In 2017, I said I wouldn't do another relay unless I had friends as teammates. When Sulphur registration was happening, there was some Burly interest in the relay, but 20K didn't feel like enough of a challenge, so Agnes, Brian, Delano, and I decided to form a team to each run a more challenging distance of 40K.
I got to DVCA just before noon, to see Brian coming in at least 2 hours faster than expected. Temperature and trail conditions were as good as my first 50K back in 2015. I ran a 5K shakeout with Greg on the lollipop and felt bad that racers were saying "great job!" when we weren't doing anything significant and had to stop the photographer from taking our picture.
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| Gathering of trail friends! photo by Wes. |
I was running the final leg, so there was at least 12 hours of downtime. Nothing to do but drink and nap!
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| I had to cut myself off after double barreled champagne and radler action. |
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| Agnes naps before her leg. |
After Agnes started her leg and the sun set, I lay down in the tent to get something closer to actual sleep. It wasn't super noisy but there was occasional cheers and music was playing constantly so it was hard to fall asleep but I think I did catch a couple of winks. She started just after 6 pm so I was expecting her to finish around 1, waaaay earlier than the 4-5 am I thought it would be! Fortunately the aid station had hot coffee and I had plenty of time to wake up and be ready to start running.
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| Pass the baton..I mean ankle timing chip! |
I'm off around 1 am...and halfway down Martin Road, Steve and Audrey were finishing, so I talked Steve into keeping me company for at least half of the first loop. I'm definitely not scared to run in the dark, but it's nicer with company. I very very stupidly didn't charge my headlamp before the race - I think on some level because I was expecting to start my leg closer to sunrise? Anyways, my headlamp started to die. Did I have batteries and other headlamps? yes, in my bin at the start, not on my person. Steve and I swapped headlamps at the lollipop - he could make it back with my headlamp.
Between loops, I raced as I trained and did a shot of Fireball as a performance enhancer. Yes, it really works if you do it right, and I felt fantastic on the first half of the second loop in the pre-dawn darkness. My headlamp started to die again, but I googled the sunrise time, which was less than an hour away.
It was so quiet and peaceful, and the air smelled deliciously of fresh spring flowers. It was easy to achieve my 2022 goal of actually running at night, by utilizing the "ultra shuffle" that I've been practicing. I started getting sleepy when on the 3 Bitches, but I woke myself up by throwing out my arms and taking deep breaths of that scented air.
Even though technically Team Mud, Sweat, and Fireball was last in the relay standings, I'm 99.9% sure that we were the only team with only 4 runners, which of course makes the race harder.
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| Teamwork makes the dream work! (with Fireball bottle mascot) |
