Running the 2013 Tahoe Relay

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of joining over a thousand runners for the 49th annual DeCelle Tahoe Relay. This year would be the 5th time that Sean, Rock, and I would run and we had some runners from past relay teams as well as a few new runners on our 7-person team. Although it was a super hot day, we had great fun and we made it around the lake (72 miles) before the cutoff, which is all that mattered.  Turi—who returned for his third time on our team on short notice—wrote a great blog post about the run. Be sure to check that out and take a look at some of his amazing animated images there!

Rocky kicked off the run at 7 a.m. Prior to the race he had put together a few upbeat mixes for us all on his soundcloud page, which helped a lot. It was already warm at the start (last year our runner had to wear gloves).

I ran the second leg. Lots of familiar faces at Zephyr Cove relay stop, like Angel who coned off the tunnel as usual, and Ed and his wife who were timing the first leg for their 19th straight year. Thanks so much for your help, guys! I felt good and was able to run and powerwalk my way up to the top of Spooner Summit. Nowhere near as fast as a few years ago, but I was happy with the effort.

It was a hot day! The temperatures were already rising during the second leg of the course, which is usually still quite cool.

I handed it over to Pamela, who was joining is for the first time. She paced herself like a pro on the run to Incline Village. It was now downright hot!

Fourth was Damien, another new team member. He absolutely killed it on the course and just kept running and running--incredible job!

Leg 5 was Oliver's leg--back for his second relay with us.

Turi ran leg 6--arguably the hardest leg of the entire relay. While we were waiting for Turi with water on the side of the road, an angry local almost called the sheriff on us for trespassing (read: parking on the side of the road and peeing in the woods!) Oh well. Also, at this time, our second support car broke down and had to be towed to Truckee, so unfortunately we lost Oliver's dad and Pamela and Damien. We would catch up with them at dinner though.

And then Sean brought it home, running an amazingly fast last leg and bringing us in at 12:30 and change. What a great day.

Another successful relay. We drove to Truckee to meet up with the rest of the team (minus Turi) and had a delicious team dinner at the 50/50 Brewery. We'll definitely be back for the 50th anniversary next year! A big thanks to Vicky for all the support during the race!