the relay, redux

199 miles, 36 legs, 10 2/3 runners, 26 hours of feet on the road (not all mine), 2 hours sleep (all mine), and crazy-fun.

details to follow. (last years post is here. [the post referenced appears to have asploded due to a weird css/blogger bug that i've forgotten how to fix and am too tired to look up. {mike, if you remember what the fix is, will you email me?}] [hooray for bracket-layering!]).*

*all fixed now

UPDTATED

ok, first of all, our team was called nerd.run() and our t-shirts (one of the team actually made a silkscreen, and we all printed our own one night) said:

10 nerd.run()
20 nerd.sleep()
30 goto 10

and if you think that's funny, you're right.

our team finished in 26:58:30, 34th out of 221 total teams, and 5th(!) out of 56 mixed-gender (6 or more women) teams.

the weather was almost perfect, clear but not hot (well, our start time was 1:00 p.m. and our first couple of runners had to run in the heat, but it got cooler as the race progressed), and i got to run across the golden gate bridge at about 2:00 a.m., the city shining across the bay and an almost-full moon bright enough to compete with the streetlights.

i was in van 1 this year, which was nice since i was in van 2 last year, and new territory is always good, but if i do it again i'll try to get into van 2, as there is less waiting around, and two real chances to sleep, as opposed to just one.

our team was down a runner from the start due to a (minor) car crash, and our van lost another 1/3 of a runner to injuries (she ran her first two legs, but couldn't do her third). i'd asked to pick up up one of the extra legs because i'm weird like that, and others jumped in to cover the other 3 that needed runners.

we had some really fast runners on our team this year; one averaged sub 6:30's, another sub 7:00's, two who went sub 7:30, and three who averaged sub 8:00's.

overall it was blast, and i'll most likely run it again. my personal stats are below. i'll post pics as i get them (i brought a camera, but didn't take a single picture. i'm dumb like that).

leg	rating	distance	ascent	start time	pace	total time
6	e	4.5	40	4:11 p.m.	07:01	00:31:47
12	h	4.8	520	9:33 p.m.	07:37	00:36:34
18	h	5.8	360	1:44 a.m.	07:31	00:43:36
30	vh	3.1	1020	10:03 a.m.	08:54	00:278:37
		18.2	1940		07:39	02:19:24

my favorite legs were 12 and 30 because they had the most climbing, and because they just felt good; i was in the groove, working hard but not killing myself, and i passed a lot of people. (i'm not competitive at ALL).

leg 30 was particularly fun because there were a ton of vans stopped along the way, all cheering like crazy as i (and all the other runners too) came by, making a noise like a steam engine and my tongue hanging out.