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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Santa Cruz or Bust!

I'm running in a race this weekend. Its called "The Relay." A 199 mile, 12-member team race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz, CA. The team is split into two groups, each member of the team running 3 parts (legs) of the race, varying distances over two days, kind of frog hopping along. This is the 5th time I'll be participating in a race of this sort.

My collective group of legs totals 18 miles: 7.4 miles, moderate difficulty; 5.9, all uphill, HARD; and 4.7, easy. Continuing with the numbers: 6 sweaty men and women, sharing one van, over two days and two hundred miles, with no sleep, using porta-potties (ugh!) along the way. Highlights of this race include running under a full moon, thru beautiful wine country, across the Golden Gate Bridge, thru San Francisco, thru cities in the Silicon Valley and finally finishing on the beach in Santa Cruz. Did I mention that its rained 25 days in the month of March and it is anticipated that it will rain through the weekend? Did I mention the road closures because of landslides, cracks, flooding, and downed trees? Did I mention that one of my legs is thru a vineyard of mud?

Yesterday, I checked "The Relay" website for updates on the race and course conditions and read this:

"Due to mountain lion sightings on Hudson Vineyard (Leg 8), consider running with pepper spray or a teammate." Remember me mentioning my run thru a vineyard? Yes, this is one of "my" legs. What? MOUNTAIN LIONS!!! I'm a true-bleu city girl. I know nothing about protecting myself against mountain lions. Arrrrgggghhhh!!!

I sent an email to my fellow runners, asking who would be willing to run with me during my leg. What a great idea to bring along a teammate, I throw my teammate to the mountain lion and while the lion has lunch, I run off and meet the van!

It will definitely be a fun weekend!!! ; .)

3 comments:

Ragged Around the Edges said...

I am blown away and overly impressed that you are doing this. I will be rooting for you from afar. Good luck. Be safe and enjoy every step.

madretz said...

hehehe! I saw you got RC as your lion lunch. I was wondering what you meant by that when I got the note a couple of days ago but now everything makes sense! Have fun runner girl.

Nan said...

Mountain Lions?!? I'll bet that leg of the race is where everyone gets their fastest time!