To recap our adventure weekend:
With only 11 runners, Allen graciously stepped up to the plate and started our team off in a great race position. Alas, we couldn't persuade Allen to stay in Van 1 (we begged) when Van 2 arrived to claim him back. Sonia and Mark, both with painful injuries, ran their first legs in great times before David's most difficult run in the race (Leg 4), Downer's Downfall. David ran his leg in an amazing time (the 16th fastest) that none of us actually saw him finish! Jenn, with a bad cough and also injured, was a trooper and ran all her legs without complaint with her last leg running UP a hill to the exchange point.
Van 2 couldn't wait to get on the course and ran very consistent and strong times for all their legs. Robin, Pierre, David and Aaron all broke a 7min/mile pace on one of their legs during the race with Aaron posting the team's fastest average pace time (6:22!) for his last and most difficult leg. Did Van 2 have a secret stash of performance enhancement drugs? We wonder.
Van 1 didn't waste a moment for their 2nd leg rotation with Sonia biting the bullet and running her second and last leg of the race faster than her first and with Mark charging up the hill soon after on his most difficult leg despite his nagging injury. Van 1 clocked in impressive times (all under 9min/mile pace) leaving Van 2 to wake up
just after midnight with only an hour or so of sleep. Van 1 worried there would be payback...
Aaron started his Van's 2nd leg rotation with a steep 2.5 mile climb so Robin and Pierre can sprint back down the other side in the dark of night. Both Aaron and Scott (sleep deprived yet wide-eyed) both took on additional legs in the pre-dawn hours when injuries set Van 1 back. On Mark's 3rd and final leg, he practically sprinted in for the quick hand off to David who finished his 3rd leg with his fastest pace time.
Van 2's last set of legs were probably the hardest and definitely the longest (7.5miles) for Scott and Chris but I'm sure the view they had of Reno was magnificent.
Chris, our youngest member and running the most miles (19) for the team, ran strong and hard despite the worsening knee pain. He didn't give up and continued to run all his assigned legs in spectacular time until Aaron took over the last few miles of that leg. Allen, our last runner, sprinted us home to the finish line!
Official time: 24:40:57 8:19/mile pace
Overall place: 28th out of 97 teams
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