We were twelve coworkers on a mission:
Run from the top of Mt. Spokane to Trinity at City Beach in Sandpoint, Idaho.
We trained hard. We sweated a lot. We held meetings, gathered supplies, rented SUVs, and hydrated like no one's business. We were excited. We were ready to have some fun. We were...
Team ALK
Back-to-Front, Left-to-Right:
Support Volunteers Trena and Liz, Mike, Me, Courtney, Tim, Thomas, Ginger, Brent, Jacob, Pam, Andy M., Andy L., and Heather.
Day 1:
We got to Mt. Spokane just before our start time of 09:00. We had some time before the line-up, so Ginger got to work decorating our vehicles while Brent stretched out and got ready to start us off. Leg 1 was the Wild Wig Contest, so Brent threw on a wig and showed his team spirit.
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| Brent (in his wig) getting ready for Leg 1. |
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| Van 2 had illustrations. |
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| "Team ALK" "It's NOT Sweat, It's Liquid AWESOME" |
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| "Unless you faint, puke, or die...KEEP MOVING" |
When the race officials started calling off the team names (we were referred to as "Alk" Abello instead of "A.L.K." Abello, but we sort of had to make our peace with that) and announcing the runners, we headed to the big arch for our grand appearance and a few pictures.
They had like 10-15 teams start at the same time, so Brent and the other first runners lined up...
...and they were off!
Since I was Runner 8, I climbed into Van 2 with my colleagues (Runners 7-12) and we took off to go eat and relax until our race legs started. (Only one van at a time per team is allowed to be along the race route and parked at the checkpoints, so Van 2 needed to stay out of the way until Leg 7.) We did stop for a minute along Leg 1 to cheer on Brent since he was our first runner though. :)
Our team was asked to be a "Water Amabassador", so we were given a spray tank full of water and hosed down as many overheated runners along the route as we could.
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| Spraying our runner! |
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| Andy L. showing off our ALK jerseys |
At the beginning of Leg 2, we gave a shout out to Jacob. He wasn't very interested in conversation though - he was focused on a steady pace.
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| Go Jacob! |
"Van 2" was a really fun group. We had Mike, me, Courtney, Tim, Thomas, and Ginger.
* Fun Race Moment *
As we leave the pull-out where we stopped to cheer on Brent and hose him down with water, our driver, Ginger, eases out onto the road and we start driving down Mt. Spokane. It's a fairly twisty road, and she appears to be having a hard time turning the steering wheel. She really starts cranking the thing, and as we pick up a little speed, she's also having difficulty depressing the brake pedal. Tim tries to tell her how to down-shift, but then he stops and says, "Is the van even running?!"
It was not.
Ginger started the engine, and the steering and braking got infinitely easier from there on out.
So what did Van 2 do while waiting for Van 1 runners to finish? We ate some Jimmy Johns and then hung out at the fish hatchery. I don't know why. I think Tim knew the guy in charge there or something. At any rate, we lounged around in the shade, looked at the fish, and tried to psych ourselves up for running in 96-degree weather. The fish hatchery was a good place to wait since it was right along the route of Leg 6, the last leg run by our teammates in Van 1. We could wait there until we saw Heather pass and then drive up ahead of them to the checkpoint for the hand-off.
Sadly, not all of our teammates were feeling their best - the Pepto was passed to help battle gluten intolerance and Parvo.
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| Cooling off in the river near the hatchery. |
We saw Heather coming and ran out to spray her. Leg 6 was the Brightest Running Outfit contest leg, so Heather and the other runners were decked out in neon. When we met up with our Van 1 teammates, we found out that the heat had nearly taken out one of our earlier runners, and that Heather had rolled her ankle. She kept right on running though - she's one tough chick!
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| Go Heather!! |
We drove up to the checkpoint, but we had to go back and give Heather an ankle brace so that she could continue her leg. When she came running in, Mike was ready! Leg 7 was the Fleet Feet Time Trial contest leg, so he was prepared to run like the wind!
I was getting pretty nervous by the time Mike started...that meant I was next up! We drove to the beginning of my first leg. I was so afraid. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to run the whole 3.66 miles without walking part of it. I was afraid that I'd faint or throw up from the nerves and the heat. I was afraid I'd take the wrong path and go way off course. I was seriously panicked. I quadruple-checked my race route. I planned to run with just a bottle of water in my hand, but the others convinced me to try Mike's extra water belt. It was just a Velcro belt that held four little refillable bottles. I loaded two with Gatorade and two with water. I didn't think the bottles looked very secure in the belt, so I jumped all around to see if they'd fall out. They stayed.
Mike came running in. I was stretched out. I was ready to go. He slapped the bracelet on my wrist and I took off. Five steps later, all of my bottles had fallen into the dust at my feet. I ripped off the belt, grabbed the two that were closest to me, yelled for someone to pick up the others, and ran.
Anyway, it was a little cumbersome carrying two bottles, but I managed, and I had fortunately grabbed both of the waters. My run started out very nice. It was on an asphalt road in the state park, there were lots of trees for shade, and my pace was where I thought it would be. Things turned fairly quickly. Something very big jumped out of a tree about five feet to the right of me and I flipped out. All I could hear was the thud, the crashing brush, and then silence. In my head, I was going to be stalked and attacked by a cougar during this leg. I still have no clue what it was, but it was no falling pinecone, that's for sure. Also, the course was *much* steeper than it had appeared on paper. I found myself going uphill a lot more than I wanted to. The trees disappeared about a mile into the leg, too. I was running in the very hot sun. I honestly thought I might vomit, or cry, or both. I was angry at myself when I finally succumbed to walking for a stretch.
When I merged onto the dirt trail that would take me to the Bowl and Pitcher bridge, I was disheartened to see how rocky and sloped it was. I was sure I was going to roll my ankle like Heather, but unlike her, I didn't see myself toughing it out. I had to place my feet carefully. I was running again, but my pace was pretty slow. I found a lovely shady stretch and decided to walk that to regain my balance, slow my heart rate, and recover from the dizziness that hit me in the sun. Right after I started walking, two runners came up behind me. I didn't want to let them pass me, but I couldn't find the energy to throw myself back into a run. The man said, "It sure didn't look like this much of a climb on paper, did it?" I wanted to respond but all I could do was smile and nod.
As soon as they overtook me, I saw Ginger and Tim waiting with the sprayer up ahead of me. According to the GPS watch, I had at least a half mile to go, but they were there, cheering me on and convincing me that the end was just around the corner. I kicked it in gear somehow, passed off my empty water container, and ran for the bridge. It was a little farther than "around the corner", but I made it...only to discover awkwardly deep stairs leading down to the bridge. My knees have been tolerating this running thing pretty well, but those stairs nearly killed me. I couldn't just run them with single steps either - they were like a stride-and-a-half long, so I kind of just had to walk/gallop down them with everyone watching me from the other side of the bridge. I ran across, passed Courtney the bracelet, and nearly collapsed. I saw Miah and Kaden and Khloe there, cheering as I ran in. I wanted to go to them, but when Thomas suggested that I run down to the river to cool off, I knew that was the smart thing to do. He helped me down to the water and I sat there until I was almost numb. Finally, I mustered the strength to stand, hugged Miah and the kids, and then rendezvoused with the rest of my team. We had to get going to support Courtney, so I said my goodbyes and climbed into the van.
Courtney's leg was mostly uphill. We hung around near him off and on to spray him down and give him water, but he seemed totally in control. He ended on Doomsday Hill, where he admitted having to walk for a bit (which made me feel a little better, even though his leg was infinitely more difficult than mine had been), but he made great time.
Tim was up next. His leg was the Awesome Costume contest leg. He had purchased a Zorro costume, but the 96-degree day sort of dampened his spirit and he chose not to run in it. Probably a very smart decision. He put on the mask and posed for a picture though, and the whip hung around the rearview mirror of our van for the remainder of the trip. Ginger and I took turns running around in the cape for a while, too.
Ginger wanted to start preparing for her contest leg, so Mike and I helped her with some tattoos. We quit because they were all just going to sweat off before she even made it to her leg. More to come on this later.
At the exchange, Tim ran in and handed off to Thomas - Tim made much better time than he would've with the costume on.
Ginger finished getting ready for the Tattoo and Mustache contest leg while Thomas was battling the heat on his run. We were parked at the exchange since he was running a trail and we couldn't get to him from the road. Mike heroically jumped on the bike and went to bring him water though - we didn't dare make him go the rest of that stretch without any!
Ginger was the last runner from our van - Van 1 was going to be up again soon and maybe we'd get some time to sleep!
A few of us walked down the path to cheer her on and bring her in to the exchange where Brent was waiting. This was the checkpoint with our ALK Volunteers, Liz and Trena. Thanks, Ladies! Lexi was waiting there with them, too!
Mike's wife, Marcy, was ready and waiting for us when our van finished up the first legs. She made a great dinner and opened her home to a bunch of sweaty, exhausted runners. We all got rejuvenating showers, a delicious meal, and some much-needed down-time. I'm not sure any of us slept, but Courtney and I were productive nonetheless.
Anyway, Courtney and I stood out on Mike's patio and fashioned a crazy outfit from the glow bracelets. It was actually pretty awesome.
Day 2:
I'm going to call this the start of Day 2...I'm pretty sure we left Mike's just before midnight.
When Van 1 was almost finished, we drove down to McEuen park in Coeur d'Alene to wait for Heather. Again, there was bad news from Van 1 - there had been one instance of vomiting, and one runner fell and cut her hand pretty badly. Everyone was still in pretty good spirits though - go team!
While Mike was on his run, Courtney helped me get back into the outfit we had constructed. We cracked the rest of the glow bracelets, pulled out the connectors, and just started fashioning things until we ran out of supplies. I checked in with the race officials for the Best Light Show contest leg. They loved me. :)
When Mike tagged me in, I took off at a pretty quick pace (for me, anyway). Tim caught up to me on the bike (we were allowed to have bike shadowers at night when we were running on trails away from the road and van support) and told me that I was keeping a pretty quick pace. I told him I couldn't guarantee it for the whole run, but I found out that I love night running and the cool air made things easy. I ran much faster than I had on my previous leg.
It was also really nice to get to spend that time chatting with Tim. He's the manager of our entire facility, and a VP in the company. Of course, his job keeps him very busy and very hidden-away at work, so it was cool to get to know him a little better and have some one-on-one conversation.
When I came running in, Courtney took off with Mike shadowing him on the bike. While I stretched out, my cheering squad arrived - Matt, Karen, Jeff, and Sophia had come to support me! Karen made the coolest sign ever:
By the wee hours of the morning, my brain was a little mushy from sleep deprivation. I know that when Courtney finished his leg, we both tried to get some sleep in the van, but it didn't work out well for me. It was hard to get Thomas up and going for his leg. The sky was clear and beautiful that night, and the stars were shining really brightly. It was very pretty. Thomas and Tim finished, and we questioned whether Ginger was going to be able to do her leg since she was ill, but she mustered the strength and did the entire thing. It was a very impressive turn-around. I think night running is therapeutic. We stopped at Athol Elementary for the night, where we were told we could sleep in the gym. There were cots and air mattresses set up, so I fell right asleep at about 05:20. I was roused at about 05:50 because we were told we had to vacate the gym by 06:00. Maybe they could've mentioned that *before* we went in. I stumbled outside to see some of my van-mates asleep under a tree. I didn't have a sleeping bag so I crawled into the back seat of the van and crashed. At some point, we had to wake up and drive down the road to a high school, where Van 1 would end and we would begin our final legs. (We were a little irked to find people still sleeping peacefully in *that* gym...if we would've just driven there earlier, we would've still been curled up, sleeping soundly...)
We weren't looking forward to running in the heat of the day again, and then out of nowhere, a woman in the van next to us told us that "leap-frogging" was now an option. We were allowed to let our first runner start the leg, then we could go drop off the second runner and let him/her start the leg, so that two runners would be on the road at the same time, just in different places. If we recorded start/finish times, the race officials could still calculate our total run time for the relay, but it would keep people from running during the hottest part of the day and hopefully prevent more heatstroke (several people had already received treatment for heat-related illness, and the ambulance had come and picked up at least two). In exchange for this luxury, we had to forfeit any shot at a division title, but we knew we weren't winning our division anyway at that point, so we leap-frogged the rest of the way to the finish line.
We all struggled a little bit on our last legs, I think. Mine started out on a big uphill climb and didn't get much better from there. I had to walk about ten steps toward the top of that first huge hill, but I ran the rest of the 3.5 miles. That same Good Charlotte song (The Anthem) that helped me to push through on the treadmill a couple weeks ago came on my iPod just after I cleared the first hill. It had the right tempo and it got me psyched up. I repeated that same song for over three miles and it kept me going strong, even with all the hills. I employed Thomas's anti-fatigue tricks, avoided all of the speeding, oncoming traffic, and ran into the checkpoint tired but strong. My knee started swelling after that one, but I was done and I didn't care.
My average pace on Leg 32: 11.something-minute miles
We finished our legs, caught up with Ginger at the finish line, and all ran across together. It was so amazing. We did it! We ran 185 miles in 28 hours, 24 minutes, and 31 seconds. Of course, we forfeited any Division standings by leap-frogging, but had we not, we would've been second in the Corporate Teams Division (out of five). We were 39th out of 70 teams.
Everyone put on their finisher's shirts and medals at the finish line - it got really hard to pick out your own teammates! Everyone looked very similar - red shirt, huge smile, overall look of triumph and satisfaction.
I was getting pretty nervous by the time Mike started...that meant I was next up! We drove to the beginning of my first leg. I was so afraid. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to run the whole 3.66 miles without walking part of it. I was afraid that I'd faint or throw up from the nerves and the heat. I was afraid I'd take the wrong path and go way off course. I was seriously panicked. I quadruple-checked my race route. I planned to run with just a bottle of water in my hand, but the others convinced me to try Mike's extra water belt. It was just a Velcro belt that held four little refillable bottles. I loaded two with Gatorade and two with water. I didn't think the bottles looked very secure in the belt, so I jumped all around to see if they'd fall out. They stayed.
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| I'm *so* ready for this! Oh man...maybe not. |
**Side Note**
Alright, so I know a lot of people run with GPS watches and whatnot to track their mileage and pace, but I've decided this is a terrible idea. Well, for me anyway. Thomas strapped a GPS watch on me at the start of my first leg, and I thought it would be really cool to know exactly how far I'd gone and whether or not my pace was constant. Two things: One, you have to remember to start the thing if it's going to do you any good, and Two, if you check it every 50 strides or so, all it does is remind you that you've barely moved and you still have a horribly long way to go. Not cool.Anyway, it was a little cumbersome carrying two bottles, but I managed, and I had fortunately grabbed both of the waters. My run started out very nice. It was on an asphalt road in the state park, there were lots of trees for shade, and my pace was where I thought it would be. Things turned fairly quickly. Something very big jumped out of a tree about five feet to the right of me and I flipped out. All I could hear was the thud, the crashing brush, and then silence. In my head, I was going to be stalked and attacked by a cougar during this leg. I still have no clue what it was, but it was no falling pinecone, that's for sure. Also, the course was *much* steeper than it had appeared on paper. I found myself going uphill a lot more than I wanted to. The trees disappeared about a mile into the leg, too. I was running in the very hot sun. I honestly thought I might vomit, or cry, or both. I was angry at myself when I finally succumbed to walking for a stretch.
When I merged onto the dirt trail that would take me to the Bowl and Pitcher bridge, I was disheartened to see how rocky and sloped it was. I was sure I was going to roll my ankle like Heather, but unlike her, I didn't see myself toughing it out. I had to place my feet carefully. I was running again, but my pace was pretty slow. I found a lovely shady stretch and decided to walk that to regain my balance, slow my heart rate, and recover from the dizziness that hit me in the sun. Right after I started walking, two runners came up behind me. I didn't want to let them pass me, but I couldn't find the energy to throw myself back into a run. The man said, "It sure didn't look like this much of a climb on paper, did it?" I wanted to respond but all I could do was smile and nod.
As soon as they overtook me, I saw Ginger and Tim waiting with the sprayer up ahead of me. According to the GPS watch, I had at least a half mile to go, but they were there, cheering me on and convincing me that the end was just around the corner. I kicked it in gear somehow, passed off my empty water container, and ran for the bridge. It was a little farther than "around the corner", but I made it...only to discover awkwardly deep stairs leading down to the bridge. My knees have been tolerating this running thing pretty well, but those stairs nearly killed me. I couldn't just run them with single steps either - they were like a stride-and-a-half long, so I kind of just had to walk/gallop down them with everyone watching me from the other side of the bridge. I ran across, passed Courtney the bracelet, and nearly collapsed. I saw Miah and Kaden and Khloe there, cheering as I ran in. I wanted to go to them, but when Thomas suggested that I run down to the river to cool off, I knew that was the smart thing to do. He helped me down to the water and I sat there until I was almost numb. Finally, I mustered the strength to stand, hugged Miah and the kids, and then rendezvoused with the rest of my team. We had to get going to support Courtney, so I said my goodbyes and climbed into the van.
My average pace on Leg 8: 13-minute miles <-- That sucks.
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| Yeah, Courtney! |
Tim was up next. His leg was the Awesome Costume contest leg. He had purchased a Zorro costume, but the 96-degree day sort of dampened his spirit and he chose not to run in it. Probably a very smart decision. He put on the mask and posed for a picture though, and the whip hung around the rearview mirror of our van for the remainder of the trip. Ginger and I took turns running around in the cape for a while, too.
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| Thomas and Tim, a.k.a. Zorro |
At the exchange, Tim ran in and handed off to Thomas - Tim made much better time than he would've with the costume on.
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| The spray-down after running a leg in that heat was so refreshing! I'm glad we were "Water Ambassadors" so that the sprayer was always with us! |
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| Sadly, many of the tattoos had disappeared by this time. |
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| The hand-off...I'm glad we used a slap bracelet and not a baton. |
Ginger was the last runner from our van - Van 1 was going to be up again soon and maybe we'd get some time to sleep!
A few of us walked down the path to cheer her on and bring her in to the exchange where Brent was waiting. This was the checkpoint with our ALK Volunteers, Liz and Trena. Thanks, Ladies! Lexi was waiting there with them, too!
Mike's wife, Marcy, was ready and waiting for us when our van finished up the first legs. She made a great dinner and opened her home to a bunch of sweaty, exhausted runners. We all got rejuvenating showers, a delicious meal, and some much-needed down-time. I'm not sure any of us slept, but Courtney and I were productive nonetheless.
** Backstory **
I ordered a bunch of really fun LED stuff for my night run (a contest leg) from RaveReady.com. I found out they are not a very good company to do business with, and none of my stuff arrived in time to actually be useful. Thankfully, I ordered the Dreadlights from a different company. It was the one thing I had. I borrowed LED shoelaces from the kids, but it wasn't enough. The night before the race, I had to run to the mall and scour Hot Topic and Spencer's for anything glowing and wearable. The best I could get was a case of 100 glow bracelets with random connectors. I decided my costume was doomed to suck.Anyway, Courtney and I stood out on Mike's patio and fashioned a crazy outfit from the glow bracelets. It was actually pretty awesome.
Day 2:
I'm going to call this the start of Day 2...I'm pretty sure we left Mike's just before midnight.
When Van 1 was almost finished, we drove down to McEuen park in Coeur d'Alene to wait for Heather. Again, there was bad news from Van 1 - there had been one instance of vomiting, and one runner fell and cut her hand pretty badly. Everyone was still in pretty good spirits though - go team!
While Mike was on his run, Courtney helped me get back into the outfit we had constructed. We cracked the rest of the glow bracelets, pulled out the connectors, and just started fashioning things until we ran out of supplies. I checked in with the race officials for the Best Light Show contest leg. They loved me. :)
When Mike tagged me in, I took off at a pretty quick pace (for me, anyway). Tim caught up to me on the bike (we were allowed to have bike shadowers at night when we were running on trails away from the road and van support) and told me that I was keeping a pretty quick pace. I told him I couldn't guarantee it for the whole run, but I found out that I love night running and the cool air made things easy. I ran much faster than I had on my previous leg.
It was also really nice to get to spend that time chatting with Tim. He's the manager of our entire facility, and a VP in the company. Of course, his job keeps him very busy and very hidden-away at work, so it was cool to get to know him a little better and have some one-on-one conversation.
When I came running in, Courtney took off with Mike shadowing him on the bike. While I stretched out, my cheering squad arrived - Matt, Karen, Jeff, and Sophia had come to support me! Karen made the coolest sign ever:
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| Karen, you ROCK! |
My average pace on Leg 20: 10.6-minute miles <--- Much more respectable.
By the wee hours of the morning, my brain was a little mushy from sleep deprivation. I know that when Courtney finished his leg, we both tried to get some sleep in the van, but it didn't work out well for me. It was hard to get Thomas up and going for his leg. The sky was clear and beautiful that night, and the stars were shining really brightly. It was very pretty. Thomas and Tim finished, and we questioned whether Ginger was going to be able to do her leg since she was ill, but she mustered the strength and did the entire thing. It was a very impressive turn-around. I think night running is therapeutic. We stopped at Athol Elementary for the night, where we were told we could sleep in the gym. There were cots and air mattresses set up, so I fell right asleep at about 05:20. I was roused at about 05:50 because we were told we had to vacate the gym by 06:00. Maybe they could've mentioned that *before* we went in. I stumbled outside to see some of my van-mates asleep under a tree. I didn't have a sleeping bag so I crawled into the back seat of the van and crashed. At some point, we had to wake up and drive down the road to a high school, where Van 1 would end and we would begin our final legs. (We were a little irked to find people still sleeping peacefully in *that* gym...if we would've just driven there earlier, we would've still been curled up, sleeping soundly...)
We weren't looking forward to running in the heat of the day again, and then out of nowhere, a woman in the van next to us told us that "leap-frogging" was now an option. We were allowed to let our first runner start the leg, then we could go drop off the second runner and let him/her start the leg, so that two runners would be on the road at the same time, just in different places. If we recorded start/finish times, the race officials could still calculate our total run time for the relay, but it would keep people from running during the hottest part of the day and hopefully prevent more heatstroke (several people had already received treatment for heat-related illness, and the ambulance had come and picked up at least two). In exchange for this luxury, we had to forfeit any shot at a division title, but we knew we weren't winning our division anyway at that point, so we leap-frogged the rest of the way to the finish line.
We all struggled a little bit on our last legs, I think. Mine started out on a big uphill climb and didn't get much better from there. I had to walk about ten steps toward the top of that first huge hill, but I ran the rest of the 3.5 miles. That same Good Charlotte song (The Anthem) that helped me to push through on the treadmill a couple weeks ago came on my iPod just after I cleared the first hill. It had the right tempo and it got me psyched up. I repeated that same song for over three miles and it kept me going strong, even with all the hills. I employed Thomas's anti-fatigue tricks, avoided all of the speeding, oncoming traffic, and ran into the checkpoint tired but strong. My knee started swelling after that one, but I was done and I didn't care.
My average pace on Leg 32: 11.something-minute miles
We finished our legs, caught up with Ginger at the finish line, and all ran across together. It was so amazing. We did it! We ran 185 miles in 28 hours, 24 minutes, and 31 seconds. Of course, we forfeited any Division standings by leap-frogging, but had we not, we would've been second in the Corporate Teams Division (out of five). We were 39th out of 70 teams.
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| Waiting for our shirts and medals |
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| Red shirts everywhere! |
We ran down to the beach for a cool-down in the lake, and then headed out as a team to get shakes and burgers before driving back home.
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| The cool-down |
S2S is over now. I'm so glad I got to be a part of it - the sense of personal accomplishment and the camaraderie gained with my coworkers is priceless. I saw people at their worst and teamwork at its best. This relay was so much work, but the payoff was incredible, and I'm totally going to sign up again next year.
Oh! I was one of the four Best Light Show contest winners, too! Heck yeah!
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