Cascade Lakes Relay

CLR 2009 is in the books. Once again, an instant classic. I really seem to enjoy this race. I'm definitely paying for it today though. I can hardly stay awake to write this blog. Having van#2 full of fast ladies definitely has its consequences. On the other hand, it's always fun to win a race!

This year added the new challenge of heat. We were welcomed into the race by mother nature's version of hell. I don't know what the official max temp was, but I think we could build a case for triple digits.

Lets just dissect this picture for a moment:

Note the smoldering heat waves in the background along this unprotected stretch of pavement. This fit athlete is suffering to complete a 7.5 mile, gradual downhill run. If you were to zoom in on him, you would note his skin is bone dry as he lost his ability to sweat about 2 miles back. He refused a rectal temp after his run, so we'll never know his official core temp, but it was up there. OK, so it was hot. Admittedly it probably taxed us a bit, but it also gave us something to rally around.

The guys were great about supporting each other on the course...and at the same time laughing about how miserable the runner looked while in the van. The heat also made for exceptional middle of the night running. How often do you have the opportunity to run in a singlet in the middle of the night in Central Oregon? Actually I've never been awake to know, but guess that it is rare.

We had first class support from some volunteers at one of our checkpoints. For some reason James seemed to attract most of the support. He was definitely our rock star. After already being groped and nicknamed Mr. Goodbody by a 62 year old woman at the first checkpoint, he was treated like a king. Note Martin also enjoying a fan down by Shay. Heck, I even got fanned and shaded during the interview. Awesome!

It was a sight for sore eyes meeting up with the ladies. We were able to whine and cry to them while they politely listened. I think Jill and Laura were able to enjoy the heat a bit before the sun started to set. The rest of the ladies had awesome twilight running. While they pounded out the miles into Silver Lake, we enjoyed the sunset.

After some time hanging out and a much needed mug of coffee, it was our turn again. The next stretch of running was on dirt and cinder roads. Martin drew the short straw and was dealt the ankle breaking wash board section of road. Aside from James ripping his hamstring, I think the rest of us all enjoyed this section of running. I know I did.

After again meeting with the ladies, who graciously ran in the wee hours of the night, we booked to La Pine with the hope of catching some sleep. We were able to see that we had already caught most of the teams running. We were surprised to see however there was a team way out in front of us. They began the race four hours before us, so we weren't threatened by their overall time, however we hoped to cross the finish line 1st. After a somewhat fruitless attempt at sleep, the phone rang with the ladies on their way. Time to rally again. I was really happy that just hours before, I switched legs with Teague, so now he was running the first leg. He definitely stepped up and ran a nice section. Andy and I ran the next two legs before handing off to Ryan, who was able to take a short break from the Honey Bucket to pound out a 6.1 mile uphill section. This was just a warm up for the real show that took place on the now famous, somewhat tarnished leg 29. Lets just say a picture is worth 1,000 words....
For the truly daring, video of this event is available upon request. Huge kudos to Michael for being a gamer. The Coors Light drinking male volunteers were really impressed.

Well, we gave it our all, but never did catch the group in front of us. The ladies were able to close the gap but ultimately we crossed the line about 10 minutes behind. Nonetheless, another victory in the CLR. What a great experience with a great group of people. Thanks to all my teammates for the good times. Special thanks to Footzone and Rebound for the sponsorships. Look forward to next year.