, and I am sure I wasn't the most pleasant guy to be hanging around with. But all in all, it was a good mental test for me. I wanted to know how much stress I can subject my body to in high altitude and not crash and burn. I think the Tahoe Marathon will be very interesting.
Next year though, I am going to take things in my own hands if we don't go to Italy . Rebecca asked me if I could pull together a competitive team, she could come up with a full sponsorship,(entrance fee and van rentals) I said sure, I know Burlingame Track Club would love to post a team. You know how competitive BTC is :)
