Basic overview of this event. 12 people run a relay across 199 miles from Calistoga, CA down to Santa Cruz to raise money for organ donations. This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in The Relay with Team Palantir. The team and I want to thank my roommate Dang for filling in on a last minute volunteer swap. We’re grateful that you helped out and showed up on time so we didn’t get DQ’d. For the race I was assigned Legs 4, 16, and 28 which wasn’t the hardest set of legs at all. Overall though it was a harder than I thought it was going to be, but also way more fun that I had imagined. Who knew you could have have such energy running ~17 miles over 3 legs on ~1 hour of sleep. It was an adventure for sure (our van having a bit more adventure than the other team van). I’ll be going over a smattering of some of the highlights that stood out for me.
Our Start aka (Breaking and Entering)
Our official start time was April 30th 2 p.m. We arrived a bit before to sign in, decorate the van, swap runners, and redistribute provisions between the vans. As 2 rolled around our first runner took her spot with the other 2 p.m. teams and took off. We sent her off to cheers and hoots then headed back to the van to start our journey…only to find it was locked and we left the keys inside. After some confusion, panic, and consideration of just breaking the window, a multitude of plans went into action. We called AAA, some of us began pulling on the side window so that someone else could stick his fingers inside to pull the lock up, and another guy went off to get a coat hanger…(a few mins pass). The coat hanger is steps away, AAA is getting our location, we’re almost touching the lock…just need a bit more room…pull a bit more…BOOM! Broken glass everywhere…some minor cuts and a lot of shocked faces. No more need for the hanger, thanks AAA, but we solved our problem. Uh…time to roll out.
First Leg Runners (The Lost Lambs)
As we’re finally driving we get a call from Runner 1…she thinks she’s lost…wait wait…yes she did miss the turn. We drive over to the turn and cheer her on. Her and about 5 other runners miss a poorly marked turn…sad times. She’s pissed, but we tell her just wait till she sees the van. We’re thinking this is a great start =) Our van name is now No Aplologeez.
Fourth Leg (Ditched)
This was my leg so I didn’t get the story till after. It was a longer 7.4 mile leg going towards Yountville and man was it hot. The van gave me a water boost at mile 4 which I asked for. I didn’t give them my long sleeve shirt (stupid me) which they asked for. Luckily they stopped again. This time cheering me on and telling me not to worry about the van…which was pulled over to the side of the road and at a precarious 45 degree angle down to the right. I continued running and hoping they were ok. As I approached the handoff point I saw the van speed by me and the next runner already in place. Apparently another van brought our next 2 runners to the exchange just in case our van didn’t make it in time. Also there are photos of about 10 people trying to push the van up to no avail. Luckily a truck driving by just happen to have a tow and tow our van out. Already feeling the spirit of comradarie in the event.
Break Time (Birth of Pizzabox Van)
As we pulled into the van exchange some people asked if we were the team from Palo Alto. We answered yes we’re hte broken window, towed out of a ditch team. They laughed and shared the stories with others around them. Notoriety up! We met up with our second van of runners and told them of our adventures. They were there for the broken window incident and thought we were joking about the ditch incident. Our 6th runner had a short detour when he hit a dead end in the residential area and a kid and his dad playing ball told him he was probably in the wrong place =) Still an awesome time on that run. We went off to try and grab dinner. After being rejected by a few places we found a small food court type area that had a Gott’s, Pika Pika, and Filippi’s Pizza Grotto & Fine Wine. We each went to get our own dinner and eat outside Gott’s. Filippi’s was even nice enough to give us a pizzabox to cover up the window as long as put their ad facing out. Done Deal! A short stop at home depot for some tape and we had ourselves a new pizzabox window.
Start of the Night Runs
Our 2nd batch of runs were basically all night runs. We more or less had awesome runs here and began seeing and passing some teams. Our first runner even found a running buddy in Team Grind’s runner though our second runner smoked their guy. For my 2nd run I decided to use hte Vibram’s. I was feeling good and it was not hot. My leg took me down Sir Francis Drake through an area I had driven before heading up to eat Tomales Oysters. Some highlights from my run are having my teammates rile up some bar goes to cheer for me and having them tell me there was a girl up ahead I needed to pass because she looked weak. To be fair I got passed by A-Team’s runner at about the same point too.
Golden Gate Run (Fastest Way to get DQ’d, Karaoke, and Eye of the Tiger)
This leg was for our 6th runner. We had an awesome start by having the volunteers tell us we can’t cheer due to the start being in a residential area. Our driver then yelled out his cheer to the shock of the volunteer…oops. During a couple of his climbs we drove next to him singing him some requested songs. Unfortunately we led him astray and he had to climb the hill up to the Golden Gate twice. I think we more than made up for it by finding him on the bridge, slowing down to his pace, and blasting Eye of the Tiger for a good 5 minutes. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic and the few cars we did see passed us on the right lane.
Break Time 2 (Sleeping at the Office)
We headed into the exchange point, met up with our second van, and got some free soup being handed out by volunteers (so good). After chatting a bit we bolted off to the office to get some shut eye. Getting at the office I think everyone thought about showering…but weighing that with sleep we stuck with sleeping. After about 1 hour of sleep we were up and off to meet up for our final legs. As we pulled into the van exchange we heard some excalmations by onstanders, “Pizzabox Van!” We’re famous =) When we got out we noticed a magnet slapped onto our van. It said “You’ve been tagged by the A-Team Sucka!” Touché A-Team touché. Their van had the big red stripe and was blasting the A-Team song.
My Final Leg (Death by Hill Climb)
We were going pretty strong on the final legs. Basically coming down 280 through Palo Alto, down into Cupertino, and up the mountains to Skyline. My run was actually through Cupertino into Stevens Canyon Road. I actually biked this with Dang and Joe a few weeks go. I was going pretty strong into Stevens Canyon Road, but about 1.5 miles into the climb I just gassed. It was so hot and I was so tired my pace dropped significantly. I ended up finishing just under a 10 min pace. Sorry team! Note to self, more hill climbing training.
Up the Mountain (Rocket Runners)
The next 2 runners after me had the luxury of climbing about 1000 ft each in 3 miles. They rocked it coming in at under 10 min/mile paces each and passing about 8 teams each as well. We made multiple stops and blasted music. At one particular stop we were blasting Venga Boys and dancing. One of the runners stopped and danced with us haha. One of our runners even passed a bike (he said he didn’t know what to say to the cyclist). I think we were all just so happy to be officially done we were having a great time cheering people on.
The Finish Line (Finished and Finally Showers)
We passed off to the other van for their final legs and took off to hit the house of a family friend of one of our runners. They were so nice and so gracious to let us use their place. We all took our showers…it was glorious. We even snacked a bit on some chips and guac and salsa. Sooo good. We continued to chill for a bit and then headed off to meet with our other runners at the finish. We saw them pull up around 4:20 and ran with our final runner across the finish!
The After (Dinner and News)
We went back to the family friend’s house and everyone hung out and got ready for dinner which was awesome. Quinoa, fruit salad, salmon, chicken, corn bread, mac & cheese…oh so so good. We found out we finished 28/220 overall and 1/15 in our division of corporate mixed! Way better than we thought we’d do. Then we also found out Osama had been found and killed. Wow what an end to a weekend!
Thanks
Thanks to all the runners on the Team and for the friends that hosted/cooked/volunteered for us! Had an awesome time with you all!
Van 1: Ann, Kim, Tom, Ashling, and Ryan
Van 2: Chris, Amy, Amanda, Courtney, Shreyas, Lisa
Volunteers: Dang and Shreyas’s parents
Others: Bagels and bananas that gave their lives. Random ppl who helped get our van out. Filippi’s Pizza Grotto & Fine Wine for the pizzabox.