Rosie Ruiz Fan Club

Make Room in Van 1...

2011-10-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

... For Rosie's cousin Rob, who recently came in "third" in the Kielder Marathon.

Way to go, Rob! We will be contacting you with info about your legs in the 2012 Reach the Beach.

(Thanks to Rodrigo for spotting our newest Club member in the news.)

Hampton Beach, a great place to meet the rest of your "relay family" members

2011-10-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

The end of a relay is like the end of a love story you so enjoy...or the end of your favorite childhood fairy tale... sad, sweet, but also... so ready for the next chapter...

Is anybody here finding it hard to explain to family and friends that we had a life changing adventure with people we don't even know, but yet we now keep them in the inner most part of our heart's "memory lane"? I sure am!

I must admit, I am honored to have been part of the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club relay team. I am so proud of my "relay family"

Don't we all look so happy after two days of sleepless nights and hard racing?

Here is our team members posing by the years they have been running as the RRFC relay team!

First, the veterans, then the virgins!

Here is our beloved team captain Erica and her cheerleader and the BEST co-captain ever, Chris :)...and where is the doggie?

and what will we do without the handsome speedy dudes in the team!!!

And the lovely couple celebrating their second year as team members!!!

and the newly inducted family members!!!

One must admit that the one sad part of being a member of a relay team is that you meet your team members from Vans 1 and 2 just briefly, then by destiny you are separated from your relay family until the end of the relay, except for a few short minutes here and there.

Like any family reunion, our team meeting up is always fun!

As a new team member I learned that I must take advantage of the precious "meeting" moments to have fun with the "other van"

Hope to see you all next time around!

Pre-race warm up ... Shake it baby, shake it

2011-09-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

I did say fun, fun, fun is the name of the game with the RRFC earlier". Well for any doubters out there, this is how Nancy and I loosened up our legs before we conquered the hills of NH ... lots of laughing, some boozing and yes, dancing to cheesy live music. Bet the other teams can't beat this beginning of a race.

The Organge Line Reaches the Beach!

2011-09-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

After handing off the baton to the Green Line in true Rosie fashion it was time to drive to the finish line! Off we went in search of lunch/dinner while we waited for our teammates to arrive.

Once at Hampton Beach we had one last task to complete before chowing down: Pictures with our Road Kill Counter Board! Yes, following tradition you get a sticker whether you pass somebody or get passed! The only difference is the type. If you do the passing you get a happy little sticker with something cute on it like a puppy dog, a butterfly or some such. If you get passed you get a Halloween sticker. To be honest, the Halloween ones look was cooler!

Here then are Bruce and Lisa:

Followed by Bruce, Nancy and me.

Last but not least of the pictures I have is the annual poster closeup.

After ceremoniously laying the road kill counter to rest (meaning tossing it in a nearby garbage can) it was off to lunch. The race provides lunch at the finish area. If you ever do this relay I can tell what it will be since it never varies: New England clam chowder, oyster crackers, roast chicken, roast new potatoes, and a butter soaked vegetable medley. Vegetarians can substitute what looks like a linguini Alfredo for the chicken. After eating almost nothing other than granola bars for two days even this stuff takes good!

Once the Green line showed up we collected our finisher medals and lined up for a few last pictures. First here is the Orange line

and our whole team:

Alas, that ends this year's adventures. As always this race is a blast and in no small part to Captain Erica and the wonderful people she always recruits! That is my version of our story until the next van or public transportation ride billed as a "race." I hope to see everybody again in 2013!

The Last Orange Line Leg

2011-09-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

The final lap to the beach came all too quickly! Two and a half hours of sleep then rise and, er, shine? Not really all that shiny to be honest. At least we had a GPS system to guide us. Better yet we had Lisa driving us to the VTA and Cara navigating. Why better yet? Well they had way more confidence in the GPS getting us to where we had to go than I did. Bottom line: They got us to the VTA without any irrelevant detours that yours truly the skeptic would have imposed on us. So thank you ladies!

The VTA is located in beautiful wooded area within a state park. Captain Erica was not the only one to get an early morning shot of the little lake at what was just a magnificent area to start our final leg.

While Captain Erica arranged for us to sleep at a nearby hotel others chose to ruff it in the VTA camping area. Actually, quite a few!

While waiting around the crew, sans Nancy and your author posed for a few pre-leg pictures.

You have to be impressed at how happy they look given they are in some sort of sleep deprived zombie state! Once on the road it appears some people really need to learn some patience. Here I am waiting for Bruce to come by with the baton for me to head off with.

After I got going it seems my mood brightened considerably, at least if you believe this picture.

Actually, what is going on is me laughing because I thought (it would seem incorrectly) that Nancy, the photographer here, had missed getting me coming by despite what appeared to be numerous attempts to get a shot. Shows what I know!

Back in the van I took over the camera again and got this shot of Cara on the run during what was a bright and warm (at last!) morning.

Next up for his photo shot of the morning was Taylor.

Then at long last a really good shot of Lisa on the run.

After Lisa it was off to the final VTA. There we handed off the baton for the final time and then headed by van to the beach for lunch/dinner and guess what? More pictures! But those will have to wait for the next post.

of courage and toilet costume and catching up

2011-09-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah...Van1 was ready for the dark night run after a great pasta meal and a few arguments what we should eat and where we should eat.

Here is our Van1 captain ready for his night leg. Unfortunately the blinking lights of his brand new vest did not work...yes! a nightmare we all feared, which cost Nancy two orders of beer at the end of the race :(/

While Van2 was running their leg, we drove into the sunset and got ready for our next leg...our night time run, yeah!!! bring the darkness in!!! we are ready!!!
Van1 one miraculously met up with Van2. Here is the gang chatting along, trying to catch up with the "relay happenings"

Here is our cute and faithful mascot and Chris cheering on our next runner...our OWN team captain, Erica (who did not know she had to put up with a toilet warm up routine)

While the toilet warm up was happening our vibrant captain was trying to warm up for her next leg. Ohhh the horrific things a team captain has to put up with.

Someone mentioned about the things you must put up with while running a relay, one of them being a poorly choreographed toilet warm up routine. I must admit I found this act a top notch performance considering where we were...in the boonies.. and the courageous teenager who volunteered to be the clown of the afternoon as his welcoming act to his community.

A whole family nuts about relay? Yeah!!!

2011-09-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some families are blessed with ma and pa as runners, some are double blessed with the kids being runners as well.

Already missing you all ...

2011-09-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

The race ended three days ago, and every morning since then I've woken up with a smile on my face. I feel that I miss my teammates and I miss the camaraderie and the fire they light up my butt. It was sad to say good bye to them.

Don't get me wrong, doing the RTB is challenging and I was relieved to finish running my rotation ... and being on the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club team is like signing up for boot camp. You feel the pressure weeks before the race and you haven't even met half of your teammates yet. Let me add to Joe's Hard Truth blog that, they make you swear on the Bible, and this Bible consists of numbers not letters, it's a spreadsheet of each team member's projected running times and it is followed religiously! How many teams do this anyway?!?! God forbid if you should run a minute or two slower than the projected time that you gave at registration time. You start to wonder whether you should fake an injury and let someone else on the waiting list to cover for you. I mean it is the decent thing to do when you are on a team that cares this much.

The irony is that the relentless pursuit of achieving all our projected times is not about trying to win a prize, it's to make sure that we Reach the Beach early enough so that we have plenty of time to party as a full team and get some food. Fun, fun, fun IS the name of the game with the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club team; just look at all our smiling faces in the pictures. Thank you to Captain Erica, Matt and Chris for suppling all the play by play commentaries. You guys are awesome!

The toughest part of this race that I found was running up the 200-foot hills of New Hampshire in pitch darkness, sprinting at the very start of your run, and running the second and third legs with little recovery time in between. By the time I had to run my third leg, I was so tired and sleepy that I felt like bringing up because I was so scared that I couldn't finish it and I would let my team down. But I did it, I did it all! ... And it was an exhilarating feeling each time I crossed the finish line. Erica would say to me, "I have never seen anyone get so excited crossing the finish line." I feel that it's one thing to do your PB and it's another when your PB contributes to a team. It is so much more meaningful and then you really feel proud of yourself.

I believe that I'll always be smiling when I think about our race together. I definitely felt the benefits of being on a team of people with the gift of championing others to do their best. How often do you come across being in this situation? I know my honey feels this way too - he just doesn't know his limits :-) I want to thank you all for elevating me: Matt, Bruce, Nancy, Lisa, Taylor and Cara, Joe, Weldon, Chris, Judson and a special thanks to my beautiful friend Erica for always believing in me. It was a real pleasure and honour to be with you all this year. One last thing, I like our Bible. What a great structure! Amen.

Capturing the blog master's run

2011-09-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Back to the West Coast now. It is hard to believe that just 24 hours ago I was in the East Coast meeting old friends and making new ones! What a fun time. The memories of the relay will always we in my heart and in my mind.

Just a quick post here during lunch. Will take the time to post more about my relay experience letter, but I wanted to proof to Van2 that our hardworking co-captain Matt really DID run his legs and was not just only driving, texting our finish time to Van2, and working on this blog!

Here is Matt during his last leg! He runs so fast that it was always hard for us to capture him while running.

Captain with Mascot

2011-09-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Indeed. Why run when you can get a pre-race kiss from the cutest thing on EARTH?!! Here is Lotti loving our fearless leader Captain Erica, pre-start in the morning, taking a break from van decorating duty. Lotti doesn't need to do anything, she can just lie around looking adorable and our van would take first prize for decor (where was that prize anyway?).

The Hard Truth

2011-09-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Every year, we update this blog so that our fans can follow us as we ~~suffer~~ make our way through New Hampshire. I like the blog. Really. There are puppies on it. It’s nice.

But I feel like y’all aren’t getting the complete story about what really goes down in those dark hills. It’s not all smiles and butterfly costumes.

On the contrary, I’m here to tell you that all of this positivity is mere icing on a cake full of poisonous razor blades that have been soaked in a vat of deadly viruses. (To use the common cliché). Here are some of the hard truths about being a non-ruling-class member of the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club.

They make you sign a waiver.

They shrug at rumors of a bear in the vicinity.

They make you watch as a “man” dressed up like a toilet leads runners in a poorly choreographed “motivational” “dance”.

They accuse you of participating in some bewilderingly illogical meal ticket scandal and then all of that stuff that happens to the protagonist in Kafka’s The Trial happens to you.

They gleefully take pictures of you while medical personnel are resuscitating you.

They make running a flat 6.2-mile leg at 6 am seem like a wussy thing to be doing.

They fly in a half-man/half-gazelle from Texas (ostensibly named "Weldon") so that you can listen to him spout off about how much he “enjoyed” running up and down the 9.2-mile mountain that almost killed you last year. You also get to watch him run it faster than you did. And without sweating. And while eating a muffin.

They force you to meet new and amazing people that you grow to really like and then, after the race, they take those people away. (Perhaps this is because those people were not involved in the meal ticket scandal and so are free to go).

And, despite all of this, they somehow get your brain to permanently believe that this crazy event is one of your favorite things to do. Rosie Ruiz Fan Club, you are what heroin would be if instead of making you high it made you exercise, lose sleep, be cold, and ride around in a smelly van. I need you. It's true.

Dinner and then Off to Run Into the Night

2011-09-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Backing up on my story of the Orange line's adventures I thought our loyal fans would like to see the road that led to a very unusual transition from the Orange to the Green line after leg 6. Normally, you hand the baton directly from one van to the next. But, with the road being washed out that was not possible. Instead they started the Green line at 5:30 PM at what would have been the VTA and ended us at what appeared to be a backup finish line. So, from the backup finish line we then drove to the original VTA via the washed out road. As you can see there was a pretty good reason they had to go to Plan B.

Eventually, we got to the VTA in time to see the Green line off. From there it was off to dinner. Dinner was not bad; pasta at a little Italian pizza place. We then vanned our way to the VTA. Once there it was time to do what team Rosie does best. Fool around! Need to kill time in the middle of the night? What can you do? How about model nighttime running equipment! The race requires runners to wear a reflective vest, a headlamp and blinking lights in the front and back. Here we see Nancy in the latest design.

Of course, sometimes the van gets tired from a lack of sleep as well and then you have to give it a good shove to get going.

All right, perhaps she was just stretching. As required by relay rules once your order is set it stays set. That meant Bruce, me and then Nancy hit the road. Alas, I do not have photos from those runs seeing as how I was getting ready while Bruce was running, I was running while I was running (making it hard to hold the camera steady!) and then trying to recover while Nancy ran. Once recovered I then got a picture of Cara at the local RRFC water stop.

Yes, the Orange line offers top notch support and we provide water to anybody that wants. Well anybody on the team and in the van and out running and if we like them. Heck, doesn't everybody get water in the middle of the night on a cold New Hampshire road?

Last but not least here is Lisa to finish off our leg. Then it was off to meet the Green line at the VTA, get the room keys and head off to bed for a whole, yes can you believe it, two and a half hours of sleep!

Results Are In!

2011-09-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Unofficial results from Reach The Beach 2011:

Team Rosie finished the relay in 25 hours, 26 minutes, and 56 seconds for an over all pace of 7:57 per mile!! Wow! What an amazing experience it was this year. Both vans had a great time while getting a GREAT time. Here are a few more pictures to give a bit of a taste for what this whole thing is like:

Erica and Bruce after having Reached The Beach! It was Bruce's first time. Erica's fifth.

Erica and 3-time Rosie teammate Weldon, cooling their heels in the cold Atlantic.

Nancy, Cara, and Chris cooling down.

Chris and Weldon, discussing the Tao of running.

Rosie Ruiz Fan Club, minus Captain Erica.

Judson and Karin, basking in the afterglow.

5-timer Erica and 4-timer Chris. With the completion of this race, erica joined the 1000-mile club.

3-timers Matt, Joe, and Weldon.

Reach the Beach virgins Karin, Taylor, Cara, Lisa, Bruce ,and Nancy.

Judson, bringing it home.

Erica handing off to Weldon to begin leg Number 32 out of 36.

Judson got pretty dehydrated after his second long leg and required a bit of medical TLC. Ho bounced back strong to run the final leg with grace and a smile.

Requisite artsy shot to cleanse the palate.

Line for the porta-potty on a 36 degree morning.

Chris and Erica's dog, Lotti, did a lot of the driving.

Erica and Karin staying warm between their turns to run.

Saturday morning was misty and cold--which turned out to be perfect running conditions.

Joe, running hard through his early morning leg.

Erica's toe bled through her new shoes. Cool.

One of the other team's vans. Some teams go all out in the decorations.

All that driving tired Lotti out.

Weldon running through the twilight.

The family that runs 200-mile relays together....

Karin, with her smile that kept us all smiling.

Matt and Nancy before the start.

Team Rosie getting ready to roll at Cannon Mountain Friday morning.

Lisa listening carefully to the safety briefing before the race.

How Our Leader Leads

2011-09-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Middle of the night Green Line update

2011-09-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

The Green Line took over at 2:45 AM at the NH TechnicalCollege. We enjoyed a beautifulclear night with lots of stars and a road lit by an almost-full moon, whichmade it all the easier to see our breath and the frost forming on the ends ofour noses. It was teeth-chatteringcold, though we all had plenty of work to keep us warm. Leg 20 is notoriouslyhard, a middle-of-the-night, 9.2 mile haul up one neverending mountain. It is amental beast as much as a physical one, with frequent gentle downswells thatmake the runner think he is over the worst part, before pitching sharply uphillat an angle more severe than the last. It is so demoralizing to see those red lights bobbing in the night skyin front of you; you think they are a low-flying aircraft, but really theybelong to the runner who is .25 miles and 1000 vertical feet ahead of you.

Overheard at this Transition Area by an obvious Bostonlocal: “Holy Shit! That was fackin’ hahd!”

Nap Time!

2011-09-17T00:18:00.000-07:00

It is 3:14am. We figure we need to be up by 6am to get up, get out and get going in time to meet the Green line at the next VTA. Fortunately we managed a brief nap at the last VTA. So what does that come to about 3 hours of sleep total? I tell you the best training for this race must be to have a newborn! I have a few pictures from the night's run but not many. Time to sleep. Tomorrow at the next wi-fi enabled stop I will see about getting those photos up.

Green Line Update

2011-09-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a whole year since I have heard Joe stumbling around in the dark at 1:45 am swearing under his breath. Must be RTB time!

We are at a hotel, waking up from an all-too-short 2-hour nap after putting our van's first 6 legs in the can. We were blazing fast, relative to our expectations! I got a beautiful, mostly downhill 7.1 miles in the late afternoon sun. Weldon and Joe both posted sub-6:30s, Karin powered through an absolutely brutal, soul-crushing 5 miles of big hills, and Chris and Judson both turned in 7:45s on their legs.

The great thing about being in Van 2 is first shot at the hotel rooms. We messed up the beds and used all the towels, and are now off to intercept the Orange Line at a projected 2:50am.

A few pictures from Day #1:

Bruce gets ready to kick things off as Runner #1. It was around 44 degrees and drizzly.

Nancy models the official 2011 Rosie Ruiz Fan Club RTB tee-shirt.

Karin donated this year's blood sacrifice during her heroic uphill nighttime leg.

Speedster Joe finishes his first shift and hands the baton to Judson, who also rocked his first leg. You can tell from the look on Joe's face that he is having a good time.

Orange Line First Leg: In the Books!

2011-09-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

One van set down and now off to dinner! After driving through a mini-van created traffic jam we found our way to a pizza and pasta place for dinner. Free wi-fi to boot! That, naturally, is why I can post this.

As apparently required by law or something it rained on us during the race. Right at the start it drizzled and through most of the first six legs there were periods of light rain. At about 5pm the clouds finally went somewhere else and the sky cleared up. Hopefully, we are now done, done, done with the rain! Alas, it is now freezing out! I hope I have clothes enough for my 2am or so run.

Pre-race there was mandatory van decorating. If you do not do this you are looking at a few hundred identical 15 person vans. Good luck finding yours. Here is an "aerial"shot of the proceedings.

How about actual running? Here is a loooong distance shot of Bruce coming down the starting area. He is towards the right of the shot in red.

So you can actually see Bruce here is a close up! Smile Bruce!

Next I was up. I would post pictures but I failed to get any of me! I then handed off to Nancy who we see on the move here.

Nancy then passed our non-existent baton to Cara (non-existent due to the non-existent face-to-face hand off from the Orange to Green line as a result of the road being washed out by the hurricane a few weeks ago). Notice, how she looks and smiles at the camera! Take a lesson all you folks that want to look good in your action shots!

Next up was Taylor and here is at the local water bottle stop with a hand off from Nancy.

Last but not least our poor Lisa whose last leg wash washed down from 8 miles to 2! Ugh! But she blasted through it with aplomb.

At the VTA (yes the one we were originally supposed to meet at pre-hurricane) we caught up to the Green line. They were assigned a 5:30 start (long story for later on) and we manged to get there around 5. Along the way our team "tagged" this van with the Brooklyn Subway Team with our "You Have Been Ridden by Rosie Ruiz" magnet. You can see it towards the back of the van above and to the left of the orange circle. It is a round magnet with the T in the middle. In the photo it is close to upside down.

Before I sign off for now here is Captain Erica on her way to start the Green line on its way!

That is all for now!

Our team t-shirt

2011-09-16T06:40:00.001-07:00

Our team captain Erika is superb. She surprised us this morning with the coolest team t-shirt ever. The saying in the back of the shirt is priceless:
The Rosie Ruiz Fan Club
Because RIDING is better than running.

Now is time to decorate the van an on with the show!!!

Joe You Owe the Canadian Contingent $15

2011-09-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

I asked if people wanted me to get them tickets to the dinner sponsored by the relay race. I got a couple of takers. Not Joe. He claimed to have purchased one already. To that he added that he had purchased them twice before and both times arrived too late to use them. Ever the optimist, he was going to get one this year too! Then again we had two vans going up this year. An early one leaving New Haven around 1:30 and a late one leaving . . . well the goal was 3:00. Oh, yea, Joe? He was going on the late one this year. Hmm, wonder if when you get to this fine dinner we can somehow claim his ticket . . . why waste a perfectly good ticket?

At 1:30 Nance, Bruce and I headed off to Hartford in order to rendezvous with our Canadian contingent. We met right on time at 2:30 and headed up for dinner. Upon arriving at Cannon Mountain it naturally started raining. I tell it always rains when I come up for this race! This year something must have gone wrong with the scheduling since it is actually supposed to be sunny the two days we will actually be outside running. That means today and tomorrow.

I tell you the dinner put on by the race is of the highest quality! Just as you imagine your $15 ticket would buy. Maybe even comparable to junior high cafeteria food. Well perhaps not that good. Okay, back to our story.

We get up to the mountain and discover the tickets are in the pickup packets for each team. The problem is that Captain Erica is in the late van and we need her to get the packet. Most of the staff has no idea if you are allowed to just get the meal tickets. Eventually we find somebody in charge. They say no problem, lead me to the packet and pull out the four tickets in there. One for me, one for Nancy, one for Bruce and no doubt Joe's now claimed ticket. Well, not quite. You see it was Lisa's ticket. Joe never actually bought one! The scoundrel! It seems to me if you are going to claim you will do something silly and irrational it is your duty to do it. So Joe, in my humble opinion, you owe our Canadian squadron Karin, Cara, Judson and Taylor $15!

We Have Arrived!

2011-09-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

We are all now in Lincoln, NH, after having assembled ourselves from across North America: Nancy from Washington, Weldon from Texas, Joe from Philly, and Karin, Cara, Judson and Taylor from Toronto.

Chris, Lisa, Joe and I were last on the scene last night, arriving at around 11:30pm after stopping for dinner and running shoes on the way up. We found an alarmingly jolly group awaiting us in the bar. Matt was especially jolly, if you know what I mean! And Karin may have been, too, but her natural personality is so exuberant that it was hard to tell.

All part of the rigorous training regimen Team Rosie commits itself to every year.

Honey Badger Don't Care

2011-09-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

While we undeniably have the BEST team name in town (Thanks Zop!), some of the others are pretty amusing, too. There was the "Who Has The Keys?" team ('No one,' the answer to that one turned out to be for that group the previous year, who in consequence had to hitchhike the entire race).

Checking out the teams this year I noticed a honey badger theme. One team is "Honey Badger Don't Care" and another is "You Stole Our Honey Badger Name." Huh? Curious about just what was up with this Honey Badger thing, I did a little research. Turns out it is referencing a viral YouTube video that is worth your few minutes:

Ok, so we are at the starting line now

2011-09-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

The team members of van 1 finally arrived to Lincoln, NH. We all had a great time eating the sort of good pasta meal the relay organizers offered us, then we came to our great hotel and waited for our team mates of Van 2.

Mean while we hang out at the bar and had fun dancing.

2011-09-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, updates galore are us! The local hurricane appears to have washed out part of the course. Due to various changes to accommodate that the course has been shortened a bit. My personal often wrong but never in doubt pace calculator spreadsheet now claims we will arrive at the finish at 4:43pm on Saturday.

The weather forecast continues to look good. The night legs may be a bit chilly with predicted lows around 38! But the start should be just over 50 and the finish a beautiful 65!

In other news I think I may have figured out how to enter the location of our transition areas using latitude and longitude coordinates! Yes, this is newsworthy since the spreadsheets the course officials provide include this information; often in lieu of an actual address. After all what is the address of some camping area inside a park? See what I mean? That is why I am so proud of my discovery!

2011-09-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well RRFC readers there are only three days left until the team departs for the starting area! So far so good in terms of the weather report. According to www.weather.com (zip code 03580) it appears that both Friday and Saturday will be sun filled with ideal running conditions!

You say you want to follow your favorite relay team in real time? Well we can help you out! At least whenever there is a WIFI connection we can! Expect to see updates on occasion when we can upload pictures. My cell will let me handle brief updates as well as upload cell phone quality (i.e. not all that great) pictures. Other members on the team may be helping to keep our fans informed as well.

So when do we start you ask? Who is running when you want to know? Here are some answers:

We start at high noon on Friday. My magical pace and time crystal ball (i.e. Excel spreadsheet with a lot of built in guesses) has us finishing around 6:30pm on Saturday. In running order we present this year's team!

Staffing the Orange Line: Bruce, Nancy, Matt, Cara, Taylor and Lisa. Yea team!

Staffing the Green Line: Captain Erica, Weldon, Chris, Karin, Joe and Judson. Go team!

We expect to hear about lots of virtual cheering so remember to follow along as we cruise through New Hampshire at around 7.5 miles an hour!

Weather? Looks Good Right Now!

2011-09-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

The two years I ran the Reach the Beach Relay it rained. Actually, it poured at times! During the years I was sidelined word is it . . . rained. I resigned myself to the idea that this race was just snake bit when it came to weather and that it would rain sometime while the vans were out and about. But as of now the weather forecast is pretty good for next week! Yes it is early. This is a long range forecast. It very well may change. But here is what it currently says at www.weather.com for Franconia, NH (03580) for next Friday and Saturday.

Friday September 16: A few clouds. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the low 50s.
Saturday September 17: Clouds giving way to sun . Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 50s.

Keep your fingers crossed and this will be a rain free year with, if we are really lucky, two fairly sunny days!

A Big Welcome to the 2012 Rosie Ruiz Fan Club Team

2011-09-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

The first thing you may be wondering who this Matt guy is to be posting here in the team blog. Well, after being sidelined from running for two years (yes two years!) I can run again. Not as fast as I used to but I can run. That means I can rejoin the relay team! I am really glad to be back on since the Reach the Beach Relay was always one of my favorite "races" of the year. More on the quotes in a second.

Okay, why do I get to post here? Well, yours truly is actually the guy who started this team blog. In fact it is a very exclusive club. If you are on the Rosie Ruiz Relay Team you can post here too! Just let Erica or me know that you want in and we will get you registered. Beyond text if you decide to get in on the action you are also welcome to post pictures! So please feel free to help with the blogging!

Now welcome to the 2012 team's tentative lineup by running slot: In van 1, better known as the ~~Green~~ Orange Line, we have Bruce, Nancy, Matt, Cara, Taylor and Lisa. In van 2, the ~~Red~~ Green Line, our runners are Erica, Weldon, Chris, Karin, Joe and Judson. I hope everybody is ready for 36 hours of sleep deprivation in a smelly van with trash all over the place! No? Well, then you might want to prepare yourself! :)

I see from last year's blog the team set a new land speed record. After doing a bit of sleuthing on line I think I can safely say we will too! Yes, my guess is that this will be the slowest Rosie Ruiz Fan Club Reach the Beach Relay Team in history! Go team! Anybody who takes getting to the finish fast has clearly wound up in the wrong van! But, I bet we have more fun on the way than anybody else!

I look forward to seeing everybody in just a bit over a week.

MTA: Fixed the van colors! Sorry folks.

Chris's Blog

2010-09-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Read what Chris has to say about his RTB experience here:
http://c-dawson.blogspot.com/

Support From Abroad

2010-09-21T07:37:00.001-07:00

Just had to post this picture that Karin and Judson, Club Members '09, sent us along the way. Thanks guys for the cheery smiles and support!! This gave us all a lift. You were missed!

RTB Retrospective

2010-09-21T06:36:00.001-07:00

In 2007, the first year the RRFC made an appearance at Reach the Beach, we finished in 29 hours and 23 minutes. We have knocked about an hour off our finish time every year since. This year was our fastest yet! Despite a rule change that had us competing as 12 men (teams must now have at least 6 women to count as mixed), we placed 14th out of 118 in our category and 50th out of 430 overall: quite a respectable showing from a club who claims not to be about the time! We finished in 26 hours, 28 minutes, and 17 seconds, a blazing 7:35 per mile average pace.

The challenge with being so incredibly fast is that it leaves little time to update our blog en route! At the leisurely 2007 pace of 8:33, we had ample time between legs not only to write to our adoring fans, but also to eat, change into less disgusting clothes, start families, save for retirement, etc. This year each runner barely had time to lower his or her heart rate in between running stints, which explains the lack of extensive blogging.

So, a retrospective look at the experience:

We woke up to a misty, rather overcast Friday. Rodrigo started the morning all Zen while in the background Joe reacted to some bad study news with the same grace and composure you'd expect to see aboard a crashing passenger jet.

After breakfast and a short team meeting, we decorated. This year the Fan Club vans sported orange and green Christmas lights (for the Orange and Green Lines, respectively), laminated signs, and lots of window marker. We also brought along small magnets that we used to tag other vans:

Our luxuriously late 2pm start time allowed us to go through registration on Friday morning instead of late Thursday night. We got through the safety check and then sat through the orientation. It was here that we first started to get suspicious that a mistake had been made. The woman who runs the orientation kept referring to the crowd in this session as "you fast teams" and "the competitive ones" and the like. We were looking over our shoulders to see who she could possibly be talking about. But yes, it was us: We are now projected fast enough to run with the big dogs. And in fact, we did notice a difference from our usual crowd. The later-starting teams seemed a little bit more intense, a little more competitive than we typically encounter.

(Orientation: Alex is confident, Agata happy, Weldon bored, Rodrigo manic)

At 2:00, we were off!Liz was the first out for a 7.97 mile leg, followed by Weldon with 8.96 miles and Tom with 3.88. Weldon and Tom actually went backward in time, that's how fast they run. Alex enjoyed a breezy 2.9 miles (his heavy lifting comes later). Tammy followed with a very fast 5.5, and finally Damian with 8.6 miles. At this point the Orange Line had gotten us about half an hour ahead of our projected time.

It was somewhere in here that we saw the moose.

The Green Line took over at around 6:30 pm. Decked out in glowing vest and headlamp, Christian led us off with his 7.23 miles.

Joe finished 6.6 miles in approximately 6.6 minutes, followed by Rodrigo doing the same. Agata, poor, poor Agata, then faced the leg that made us all weep, even those of us who were only driving the thing. 5.11 miles of a road with the elevation profile of the Grand Tetons. It was dark, it was cold, she was amazing.

Erica took over with 4.8 miles run in 7:55s, which is pretty fast for her! And Chris brought our shift to a close with nearly 4 miles run fast and with a fever. He didn't complain but later owned that he couldn't technically swallow at the time because his throat was so painfully sore. We finished at around 10:45 pm, about 45 minutes ahead of schedule. All of us deeply regretted having overeaten at dinner.

At this point, the Green Line drove ahead to a hotel we had reserved down the road while the Orange Line took over for their second shift. We were asleep so I don't have much information about how this went for them, other than that they continued to gain time, much to our annoyance. (The slower they go, the more sleep we get).

The Green Line was back on at 3:50am. Believe it or not, this is an amazing time to run. The camaraderie of being one of 430 runners stretched out across a state in the middle of the night is something everyone should experience at least once. The world shrinks to the small circle of light cast by your headlamp. There are long mesmerizing stretches of no runners, no cars, no nothing but the stars.* Then, out of the darkness, you'll see the bobbing light of a runner ahead which is sometimes your only reassurance that you didn't make a wrong turn 3 miles back. An unlucky runner will sometimes see a fellow racer's light apparently floating ahead 300 feet in the air, a sickening indication that she has one hell of a hill in front of her.

*And occasionally, 4 bears.

Dawn broke during Rodrigo's second leg, whereas curses broke during Joe's. The Green Line interrupted the Orange Line's sleep about one hour earlier than anticipated--we were JUST THAT FAST. (Tammy, when we phoned to tell them to get themselves moving: "WHAT do you want?? We are TRYING to SLEEP!!")

From here on out, it was a blur. The last part of this race is always a little hairy. The legs are shorter, the traffic is bad, and for some reason, people seem to run even faster--probably just to get this hell over with. So it has happened that the van fails to make it to the next transition area before the runner does. That didn't happen this year but it's still a big crazy hurry at the end. I'll leave it to others to blog the details here.

In the end we REACHED THE BEACH at around 4:30, over an hour earlier than even our optimistic predictions! There was some time for a quick dip in the icy sea, some dinner and celebration before the Boston and Cornell people had to take off (they were looking at a drive all the way back to Ithaca that night!)

Thanks gang for another amazing race!! There's nothing like this, and it takes all twelve to make it happen.

Now... who's on board for the new Reach the Beach in May??

2010-09-18T12:00:00.001-07:00

We buried Joe. Agata up now. 3 legs to go!!

2010-09-18T11:59:00.001-07:00

Christian: 2.4 miles at 6:17 pace. Rodrigo: 4.1 miles at 6:15 pace. Big deal. Both slower than the van.

2010-09-18T05:54:00.001-07:00

Chris Dawson just finished leg 2 very strongly. Chris woke up with the flu yesterday and has been incredible.

2010-09-18T05:52:00.001-07:00

All cursing posts are by Joe. Erica doesn't curse.

2010-09-18T05:20:00.001-07:00

Van 2 discussion topic: the margin of error for donning a successful afro is infinitesimal.

2010-09-18T05:14:00.001-07:00

We are seriously kicking ass. We are also running well. Almost an hour ahead of schedule. Van 2 dreaming of breakfast. (posted by Joe)

2010-09-18T05:11:00.001-07:00

Rodrigo, describing the experience of running his brutally hilly 8.5-mile leg at sunrise: "I was getting all mystical and shit."

2010-09-18T00:42:00.001-07:00

Van 1 almost finished with Round 2. Everyone running faster than expected. For now...

Van 2 currently lacking energy, spunk, and verve following a 2 hour nap. Rodrigo seems nonresponsive to cowbell. Christian up next, which is good, as he is the only Van 2 member who seems ready for the task ahead.

2010-09-17T14:12:00.001-07:00

Tom (Flash) finished his 4-mile leg in 20 minutes. Just another day at the office...

2010-09-17T13:22:00.001-07:00

Weldon just completed his second leg. Close to 9 miles in 53 minutes. And reports indicate that he was running. Not driving. Running. Seriously.

2010-09-17T13:14:00.001-07:00

Van 2 is doing well. We've quickly covered all of Van 1's distance and then some. This is not difficult.

We are now enjoying a nice meal.

Rosie Ruiz Fan Club 4.0

2010-09-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

After a late-ish start and a few too many stops in Lowell for 1) more runners, 2) gum, 3) Wendy's Frosties, 4) gas, and 5) a bathroom, we made it to the Indian Head Lodge in Lincoln, New Hampshire. On our way here we passed not far from the beach, prompting several team members to question the whole endeavor. (We quickly dismissed their faulty logic and drove on.)

Seems like just last month we were driving through the dark and rain of New Hampshire in our 15-passenger Rent-a-Wrecks, trying to get to the hotel in time to get some sleep the night before the big race. In fact, it was a full year ago.

This year's version of the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club has six returning members and six newcomers. The new runners are Agata, Alex, Christian, and Liz from the Johnson School at Cornell, Damian from the Cambridge Running Club by way of returning runner Tammy, and Tom, recruited by veteran RRFC runner Weldon.

In addition to Tammy and Weldon, the others back for another round are Rodrigo, Chris, Joe, and our Fearless Captain, Erica. (Barbara Farell was unable to run with us this year and she is missed, as is Matt Spiegel)

We had a pretty good breakfast buffet at the Indian Head Lodge and this morning we will meet to go over some of the basics, (i.e. no headphones, no peeing on the roadside, no wearing headphones while you pee on the roadside, etc.), and then we will pimp out our rides, (pictures to follow), go to Cannon Mountain for the required safety meeting, and start the whole thing all over again.

If you are unsure of what "the whole thing" is, follow this link to learn more about Reach the Beach. Check this space for occasional updates from the road.

http://www.rtbrelay.com/race.php

After breakfast we had time to browse the gift shop at the Indian Head Resort and found the headdress below. We are considering purchasing it and then using it as our baton, passing from one runner to the next through the next 27+ hours. That wouldn't be too offensive to anyone, would it?

Watch this spot! --Chris*

*Although the blog will always say posted by Erica

Even Better than We Thought

2009-09-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

The official results have been posted, and we rocked this thing even more than we knew! Our time was 27:31:46, for an average pace of 7:57. We were 25th out of 123 teams in our category (mixed open men/women) and 112 out of 399 teams total.

Not that we care about time.

But it's nice to know.

We R'ed the B

2009-09-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

In record time: 27 hours, 30 minutes, for an average pace of 8:15! At the moment I can't remember exactly what we managed last year, but I think we beat our record by a fair bit. And more important, we all had such a great time that everyone, more or less, has already signed on to the RRFC for Reach the Beach 2010. They did this even before the actual and remembered pain has faded, and that's saying something.

And now some of our favorite quotes from the vans:

"I'm cramped up and I'm totally nude."

"The sun, man...it just keeps comin' up every day."

"You can spank the devil!"

"Who brought the bag lady?"

"Good work!! Nice socks!"

"Ewww... I shouldn't have picked THAT up!"

"You're still flashing, Leslie. Could you knock that off please?"

(When passed by a speeding Ultra racer, who makes you feel like you're standing still): "It's like, I'M running and HE'S doing some other thing"

How's the weather, you ask?

2009-09-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

Perfect!...now. Not so in the beginning. Weldon flew in from flat,dry Texas to run straight up a mountain in a monsoon. In fact the first 3 legs or so were executed in the worst rain we've had in our 3 years. Then it cleared completely and the night running has been starry and sublime. Temp is cold for spectators, just perfect for runners.

sun's comin' up

2009-09-19T02:47:00.000-07:00

There is light on the horizon and energy in the van! Chris's run was "focused" and excellent (in his own words),Joe killed his hero's leg, and Kathy is working a real runner's high. Leslie is out there now on her longest leg, and Rodrigo and Erica both did the impossible:got some sleep in the van.

No Sleep for the Orange Line

2009-09-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

That's the new motto for us on the Green Line. We're certain the Orange Line is running so fast out of spite, to deny us sleep, and we're on deck waiting to return the favor. At this point,2:30 am and exactly halfway through the race, we are running a full hour ahead of our pre-race projections! The Green Line had a few hours sleep in a nice hotel room: our fortunes have certainly risen compared to the first year! Chris is about to kick off our 2nd legs and Joe is coping with the prospect of his impending 600 foot gain over 9 miles... Stay tuned. For now, all are healthy and if not exactly happy, at least not outwardly hostile.

test

2009-09-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

Testing our midnight remote posting capabilities...

Introducing the 2009 Rosie Ruiz Fan Club

2009-09-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome, Fans of the Fan Club!

We arrived in Sugar Hill, NH last night at 10:30 and quickly got settled into 5 rooms of a B&B that would under other circumstances be called romantic. For those of you new to the race, an orientation:

Reach the Beach is a 200-mile, 24-hour (in our case, more like 30-hour), round-the-clock relay race. This is the 3rd year the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club has made an appearance in the race, albeit with a slightly different membership each time. Rosie Ruiz, as you may know, is the woman who famously won the Boston Marathon in 1980 with an assist from the Boston subway system.

You can read more about the race here and about our honorary team member, Rosie, here.

And now, our team! These are the brave/naive souls who will be taking us through New Hampshire this year:

In Van 1, the Orange Line, we have (in order of runner):
Judson Lew, Weldon Johnson, Zak Megeed, Barbara Farell, Ali Crum*, and Tammy Feldman.

Van 2, the Green Line, is:
Chris Dawson*, Joe Simmons, Kathy Ball-Toncic*, Leslie Martin, Rodrigo Canales*, and Erica Dawson*

* means the person has run this thing before. Note there is only one * on the Orange Line. That means that the non-*s are basically running the show over there with no experience of van transitions, night running, etc. (Of course they also have no experience of nearly missing the transition point or sleeping in a room so dirty you wouldn't use the bathroom, so it all evens out I suppose).

Sadly missing from our team this year is my sturdy co-captain (whether he knows it or not!), Matt Spiegel. Mend well Matt and we hope you are back next year. I mean REALLY hope.

I can't go into the full educational experience for those of you new to the race, so feel free to look through posts from previous races on our blog (Spet. 2007 and Sept 2008) to discover what it's all about and why we would need Christmas lights and window markers.

We will try to keep you all posted on our progress here as the race goes on. Our start time this year is 12:40. It's now 7:09, so that gives us enough time for Barbara to barely make the start line ; )

Let the van decorating commence!

Good Luck to the 2009 Team

2009-09-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yours truly is not running with the team this year due to my time on the DL. Alas, the loss is mine. The weather looks like it may hold up and spare everybody from running during a major downpour! Wow that will be different! But, I could have predicted that with me on the sidelines they were sure to have clear running weather over the whole course. So, good luck to this year's fan club. Fleet feat to all.

Matt

2009-07-15T03:57:00.001-07:00

I know, long time no update. Well your RRFC blog writer has been on the DL for quite some time and that has significantly reduced my motivation to keep this blog up to date. Of course, the fact that my teammates have not seen fit to send me updates has not helped either. So team members try to send me news about your racing if you want all the world to know of your achievements!

So here goes with a new post! Alas, no running for at least another three weeks, but a new post. ;)

Sue sent me this in May:

Sue is still pounding the pavement but for a lot less miles than in the past. She is mixing up off-road trail runs and hikes with running on the roads and the combination is teriffic. In fact, she climbed Bear Mountain, the highest peak in CT and it was a thrill to get to the top and look at the vista- Beautiful! When Sue is not running, she is practicing yoga and now teaches in Westport at Target Training, a fitness facility that specializes in cycling training and overall fitness training. Sue teaches Monday nights at 7pm and is thrilled to have a regular class to teach. Sue also has two private yoga clients. She's looking forward to getting the group stretched and limbered during the upcoming relay in September.

Chris way back in February sent me this which he also posted on his personal blog:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Follow Through

Every time I look up at the corner of our dining room ceiling, I feel a tweak of sheepishness. Two years ago, I began to replace our cruddy old drop ceiling with a less-cruddy new drop ceiling that has a pressed tin-tile design. I had some problems with the adhesive and ended up re-doing large chunks of the ceiling, and now it stands 98% complete. The 2% incomplete section is the corner my eyes travel to every time I walk in the room.

It is undone because the ceiling is not flat in this corner—it slopes upward, leaving an irregular and problematic surface upon which to glue new tiles. I am not dumb, but I am also not very handy around the house, so I have simply walked away from the project without figuring out a way to make a new flat ceiling appear below an old, not-flat ceiling. The job is undone.

I start with this illustration to make a point: I have a problem with follow through. I get near 80% done with any major job or commitment and I start to lose interest. It happened in the Peace Corps, it happens when I tackle a major chore like cleaning out the basement or getting the yard ready for winter, and it sometimes happens in my relationships with people. I pull away before they have actually left my life. I noticed and put words to this habit of mine back in the fall, when I decided I needed to do something about it.

For me the first step to doing something about anything is simply noticing it. I am not a noticer and I am certainly not very good at identifying my feelings. Heck, I used to be able to go days without even realizing I was having emotions. So now I am working at noticing when I have settled into my pattern of pulling out and walking away. Along with simply noticing when it is happening, I am developing strategies for re-engaging with whatever is the matter at hand. And I am also working to simply build my stamina for tough, unpleasant tasks.

One task I decided to take on was running the Half at the Hamptons LOCO Half Marathon this weekend in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. I decided back in November that I would train through the winter and try for a personal best half marathon time at the Hampton race. I knew that in order for me to actually set a new personal record, I would need to train consistently and hard through the winter. I also knew this was exactly the kind of commitment I would be likely to flake out on and find some reason to give up just weeks before the race.

I am back from the race and I can tell you right off the bat, I did not flake out and give up on the training a few weeks ago. I stuck with it through some tough weather, inconvenient schedules, and winter-induced inertia and managed to train hard right up through Friday of this week.

No, I did not give up on the training at all.

But I DID almost give up on my goal during the race.

It was a beautifully sunny, cold, clear morning on the beach today and around 900 runners lined up for the 11:00 a.m. start. I could see in the pack up ahead the pacesetters for those who wished to run a certain time in today’s race. I know myself and I knew that I could not start up with the 8:00-minute mile pacers, though my eventual goal was to finish with them. I need to start races slowly and then speed up through the easier miles later in a race or else I simply crash and finish disappointed.

There was a good crowd of runners today—very friendly and supportive and the first few miles were good. I got to mile-marker four and found myself running with a group of about ten runners who were all following the 8:00 minute pacers, (Lisa and Cliff). I settled in just behind Cliff and locked onto the yellow bib pinned to his back. I was not feeling like I had a lot in me today, but I made up my mind that I was going to simply dog Cliff the entire way, and then sprint ahead in the last mile and see if I could finish in under an hour and 45 minutes.

To make a long story a little shorter, I found it very hard to keep up with Cliff and Lisa. I struggled with the temptation to drop back and then try to catch up later in the race. In fact, I had almost convinced myself that this would be the best course to take when I remembered that damned ceiling and its incomplete corner. I caught myself doing that thing I do where I back away from something I have committed to without even putting up a real fight.

So I dug in and just gritted my teeth and matched Cliff step for step. At mile eleven I pulled up alongside Lisa and asked her about the etiquette of using the services of pacers and then taking off ahead of them at the end in an effort to get a better time. She laughed and said, “That is what we are here for—take off and see what you can do.”

So when I got to mile twelve I thanked Lisa and Cliff and turned up my speed a bit. The final mile was along Ocean Blvd. in Hampton and the wind picked up in this beachfront stretch. I was hurting—my calves were tight and getting tighter with each step, my lungs were burning, and my head was screaming at me to slow down and coast in, knowing I would beat my goal of 8:00 per mile.

But my heart was saying NO NO NO with each pound. It wanted me to stick to my goal and work it until the last step across the finish line. So we held a quick committee meeting and my heart overruled my calves, lungs, and head and I gave everything I had all the way to the finish line.

In that last mile I thought about how I used to go to yoga classes a lot and loved them, but could never make myself do yoga at home. I needed to simply get to the studio and once I did, I would follow any instructions the teachers gave and work really hard at it. I also thought about the growth I am experiencing lately in my personal life and in my relationship with Erica. It is happening because Erica is out in the world learning important lessons and bringing them home to me and I am simply applying what she has learned. In both cases, someone else is doing the work and I am merely following along.

The same was true of the race today—until mile marker 12. Cliff and Lisa were doing the real work and I was simply following along. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t anything to be proud of either. But then, when I stepped out and around Cliff and Lisa and fought off my own efforts at sabotage, that was when I really learned something about follow through.

I finished with not a drop left in the tank. The clock said 1:42:56 when I ran over the finish line. That works out to be seven minutes and fifty-two seconds per mile. It was faster than I had hoped possible and the only reason I did it is because I didn’t listen to most of myself.

As to me (a.k.a. Matt) leg problems have prevented me from running for nearly six months now. The doctor tells me I have at least another three weeks to go. Hopefully after that I can get back outside and get going again!

Matt

Belated Green Line Update

2008-10-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

OK, I know there are fans out there who have been waiting for the end of the Green Line... sorry! But hasn't the suspense made it all the more exciting? Here you go:

Why was Chris grinning so wildly in that last handoff picture posted below? Because a slow-ish person from another team had just taken off in front of him, and he smelled a Puppy! So to speak. Over the upcoming 2.5 miles, he would take over a total of 5, including this last-minute sprint past this guy:
Way to go Chris! ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF!

From there it was pretty uneventful as we attacked the course like the machines we had been throughout the event. Emily took up the baton from Chris and coolly executed, at her fastest pace of the race, her 6.8 mile final leg. The rest of us all had about 4-mile "easy" legs. That sounds like a breeze from the comfort of your living room, but 4 miles after a previous 10 or so, and no sleep, and no substantial nutrition to speak of, feels like many, many more. I had forgotten this fact. After Rodrigo and Cathy made it look easy I was looking forward to my final 3.2 "walk in the park", but for the reasons stated above it turned out to be the hardest one for me. Not least because nearing what I thought must be the end, I made the mistake of asking a traffic control officer how much farther. Total amateur mistake. Of course he has no calibration nor personal stake in the matter and so waved me on airily with "Oh, only another 1/4 mile!" I sprinted said 1/4 (+) mile and reached a TURN, which then became ANOTHER turn, and another, until I had poured it out over a total of about 1.3 miles. Totally irritated and quite out of breath, I passed the baton to Aisling for the FINAL final leg.

Celebratory, we piled in the van to catch up to her... and waited in traffic. As Matt reported below, we finally abandoned Chris and the van in the queue and raced to the finish to run it in with Aisling. The final stretch was on sand, which made it extremely difficult for the 12th runner. But we all, minus one, were there to triumphantly cross the line together.

here she comes!!

Then we were all about dips in the water and dinner, before embarking on the long ride home, this year conveniently in the same vans we rode in on.

In the end, we ran a combined 209.8 miles in 28 hours, 23 minutes, and 31 seconds, for an overall average pace of 8:08. We were 34th out of the 167 teams in our "mixed open" category (i.e., men and women of all ages) and 103rd out of all 356 teams. And all, may I say for the record, unaided by public transportation.

You can see complete results, including many humorous team names, here.

So, that's it for RTB 2008! We're already looking ahead to 2009. Don't lose out: book your place on the team early!

Orange Line Beach Party!

2008-10-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

After the handoff the Green Line headed down to the beach one run at a time. Meanwhile . . . the rules state that when a vehicle is done racing it has to head straight to the beach. Now, rules are rules so off we drove!

We had several hours down at the beach to kill. What to do, what to do? I know! EAT! For over a day we had survived mostly on granola bars, sports drinks plus the occasional gel pack. No more. At the beach there was the finish line food fest. Mostly relatively high fat items like potato salad swimming in oil, fairly greasy chicken, New England clam chowder, and an array of vegetables that were likely cooked in quite a bit of butter. But, boy was it good! By the time we left I managed to ingest three meals worth of the stuff. No, I am not the least bit sorry. I, and all my teammates, were starving for something we could really sink our teeth into. This was it!

Once we were done eating the group split up. Some of us, I forget who exactly, decided a swim in the freezing cold New Hampshire water was the ticket to happiness. Sue and I decided the showers were. She headed in well before I did and upon her return to the lunch table, yes I was still eating, she let me know that the showers were really cold! Now they tell you in the race packet that there are cold showers at the finish. I should have realized just how cold when I noticed that the faucet had two settings: cubed and crushed! :) The water was freezing! I had no idea it could be that cold and remain liquid. Taking a shower was a major challenge. I soaked myself, turned off the water, soaped up, rinsed off and turn the water right back off! It was probably the fastest shower I have ever had. Still it felt pretty good to be cleaned up.

Next the Orange line rendezvoused for some final pictures. Here we are all fed, showered, oceaned, or just changed into street clothes per our personal preferences.

Of course, what would picture taking be without the van's troop and our poster sized Road Kill Counter!

The poster itself!

Then 28 hours, 23 minutes, and 31 seconds after our 1pm start the previous day the Green Line arrived at the finish and the team ran in together.

Well, all but Chris. Alas, traffic was horrible! He basically got stuck in it and by the time he arrived the team was in. Next year we need to hire a chauffeur for the final leg!

With our Green Line partners now happily at the beach and done with their dinner (which is when I went for meal number three) it was time to get pictures of the new reunited team.

Just like last year the race was great! Everybody had a great time and while tired were happy to have been part of our team's effort. Alas, it will be a long year until we get to do it again.

So how did the team do? I will leave it to Captain Erica to report all of the final race details. My next blog post will be the monthly race update. See you all then.

Matt

The Orange Line's Last Legs

2008-09-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

After a long and restful night's sleep of oh about two hours it was time to head back out to the next VTA. Since the hotel was at the VTA where we ended our last shift that meant we had to drive about 30 miles to catch the Green Line. We made it. Alas, along the way I lost track of my camera. On the up side Birgit and Merle had cameras as well. Better yet, Birgit set up an account on the web from which I have filched her photos so we have pictures for the blog too! Alas, Merle cannot find the cable for her camera so her pictures will have to wait for another day.

The morning began with everybody packing and then heading down for a quick breakfast at the hotel's well stocked continental offerings. I am a huge fan of pastries, granola and the like and that left me with lots and lots of choices! Right after wolfing down a few hundred calories, which I guess amounted to about 1000 on my part alone, we then headed off to the VTA. Now you might think that a van full of people that had run two race legs and slept at most two or three hours in the last 24 would be in pretty sad shape to run a third leg. Well, you would be wrong! Somehow we were all up and ready to go! Well, everybody but Dave who was clearly beginning to show signs of fatigue. Still, he would be ready to go when his leg came around.

We met the Green Line at the next VTA which was located in a large park and on time I might add. Sue waited for Aisling's arrival and at just after 9:45am took off for her last leg. By now the weather had cleared up somewhat. The clouds were no longer thick in the sky and there were occasional rays of sun. That and quite a bit of additional heat and humidity.

Sue's last leg was a 9.3 mile stretch! Not easy after having already run two and with at most a couple of hours of sleep. But, naturally, she did it in excellent time and a smile as well!
After Sue it was Dave's turn to finish up his part of our marathon. What he did was turn in another top notch race run! All of which goes to show you cannot tell how fast somebody will run based on how fatigued they look!

At the transition area Dave decided to pop the wrist strap onto my hand like the pros do.

Well, the pros have practice both delivering and receiving these things while on the run. Alas, we did not and it fell to the ground. What I then wanted to avoid at all costs was "help" from the race officials to retrieve the wrist band. Apparently though the words, "do not touch it, do not touch it" mean something like pick it up and try to hand it to the runner in race official English. So what happens when a race official picks up the band? It now turns into a moving target. As I went to grab it the band was instead knocked back to the ground and rolled off. Great! I figured that I better try another phrase and see if that would work. So I screamed, "Leave it, leave it!" as I approached the next race official near the band. Well that worked! It scared the poor woman to the point where instead of picking up the band she jumped back a few feet. But, now the band was still! So I picked it up and off I went.

To say I was happy with my third run is an understatement! Last year this was my best leg and I was determined to do well on it again. It is, in my view an interesting leg since it starts downhill for a bit and then turns uphill over the last half including a rather steep climb from miles 7 to 8. Then it goes downhill for the final .6 miles. Since I am, relatively speaking, a much better downhill than uphill runner that means I can initially get ahead of most runners on this course and if I can hang on stay ahead the last .6 miles. Well that does require hanging on! I passed one runner early on only to see him pass me back around mile 3 or 4. Alas, that was the end of that battle! Still I managed to pass well over a dozen runners and was only passed by about three. So a pretty successful leg overall.As I came into the home stretch I passed a few runners and heard Dave yell, "Bone coming up behind you!" I took what little I had left and dashed to the finish. The rat! Turns out there was nobody there he just wanted me to knock a few seconds off my time! Got to give him credit. It worked and I came in well under our spreadsheet's forecasted pace.

Nancy was next. From here on in the legs would all be under 6 miles and that meant fewer support stops to provide fuel and water. Instead the stops would be for picture taking and cheering! Alas, while all that is true the pictures of Nancy are on Merle's camera so those will have to wait for another day. Still, I can happily report that she finished her 5.5 mile leg at a pace 10 seconds per mile faster than our forecast!

But we do have pictures of Birgit! Well these are photos from her camera. It simply would have been unconscionable not have used it to take shots of her run!
After Birgit finished her run at a pace that was nearly a minute per mile under our forecast it was Merle's turn. Now poor Merle was being affected by a newly arrived heal injury and so had to be careful not to aggravate it. Still, she came in right on her forecasted pace! See what adrenaline will do for you!

As you can see Merle was however happy to hand the wrist strap off to Chris and thus mark the end of our part of the race. With all of our legs now in the books it would be up to the Green Line to take the wrist strap into the finish. Our job was just to get to the beach, hang out, take some more pictures and most importantly eat real food for the first time in two days!

Next report: life at the beach!

Matt

The Green Line, 4am-9:30am

2008-09-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

We last left the Green Line catching a (very) few Zzzzzzs in the Laconia hotel room. It was more like Zzs. We slept from about 12-3am (although Aisling was too pumped up to get any real rest, alas). Had I known the Orange Line had been banging around the countryside nearly missing the transition, I probably wouldn't have slept so well, either. We saw this happen a lot to other teams, and it is NOT FUNNY. More than once we witnessed some poor guy sprint it in only to have his teammates tell him "Bob's in the bathroom!" or "We have no idea where Judy went!" or some such, and then he has to sit there panting and waiting, mulling the wasted burst of speed and whether drawing 20-to-life might not be worth what he's contemplating doing to his teammate. Although there is no jury of runners that would convict!
But the upshot was they DID make it and that's all that counts, as I told Matt last year when we did the same to him.

At 4:06, we picked up again from Transition Area 18, the NH Technical College located a mere .6 miles from the hotel. The Orange line then went back for their shift in the hotel rooms. We explained to the front desk clerk what all the smelly, sleepy trooping through the lobby in the middle of the night was about, lest she make the reasonable assumption that we were managing a particularly unsuccessful prostitution ring.

After Chris turned in a cheerful & speedy 4.4 miles, Emily took over for a grueling shift: 9+ miles, still in the dark, with occasional light drizzle. She pulled it off in 1 hour, 9 minutes, for a 7:35 pace worth something like 14 "puppies": Brilliant! But she succumbed to one of the risks of night running when she stumbled a bit on the soft shoulder. Ouch! Fortunately no surgery was required.

Rodrigo took us through the dawn with his 7 mile, 7:11 paced leg. He said it was a hard one but he made it look so easy. We were by this point maintaining a good 30 minutes lead on our projected time. Cathy was next, after a bit of last-minute panic at the transition when we learned, just as Rodrigo was approaching, that she was required to still have safety gear on even though it was well past the 6 am cutoff (heavy fog was keeping things dark-ish). Dressed up with hastily applied reflectors, she lit out down the road. We in the van took a big collective gulp when we drove off after her and saw the hills she was once again facing. But she did beautifully, and by the time I took over the "baton" the sun was shining and all was good. My 6 + mile leg was mostly a gentle downhill and I ran the fastest I ever have, other than that time in the Beartooths when I imagined I heard a bear in the brush. 7:54 pace for the 6 miles, and another 5 "puppies"! We originally were keeping track of roadkill just to humor Matt but it turned out to be pretty motivating.

Last up was Aisling, who had been a little worried about the long, hilly trek in front of her. But her knee held up and so did she, bringing us to the end of our second shift. Well done everyone! By this time last year, the Green Line was mostly taken with holding their stomachs, hoarding their Immodium, and moaning in gastro-intestinal misery, so yes, we are tired and smell bad, but: could be worse.

It was getting hot by this time so we were happy at around 9:30 am to peel off and make for the nearest cute diner for omelets, baked beans, and thick slices of homemade bread. We then boogied down to the last Vehicle Transition Area (VTA) where we would meet the Orange Line at around 2:00.

Orange Line Round 2

2008-09-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

After dinner it was off to the VTA to take over the wrist band from the Green Line. It was closer than the Green Line ever knew! The place we went for dinner was a few miles away from the course. But, we were given directions back to the VTA. Well, on the way we got lost. Very lost. Say 30 minutes past where we needed to turn lost! In a panic we called in to find out where the Green Line was. They told us and I then entered the last runner's time in the wrong cell on our spreadsheet. Yikes! Just 15 minutes to drive over 30! We are going to be late! Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed and pointed out my error. Whew! We had nearly an hour to get there. Well we made it! It was close but we were on time. Why is this so important? Missing a transition is a major infraction of the pact between vans. There is little enough time to sleep and eat without your teammates forcing you to hang around cooling your heals until they show up. To make matters potentially worse, you should have heard me last year when the Green Line was late! I sure did not want to be on the receiving end of anything similar!

The Orange Line's second outing was a night run. All I can tell you is that running in the middle of the night with 350 other teams out on the road is something else. During my leg one runner, who I battled for a couple of miles after which I could not keep up, cheered me on by saying something like, "How often do you get to run a race at midnight? Soak it up!" Good call! It is something else.

Now on to the pictures! Fortunately for the Orange Line we had our own chauffeur to help us out. Dave did a great job.

He kept track of where we were, where we needed to be for our runner, and with all that he managed the occasional cheer to prod on the runners on course. Naturally, these were very quite cheers as the course turns into a quite zone after 6pm!

Pictures of our runners? Well they are tougher to get at night but not as it turns out impossible! First up in the van was Sue and here she is taking the wrist band from Aisling and thus sending the Green Line off to a well deserved rest.

After taking over Sue sped off to another great run passing runner after runner.

Lest you think that we only let Dave drive we have proof of him out on the course. Here he is in the middle of his hilly, 4.2 mile night run.

While the pictures you see here are from my camera my van mates were kind enough to take a shot of me getting ready for my leg.I am happy to report that I too pulled in a faster than expected pace, by nearly 30 seconds per mile! I had hoped to break a 7 minute mile and according to my GPS watch I did. Alas, the official map claims my watch was off on its distance estimate and I did not quite make it. Still, close enough and way faster than the spreadsheet had me pegged for!

Here we have Birgit during her spectacular run.Her second leg pace was nearly a minute faster than we had forecast! Great running!

What about the support crew? Dave not only drove, and cheered that night but also supplied on course aid as you can see here. Oh yes, once again the relay race managed to do the impossible and that is even tucker out Sue!
Once Merle was done with her run, a swiftly completed 3.4 mile leg, it was off to the hotel for a good night's sleep! Hah! A good night's sleep if your idea of one is about 2 or 3 hours of sleep immediately followed by your third set of runs! Night all.

Matt

Orange Line Leg 1 and Dinner Pictures

2008-09-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

Back home now and still pretty wiped out two days later! The race was great! We had, just as we did last year, a phenomenal team. Thank you all for another wonderful experience!

But what of news from the course? Never fear! Home at last with just enough time to post. Erica and I will switch off to provide a pseudo-real time report so start following along today! That means the Orange Line's second outing is up next. Before that, though, a few pictures from earlier in the day.

What is the first thing the team needs to do? Why decorate the van! Here we see the Orange Line ladies hard at work doing just that. Sue is wielding the marker with Merle, Birgit, and Nancy all offering advice and support. By the end of all this the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club would have the best and most talked about vans on the course!

Once the vans were decorated next stop was the start where Sue was due to take off at 1:00. Now the team could not possibly let her take in that experience all by herself so we all lined up for a photo op. Alas, after that the rest of the team had to back away and let Sue start on her way. She, of course, set a blindingly fast initial pace of about 7:30/mile over her 7.8 mile leg.

Next up was Dave whose leg was listed as 8.9 hard miles. Translation: hills! He finished it in a 7:45/mile pace a full 15 seconds per mile faster than we had forecast! Congratulations on a great leg.

Amazingly, after that he still had the energy to cheer on the rest of the team, and every other runner along the course as well. If having fun yelling encouragement were an offence Dave would be spending a loooong time in jail! Here is just one of the many times he would help a tired runner continue on a full throttle.

Once we were off the course it was time to relax! Here we Sue, Birgit, Nancy and Merle getting ready for dinner. Or, at least, hanging around while the guys (that would be Dave and me) did all the work to get us going again!

As noted in my last post dinner was at an upscale market and deli. Want to know how things went? Just look at all the happy racers sitting down to finally get some real food. That is real as in something you might normally eat as opposed to Gu's , ShotBlocks and the like. Much better! Who is that guy in the bottom right of the picture? That tidbit I will leave to Sue to well, ahem, relay.

Tomorrow on we go to Orange Line's Leg 2. Pictures, and all! Stay tuned.

Matt

Green Line Signing Off After the 1st Shift

2008-09-12T21:36:00.001-07:00

... for about 2 hours, which is the sleep we hope to net before we take over again. We were off the course at 10:45, about 20 minutes earlier than anticipated. Everyone is healthy and satisfied. Chris started the Green Line out with a blazing 8:2-something pace over his 7 miles. Emily, who is burdened with a cumulative 20 miles or so, started out too fast (she says) and STILL wound up with 6:45s. Rodrigo did indeed get stuck in the wet and dark, as Matt surmised, but emerged with a look of Zen bliss. Cathy--well, poor Cathy. She had 5 miles just about all straight uphill, also in the wet and dark. Sorry about that Cathy. My own guilt at sticking her with that dissipated however as I began my 6.1-mi. leg: in the dark and rain, and, unanticipatedly, straight uphill. But, as the course map points out, it WAS a beautiful view off to the right. If it hadn't been 10:00pm and foggy. I turned in my fastest time ever--8:22s! With 5 "puppies" and no "bones"! Aisling brought us home with a lightning-fast finish. She, too, has something Zenny going on, only kind of a jubilant variety. Aisling got one puppy and one bone (the same guy, actually) but points out that she DID save 2 frogs by scooping them off the dark highway, and that ought to count for something.

And now, we're going to snooze at a hotel in Laconia that is much nicer than this grade school gymnasium where others are sleeping,

and much, much nicer than the Firebird (c. September 2007!)

Erica

Orange Line Update

2008-09-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

It is almost 8pm and the Green Line has been out on the course since about 6pm. The Orange Line came in about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and the latest update indicates the Green Line is a bit ahead too after their first two runners. Dinner was at a very good market with a deli. So the gang is now basically happily fed and ready for a nap. Alas, the nap part will likely not happen as we need to allow about an hour from here to the next vehicle transition area (VTA) when we once again take over the baton.

Oh yea, the weather. It started off very cool with a light rain through which Sue performed at her usual excellent level. Fortunately, mid-way through her run the rain ended and stayed away until, well just now! Word from the Green Line is that Rodrigo is out on the course which means he is running in the rain and the dark. Poor guy. All I can say is that I hope the rain ends long before we are back on the course.

Matt

It's Cold in Them Thar Hills

2008-09-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

Van 2 has joined Van 1 in Lincoln, NH. We're all settled comfortably into our spacious digs at the Nordic Inn. Aisling and Erica are playing cribbage, Sue is laboring over the Roadkill Posters, Rodrigo is sweating the 6:50 pace we estimated on his behalf (it's what happens when you disappear to Mexico all summer, dude), Chris is compulsively monitoring his blog counter (http://c-dawson.blogspot.com)--who IS that person in Kansas who keeps checking him out??--and we're all looking forward to a nice sleep-in tomorrow morning. The plan is to meet by 10:15 to straighten out the vans and get ourselves to the mountain.

And, it's really chilly here! Fall has arrived. The latest forecast strongly suggests-- demands rudely, actually --rain tomorrow night, so we could be in for a cold go of it.

Erica

Arrived and Checked In

2008-09-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Prior to chronicalling the day's events I want to welcome all of my friends from RA that are checking in to see how the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club is progressing through the next few days!

It is a long drive from Westport to New Haven to Cannon Mountain! Fortunately, with the early van's "noon" departure from New Haven we had plenty of time to drive up in the daylight and get to the all you can eat dinner at the ski lodge, which also doubles as the race's starting area.

Now I know you are thinking, "Wow an all you can eat dinner for just $15! I wish I could get a deal like that!" Well, before you get too green with envy maybe I should fill you in on a few details. The dinner bar begins with a salad that you can mix up with a wide array of items. There were bowls of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and red onion. Yep, that was it. Next came your choice of whole wheat or regular pasta. On that you could put meatball, marinara, or one of three cream based sauces any one of which would probably clog every artery you have. I stuck with meatball. To finish the main course there were rolls of bread. Dessert consisted of your choice of chocolate chip cookies. Yes, they had out platters of them so you could pick your own cookie! I know you probably think it was one of those horrible home made ones, maybe even with the chocolate chunks. Rest assured that was not the case! Fortunately, Bare Naked had out granola and a stand where they would add in a little yogurt as well. To drink Fizz (?) had out bottles of their fruit flavored drinks both high and low calorie and those were pretty good! Finally, each wrist band came with up to two cups of beer.

True the pre-race dinner was not the worst meal you could have for $15 but it may have been the coldest! All of the tables were outside in an unheated tent. Let me tall you it gets really cold up here in the mountains at night! After we could not take freezing longer we headed to the condominium/hotel to get organized and ready for the next day's adventure.

Once we were settled in it was time to create a Road Kill Counter for each van. In a relay race like this "road kill" typically refers to somebody you pass. But, we are way too slow for that! So we count people that pass us as well! When we get passed the runner gets a Halloween sticker (think ghost) and when we pass a cute animal sticker (think puppy dog). By the end of the race everybody has a large collection of these things, and we have a photo worthy poster! If you want to see last year's final creation just check out the race end pictures here on the blog from 9/30/2007. Below is our first picture of the race which shows Emily creating the Orange Line's poster.

Off to bed now. There will be little enough time to sleep over the next two days!

Matt

It Was the Night Before Departure

2008-09-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

It looks like the noon van will only contain the team's Westport contingent at this point. The New Haven crowd has apparently decided to forgo the "official" pasta dinner and no doubt some sleep. One thing is sure the noon van plans to get first dibs on the bedrooms when we check in! :)

Matt

2008 Team Details for Our Fans

2008-09-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome Rosie Ruiz Fan Club fans! A special welcome to the SOM students, faculty, and staff that follow along!

First, some last minute roster change news. Chris H. is trying to recover from a running injury and unfortunately cannot make it to the race. We all hope he heals up fast and is back to running in no time! The good news is Birgit has graciously stepped into the breach. So, Birgit, welcome to the team!

The team takes off on Thursday in the two vans. Van 1 leaves at noon with Matt, Sue, David, Emily, Cathy, Merle, and Rodrigo. Van 2 heads out at 4pm with Chris, Erica, Aisling, Nancy, and Birgit.

If all goes well van 1 should arrive in time for both dinner and get some of the check-in obligations out of the way. Van 2, will hopefully get in on time to get a good night's sleep!

Here is the big and unexpected news: the team's starting time is 1pm! That is four hours later than last year! What is going on? Well two things. First, we have been somewhat more aggressive with the estimated paces submitted by our team. Last year we came in far under our expected time, and this year the goal was to submit forecasts that are more likely to be in line with reality. Second, the race organizers decided to spread the teams out more than they have in the past. Their goal is to reduce the congestion at the various transition areas. What that translates into is a set of starts in which the last, and fastest, teams will start at 4pm which is a full hour and a half later than last year.

So when will our runners be on the course? While we will not know exactly until they actually hit the road below are our best estimates at the moment.

Runner	1st Leg	1st Dist	1st Start Time	2nd Leg	2nd Dist	2nd Start Time	3rd Leg	3rd Dist	3rd Start Time
Sue	1	7.8	1:00PM	13	3.8	10:59	25	9.3	9:43
David	2	8.9	1:58	14	7.7	11:27	26	4.2	10:57
Matt	3	3.8	3:09	15	8.2	12:26AM	27	8.6	11:29
Nancy	4	2.9	3:35	16	6.4	1:28	28	5.5	12:36PM
Birgit	5	5.5	4:01	17	7.4	2:30	29	4.2	1:26
Merle	6	8.6	4:49	18	4.9	3:38	30	3.2	2:04
Chris	7	7.2	6:10	19	4.4	4:21	31	2.5	2:34
Emily	8	6.6	7:17	20	9.1	5:02	32	6.8	2:56
Rodrigo	9	6.3	8:01	21	7.1	6:07	33	4	3:42
Cathy	10	4.9	8:44	22	5.4	6:57	34	4	4:10
Erica	11	6.1	9:30	23	6.2	7:48	35	3	4:48
Aisling	12	3.9	10:25	24	6.9	8:41	36	4.3	5:16
Finish!									5:54

Matt

August and Labor Day Racing Update

2008-09-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

This is the last monthly update before this year's Reach the Beach Relay Race when the team will once again reconvene for its 200 mile adventure!

August saw Sue, Emily, Dave, Cathy and me/Matt all compete in our town's local race series so I am going to report by race to help keep this post somewhat compact.

On August 2 the town held it annual 4.68 mile race. Emily was first in her AG finishing in a 6:33 pace. I/Matt was a bit behind, and alas the closest I would ever come to catching her in a race, at a 6:35 pace. Dave came in with a 7:05 pace. Sue, as always, won her AG in a 7:07 pace. Cathy resumed her racing career with a 9:15 pace effort.

Next came the August 9 5.85 mile race. Here Emily was the second woman overall as well as first in her AG in a blistering 6:33 pace. I/Matt was far back with a 6:56 pace. Sue, again, won her AG with a 7:17 pace finish. Cathy, in only her third race in the 10K range, finished with a 9:33 pace.

August 16 saw the town hold a 6.85 mile race. Emily was again second overall and first in her AG with a 6:37 pace. I/Matt finished in a 6:45 pace (yes faster than in the prior week's shorter race!) and fourth in my AG.

On August 23 came the 8.4 mile race which is held on one of my favorite courses. Emily was again second overall and first in her AG with a 6:44 pace. I/Matt finished in a 6:55 pace. Dave came in with a 7:17 pace and a fourth in his AG. Sue, was first in her AG with a 7:27 pace.

The penultimate race in the series was the 9.3 mile race on August 30. This was a big day for Emily! Today she set the course record! She not only set it she demolished it! The old record was 12 seconds behind the new one which Emily pulled off in 1:01:20 for a 6:36 pace! Wow! Needless to say she was first overall and in her AG! :) I/Matt had my best race of the season with a 6:52 pace finish and fifth in my AG. Sue again won her AG this time with a 7:22 pace finish.

Finally the local race series wrapped up with the August 30 10 mile race. Emily was first overall again with a blindingly fast 6:42 pace.

In the end Emily won the women's division of the race series and Sue her AG. Congratulations to both!

Heather returned to racing last month with her run in the Stratford 5K on August 23. There she turned in a time of 25:48 for a 8:19 pace. Good enough for 10/46 in her AG. Well done.

The next race on our team's agenda was the New Haven Labor Day race. There is a 20K and a 5K race and we had runners in both.

In the 5K:
Birgit, the team's newest member, finished in an 8:15 pace.
Aisling made her what may have been her racing debut with a 8:25 pace which put her 12/87. Great job!
Heather came in with a 8:20 pace. Somehow the system switched her chip time with that of her fiancé (and future team member?) Chris. At least Heather and Chris managed to figure it out!
Cathy finished in a 8:47 pace. Good for 14/105 in her AG!

In the 20K:
I/Matt came in with a 7:09 pace.
Sue finished with a 7:36 pace and 2/53 in her AG! Wow!
Erica returned to distance racing with a 9:01 pace.
Chris also returned to distance racing after a long hiatus and recovering from a running injury to finish in a 9:18 pace. Congratulations!

The next post will have the, we hope, final team roster and runner order! We will also reveal the team's super secret Friday start time. Stay tuned.

Matt

July Racing and Not Much Roster Updating

2008-08-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

2008 Team Roster Lack of Update
Not much to report on the team roster front beyond what Captain Erica added on July 17. At this point I think the next major updates will be to announce our twelfth runner and who is running what leg.

July Racing Updates
While the team roster is settling down the team's racing is powering up! Summer and fall are racing season and so the group has been fairly busy.

Captain Erica and Chris
Both ran the Missoula Montana Half Marathon on July 13. I was there too for the full marathon and I will add details about it below. The half marathon course starts in a suburb, heads into a wildlife area and then winds through town for about 11 miles. Finally it finishes on a bridge across a river. Overall, a very attractive course. Better yet the day saw just perfect racing weather. It was in the mid-50's at the start, and because it is Montana the air was dry! For those of us slogging through east coast humidity that is quite a treat.

Here is a shot of Captain Erica and Chris (at what may have been one of the world's smallest marathon expos) for packet pickup the day before the race.

Chris ran the race in 1:54:09 for an 8:43 pace. Way to go Chris! Busted through the two hour mark with time to spare, and all this after claiming a bit over a year ago that he would have to give up running due to various physical ailments. Not that anybody really believed him! His time put in 21/32 in his AG.

Captain Erica also pulled through with a sub-two hour race time of 1:58:54 for a 9:05 pace! Congratulations on a great run as well. That yielded her 29/79 in her AG. A terrific placement within the top half of the field.

Emily spent the month winning many of the town's summer series races outright and all of them in her AG! On July 5 there was the 3.05 mile race. There she was 1 OA with a time of 19:07 for a 6:15 pace! Wow! On July 12 there was the 3.78 mile race which she finished in 23:54 for a 6:17 pace and first OA. On July 19 she ran the 4.07 mile race in 26:36 for a 6:29 pace. That put her second OA and first in her AG. Finally she stormed through the July 26 4.68 mile race in 30:49 for a 6:33 pace. That left her fourth OA and first in her AG. She is just smoking! Last year I would often beat her in these races. Not anymore! Now I am lucky if I can even come close to seeing her finish. Expect to see Emily running one of the team's longest set of legs if not the very longest come race day!

Sue ran the same local series as Emily. As usual Sue spent the series winning her AG in every race! In the 3.05 mile race she finished in 21:07 for a 6:54 pace fourth OA and first in her AG. She skipped the 3.78 and 4.07 mile race to hang out with her kids in South America. Sounds like a pretty good excuse to me! :) Then she came back strong as ever in the 4.68 mile race with a 33:28 finish for a 7:07 pace, and 7 OA and (of course) first in her AG!

Cathy was waylaid with a virus this past spring the put a several month long end to her training. She is now trying to come back and has put in a game effort that includes running the local race series as well. Her first comeback race was the on the 4.68 mile course which she finished in 43:28. That is a good start and she will hopefully continue to run longer and stronger as the summer progresses.

Matt as I wrote in the Captain Erica and Chris section I too headed out to Missoula Montana to run on July 13. The marathon course, like the half marathon course, is point to point. The marathon, however, starts a bit further away in a place called Frenchtown. From there you spend about 12 miles winding through farms. Then it is up a hill through a wildlife area and then back down where you hook up with the half marathon course for the final 11 miles. I had one really nice surprise and that was Erica's mother Jeannie was at the race and agreed to run race support for me! Because of her I could carry less on the course and yet had even more flexibility in terms of what I could consume as the race went on. She was terrific! We had agreed the night before to meet at miles 12 and 19 and both times there was my favorite spectator! So thanks again Jeannie you made a great race day even better. My final time as 3:25:46 for a 7:52 pace. Not a PR but still my second best time ever. Placement wise I finished 5/35 in my AG so I cannot complain too much. Another nice surprise was a friend of mine who was also out for the HM came and met me at the 23 mile mark to run me in. Having a mobile fan base is always a big help.

Like Sue and Emily I too have been running in the local race series. Alas, unlike them I can never hope to come anywhere close to winning my AG let alone finish first OA! Sad to say, I have also generally seen my times deteriorate from last year. I am still hoping to catch back up to where I was pre-spring injury. Fortunately, there was some evidence two weeks ago that I may be on my way. In the 3.05 mile race I finished in 19:27 for a 6:21 pace and 7 OA and 3 in my AG. This was 3 seconds faster than I ran it last year, and I hoped a good omen for the Missoula Marathon the following weekend. (Of course, that finish still left me 20 seconds behind Emily!) Next I ran the 4.07 mile race in 28:09 for a 6:52 pace, 15 OA and 7 in my AG. This was well off my 2007 time of 26L38 and 6:30 pace. But, hey, at least I had a good excuse! Just six days prior I had run a marathon. It takes time to recover from these things! Last up was the 4.68 mile race that I finished in 30:56 for a 6:35 pace, 10 OA and 2 (yes second!) in my AG. I think that may have been my best AG placement ever! My finish time was two seconds faster than last year. You know, you take what you can get!

Matt

The Eleventh Runner

2008-07-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

The Missing Number 11 from Matt's post below:
Rodrigo Canales, newly of the Yale SOM OB group! Welcome Aboard Rodrigo!

As of mid-July we have only one spot left on the team. I am lobbying my Aunt (second cousin, once removed, by marriage? or something like that. So we stick with "Aunt") Tammy from Billings. C'mon, Tammy, it is a blast and we need your talent and upbeat outlook on the Orange Line!

Stay tuned...

2008-07-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Roger: Next on the agenda is the Big Sur Trail Marathon, Oct 4. This is a less than zero probability of a Boston Qualify, my eternal quest, since there is about 4000' vertical. But trail runs are really where it's at. Last time I checked, however, about 81 square miles of Big Sur had burned, and they closed 20 or so miles of highway 1. I'll have to juxtapose the burn maps on the course map to see how things look... May not be as pretty as hoped!

June Racing and Team Roster Update

2008-07-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

2008 Team Roster Update
At this point it seems increasingly unlikely that Paul will make to the race this year so I am moving him into the out category. The good news is we have added Emily Williams to the team! To say she is wicked fast is a vast understatement. Her Boston Marathon time was an amazing 3:12:07! Alas, this will likely me that I will lose my coveted "hero" slot but it is all in a good cause. :)

Here is the team roster to date (although I think I am missing somebody as I thought the team was up to 11 members by now):

1. Kathy
2. Erica
3. Chris
4. Merle
5. Sue
6. Chris
7. Nancy
8. Cathy
9. Matt
10. Emily

June Racing Updates
I actually have no idea who ran what! I will update this if I get some responses to my request for information. What I know is what I ran and that is it for now.

Rodger: On June 21 he ran the Duluth, MN Grandma's Marathon in 3:57:57. Alas, he was waylaid by a cold in the few days prior to the race which (as one might imagine) was not a good thing. Wisely, instead of running it full out he slowed down and turned it into a "casual run." On the other hand a LOT of people would be thrilled with his "casual run" time as their full tilt race time!

Matt/me In my quest to get back into racing shape I ran two races last month. The first was the Simsbury CT Iron Horse Half Marathon on June 1 where I managed a 1:38:46 finish. While poor relative to my performances last year, it is about all I could really hope for given my relative lack of racing conditioning after having been sidelined by my calf injury in March. The half marathon was then followed up with the Bridgeport CT Race for the Rock 5K. There the final time was 20:45. While far off my PR it was again all I could really expect. In any case, both races hopefully did what they were designed to accomplish and that was help get me back in racing shape prior to the Missoula Marathon on July 13!

Matt

2008 Team Roster Update

2008-06-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to welcome two new members to the team! Chris Herron and Nancy Livingston are '08 SOM grads who decided in the middle of our OB pub crawl that this race sounded just the thing for them. Amazingly, they still thought so the nest morning! So our team thus far (with last names for those new to the blog):

Kathy Ball-Toncic
Erica Dawson
Chris Dawson
Merle Ederhof
Sue Gold
Chris Herron
Nancy Livingston
Cathy Nolan
Matt Spiegel

Count 'em up: Three spots remaining. We have several prospects who will soon be getting nudges of varying degrees of firmness. Look here for updates.

April Racing and More and Some Less

2008-05-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

I am going to start with the, alas, less part. I had to DNS the Boston Marathon due to my injury. But there is good news. My time in last October's Marine Corps Marathon was late enough in the year that it qualifies me to run the 2009 Boston Marathon. So hopefully I will be able to line up at the start next April 20.

RRFC at the RTBR: Who is In Who is Out Update
In
From last month: Erica, Sue, Kathy, Matt, Chris.

New to the team: Cathy my DW! Yes, and I had NO idea! Seems like the whole team knew but me until a few weeks ago. Sneaky gal. Right now she is working on her mileage and ran an 8.92 training run just today. Who knows, maybe she will sign up for one of the longer legs yet? Could a half marathon be in her future? Stay tuned.

Status update: It looks like Merle (our savior from last year) is on the team again this year! That is indeed great news.

Out
Alia: Sorry to lose the team's youngest runner and a speed daemon to boot.
Ulli: Still having trouble running. The whole team is pulling for you to get everything healed and working again.

April Racing Updates

Amy: On May 4 (OK, so it is the wrong month for this update, but otherwise I will need to remember to post it next month) she ran the Burns Park 5K with her daughter Abby who is 10. Abby set a new PR at the race finishing in 39:07. Congratulations Abby! Keep pushing mom along!

Kathy: Ran the 5 mile Cambridge City Run on April 6. She finished in 46:26 for a very speedy pace of 9:18. All of which put her 10/25 in her AG. Nice job on pulling in a top half placing!

Sue: Started with the April 6 Danbury half marathon finishing in 1:36:29. Her AG place? If you have to ask you have not been reading this blog for very long! First place, of course. She was also 13/189 among ALL women! Next up with the 3.5 mile Donnelly Dash which she finished in 24:30. (Who thinks up these distances?) AG Place? You are not paying any attention now are you? First in her AG and 5/96 women.

Matt

March Racing and More

2008-04-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

I am going to start this month's entry with the "and more" part.

RRFC at the RTBR: Who is In Who is Out?

This year's team sign-up for the fall Reach the Beach Relay is on its way! So who is in and who is out and who is still deciding? You want to know? We have some answers.

In
Erica: Not only is she in and captain yet again this last month she also ran a 5K race update with her 8 year old daughter Isabel! Next thing you know Isabel will be demanding to switch from team mascot to fellow runner!
Sue: Plus a race update below.
Kathy: As a bonus we have a race update for her as well!
Matt: Some race updates too.
Chris: Erica's husband Chris will be joining the team this year. We are all looking forward to finding out if they will or will not be in the same van!

Out
Amy and Sally: Coming all the way to New Hampshire from Michigan a second year running seemed like a long shot. We will miss them in the van and on the team. For their the good news is that they are putting together a relay team for a race in Michigan. It is off road and it should like it will be a lot of fun. Best wishes on your race from Team Rosie!
Rodger: We are, alas, losing Rodger to the west coast sometime this summer. We are going to miss him on the Orange Line as well as on the team.

Maybe
Ulli: Actually in if her knee recovers. I am pretty confident this means she is in!
Heather: On the fence and from what I can tell she is not moving! The team will have to work on that. But, she is back to racing and you can find the update below.
Paul: Alas, Paul is recovering from a slow healing hip injury. Still I have confidence that once it is all healed up he will move into the Yes category.

March Racing Updates
Now for our monthly race updates!

Sue: As always we can count on Sue for a race update. This month is no exception. On March 2 she ran the last race in the local Boston Buildup series. This is a 25K route along what must be one of the hilliest part of Connecticut. On this course the hills (no kidding) have hills! She clocked in with a super time of 1:58:15. This demolished her 2:06:15 from the last time she ran the race two years ago. Congratulations!
Heather: Heather resumed the racing season with the March 16 4 Mile St. Patrick's Day race in Fairfield. Her time of 33:22 seems like a good way to kick off what will be many races to come this year.
Kathy: On March 16 Kathy ran the Ras Na Heireann USA 5K coming in with a time of 28:49 which landed her 23/60 in her AG! Another great start to the new racing year.
Matt/me: Matt/I ran three races last month. The first was the 25K Boston Buildup which I finished in 1:48:49. Next came the Fairfield 4 Mile race with a time 25:32. Good enough for a new PR and 4/41 in my AG! My last race of the month was the 30K Boston Blowout on March 30 which I finished in 2:13:41. Alas, in this case "blowout" is all too accurate. During the race I suffered from a calf injury that I am still struggling to fully recover from. Bad timing. Let that be a lesson to anybody reading this: if you feel like you may injure yourself in a race (especially one you are not "targeting") you are way better off pulling up right then and there. A DNF is nothing compared to weeks of healing. On a happier note, the calf is getting better and will hopefully be solid in time for the Boston Marathon on April 21.

News to Come
If you want to see how I do in the Boston Marathon the race webpage will offer real time tracking every 5K. Given my calf injury I think a PR is out. But hopefully I can run the race and have some fun for 26.2 miles.

That is all the news until next month!

Matt

February Racing

2008-03-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

February saw another light racing month with just Sue and me out on the roads. What the heck are all those teammates of ours doing?

Sue and Matt/I both ran the 20K legs of the Boston Buildup Series in our area on February 10. Our finishing times were 1:34:20 and 1:26:44 respectively. That put Sue 6/41 in the 40+ AG, and me 15/67 in the 40-49 AG.

March looks to be a LOT busier for us. On March 2 there is the 25K Boston Buildup Race and on March 30 the 30K Boston Blowout. In between there is a 4 mile race celebrating St. Patrick's day on March 16. See you all next month.

Matt

January Racing

2008-02-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

It looks like just Sue and I were on the race course last month.

Sue opened up the year with the Resolution Run in Weston on January 1 completing the 5K course in 22:12 and coming (big surprise here) first in her AG and sixth overall.

Now for a brief detour in our story:

The Boston Buildup is a race series that includes a 10K, 15K, 20K, 25K, and 30K race. The first four of which are on the hilliest courses you can imagine! They are designed to either get you ready for a spring marathon or drive you into the ground. I am not sure which. The winter cold, the challenging courses, and the general paucity of available distance races this time of year brings out a very tough crowd. If you have any doubts you just need to know that the West Point Marathon team often shows up to run them!

We now return to our regular programming:

On January 20 Sue ran the 15K race held in Ridgefield finishing in just 1:10:39. Need help visualizing the course? Imagine starting the race at the lip of a really big bowl. Now run down the bowl and up the other side. Then turn around and run back the way you came. The elevation change involves about 350 feet of climbing. Ugh is probably the appropriate expression!

Matt/I ran the January 6 10K BB race in Norwalk finishing in 42:54, a time I must admit to having been disappointed in. It just goes to show how fast a 40+ year old body will slow down once training slacks off! So it is back on the road for me as I try to recover my speed from last fall before the Boston Marathon hits in April.

Matt

December Racing

2008-01-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

October Update

Before we get to last month's races first an update from October. Want to know what it is like to come in second in your AG in a race where over 20,000 people line up at the start? Well I sure would. But since that is not going to happen I have what for most of us will be as close as we will get: a picture of Sue (who actually did it) and the trophy they sent her. Alas, it did not come with an anti-reflective glass so the pictures do not really do it justice. Congratulations again to Sue on this remarkable achievement.

December Racing

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Rodger clearly was the racer of the month. On December 2 He ran the California International Marathon, which most people just call the CIM, in Sacramento California. His time of 3:32:52 was good enough to drop his PR by 28:36! A truly amazing accomplishment. This all came despite high headwinds during the race's final miles making his time all the more impressive. He finished 181/964 in his AG putting him easily within the top 20% of all finishers. Great job and congratulations again!

Sue, for her at least, it was a ho-hum month. Just two races. First place, of course, in both. Here is an edited version of her description of each:

December 2: Sue ran in the annual off-road run called Gail's Run. The proceeds support PAN CAN, which does research in the area of finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. Gail was a young woman who passed away from this cancer over 4 years ago. The race is in the Pound Ridge Reservation in Pound Ridge, New York. Sue ran the 6.2 mile course, crossing two rivers (without any bridges), climbing hills on all fours and running through beautiful wooded trails. She finished first female in under 58 minutes. It was an adventure run that she'll long remember.

December 22: Sue placed first in her AG in the 5k Fairfield - Holiday Run for Toys. Entrants in this race provide toys for needy children. She ran it in 21:07.

Matt

November Racing

2007-12-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

Before going on to the team's November races a couple of pictures from races past are in order. First there is Heather's first place AG award from the Niantic 5K at the end of September on the left, and my third place AG award from the October Branford Shores 4M race on the right:

The way the web page displays things does not due justice to Heather's trophy which as a first place trophy is rightly much nicer! We are still waiting for Sue's second place AG trophy from the Marine Corps Marathon to show up. Now that should be a REALLY nice trophy!

November Racing

Amy ran the November 11 Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5k setting a new PR for the race in 27:33. This is over a minute faster than her 2006 time of 28:44! Nice job. Of course this might mean captain Erica will have to sign her up for some tougher legs in the 2008 RTBR! :)

Heather ran in two races last month. The first was the November 11 New Haven MADD Dash 5 miler which she finished in 41:37 putting her a well deserved fifth in her AG! She then followed this up with a 33:24 5k on November 22 for 10/68 in her AG. This was the famous Run 4 the Pies Turkey Trot down in Palm Beach Florida. Heather collected a pie but alas reports it was a pretty mediocre one! Oh well.

Matt/I ran two races as well. The first was the very same 5 mile MADD Dash Heather was in. My time of 32:31 placed me 11 in my AG and 25 OA. A few weeks later I ran my own Turkey Trot at the Southport 5 mile Pequot Runners Thanksgiving Day Race. Another 5 mile race but this time I finished in 32:01 for a new PR! That was good for 14/509 in my AG.

Cathy (a member of the founding relay team, more on that some other time) ran the 5 mile Pequot Turkey trot as well finishing in 46:25.

Sue also traversed the Pequot Turkey trot route. However, she refuses to say she "ran" it since she was out to have fun covering the course with her daughter who was up for the holiday. No chip, no time, and no official race. But she was there and I did see her as she turned towards the final stretch!

Matt

October Racing

2007-11-01T06:25:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the second racing update for the RRFC! First we need to back fill:

September 30 the Big Heart Big House 5K took place in Ann Arbor, MI.

Sally ran it in 23:52 for a 7:41 pace to finish 10/182 in her AG. Yes, a top 10 finish! Congratulations!

Now on to October:

October 7 was the date for Connecticut's Ridgefield Half Marathon. Sue and I ran it.

Sue finished in 1:40:46 for a 7:42 pace. That was good enough for first place in her AG! What did the trophy look like? Here it is:
No hardware. Just a $50 bill in an envelope. Probably just as well. Given Sue's already extensive trophy collection this is probably a lot more useful. ;)

Matt (I) finished in 1:29:11 for a 6:48 pace and 5/114 in my AG. Best of all that time is good enough to get me a guaranteed entry into next year's NYC marathon! I am running NY in 2008.

October 21 was a busy day for the fan club with 4 miles races in Trumbull and Branford Connecticut.

Sue ran Trumbull in 27:48 for a 6:57 pace. Way to go breaking a seven minute mile! Naturally she was first in her AG.

Heather ran Branford in 32:54 for an 8:14 pace and 7/22 in her AG. Well done!

Matt (I) also ran Branford. My finish time was 25:36 for a 6:24 pace and 9/160 overall but a mere 4/40 in my AG! Tough AG is all I can say! :) Fortunately the overall winner was in my AG so I actually got to collect the 3rd place AG trophy. As with most races competitors are limited to winning at most one award. Hey, I will take what I can get!

Cathy was a member of the founding RRFC team so I am going to include her Branford race here as well. She finished in 35:09 for a 8:48 pace and 13/36 in her AG. Another well done race!

October 28 saw the 32nd running of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC for which Sue and I have been training these last few months.

Sue what can you say other than she is an amazing runner! Her final time of 3:25:49 for a 7:52 pace put her 2nd (yes you read that right 2nd) out of 439 in her AG! I will get a photo of the trophy once they mail it in to her. Her Age Grade was 79.7% which puts her just 0.3% below what is called "National Class." Basically, it means she competes with the country's best runners. Not too surprising given that she just scored 2nd place in one of the country's largest and most prestigious marathons! Did I mention her MCM time was nearly 5 minutes faster than her last marathon! Details about Age Grading can be found below.

Matt (I) ran the marathon in 3:23:11 for a 7:46 pace. That was good enough to land me in 74/1526 in my AG. I also scored a new marathon PR by just over 5 minutes! My Age Grade was 66.8% which gets me into the category of "Local Class." Heck, I am happy to be in any "class" at all!

Sue and I also want to thank RRFC founding member Cathy for her on course support. We are also grateful to her sister (Patty) and niece (Karin) and our friend Alton who were there with supplies across the miles as well. They were all wonderful and we could not have run as well as we did without them.

If you are wondering about what Age Grade means the following is taken from the MCM results web page.

"AGE-GRADED" results are calculated using tables developed by the World Association of Veteran Athletes (the world governing body for masters track and field, long distance running and race walking). These tables were first published in 1989 and are frequently updated. The tables can be used in two ways: first, by comparing your time to a standard for your sex and age, you can determine your Performance Level Percent. These percentages can be interpreted as follows:
100% = Approximate World-Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

Matt

The Fan Club Races On

2007-10-07T15:53:00.001-07:00

While the RTBR is over that does not mean the team has stopped racing. No, not as a team! Individually. I am hoping to post here about once a month the team's racing achievements in the prior month. So here is the September recap:

September 22: I ran the Flagstaff AZ Half Marathon (HM). This race has what every runner dreams of avoiding: a combination of hills and no air! It takes place at 8000 feet and has vertical climbs totaling 1100 feet! What did I sign up for? I finished with a new personal worst HM time of 1:48:03. But that was good enough for 8 out of 31 overall among the men and 3 out of 16 among men over 40. Did they hand out age group trophies? No! Sigh.

September 30 was a busy day for the team! Just in time for this month's recap we have:

Amy ran the Ann Arbor MI Big House, Big Heart 5K side-by-side with her daughter. Their chip time of 41:20 is pretty impressive for somebody in the middle of grade school!

Heather ran the Niantic Bay 5K. Not only did she run it in just 24:41 for a 7:57 per mile pace she WON her age group! (Stay tuned we may yet get a picture of that trophy to post.) Collecting the trophy turned out to be harder than you might imagine. First they handed her the third place trophy. Looking at the finisher list the race officials discovered the second place finisher was named Matt. Hmm, not too many women named Matt. So then they gave Heather the second place trophy. Only later, when the official results were posted, did she find out that she had actually won her age group. An email to the race director, a few days wait, and the right trophy (the BIG one) finally showed up in the mail.

Erica ran the Niantic Bay Half Marathon (HM) showing that fan club members can run long even without van support! She broke 2 hours with a time of 1:58:12! Better yet she knocked 22 seconds per mile off of the pace she ran the New Haven 20K on Labor Day with a final HM pace of 9:02 per mile! Congratulations Erica!

Matt

The Overall Rosie Stats

2007-10-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

The Rosie Ruiz Fan Club came in 64/154 in the Mixed Open category! That puts us in the 42 percentile from the top. Great running! Special kudos to the Green Line runners who toughed out a really rough 29 hours, 23 minutes, and 31 seconds yielding an overall pace for the group of 8:33. If you are wondering how good that is, our forecasted pace (based on actual historical race times) was 8:53. So we knocked a full 20 seconds from that! Had we run at our forecasted pace we would have finished 102 in our category, which is the 66 percentile and about where I believe we were initially seeded. A pretty impressive achievement all around!

Matt

Epilogue

2007-10-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

The team owes Captain Erica a free lifetime metro pass for all the work she put into making it all happen! I am sure I speak for the whole team when I say we are immensely grateful for allowing us to experience the Reach the Beach Relay.

If you have never run a relay like this you cannot begin to imagine the time and effort a team captain needs to devote to the whole process. Like what?

Do you have 11 friends that can run a half marathon? Can at least two or three of those 11 run a marathon? No? Well start looking!
How many handy running compatible reflective vests, lights for those vests, and headlamps do you own? None? Get ready to go shopping! Not only that get ready to do some research too. Not all reflective vests are suitable for racing in.

Do you have a pair of 15 person vans in your garage? No? Ever wonder where you might be able to rent two? This is your chance to find out.

How familiar are you with the hotels near the vehicle transition areas? Not at all? Think a web based service will help? Think again! You need Grady's Roadside Inn not the Hyatt. Find the town on the map then go to a Yellow Pages website and type in motels. See what pops up and start dialing.
Do you like to shop for things like bottled water, sports drinks, and high carbohydrate foods that can supply 6 people over 36 hours of running? I hope so because you just agreed to stock two vans with the stuff!
Do you want your runners to be able to spot your van on course? Yes! How nice. Now go buy things to decorate the vans with.
Did you know there is a race handbook? Did you know your team is supposed to read it? Do you have a plan to get them to do so? As you might imagine it is very entertaining so your team should jump at the chance. Not!
Maps! Yes, your team needs course maps and if you are nice road maps that cover the whole route.

All of the above and more Erica took care of.

Oh one other detail. What do you plan to do if one of the vans breaks down after the race when it is ready to leave the beach? Well, the curse of the Green Line did not end with the race. When the group that had planned to drive it back to New Haven tried to start it up and leave the finish guess what? Nothing! It would not start. Erica's husband Chris was kind enough to drive six(?) of us to the Manchester Airport where we picked up a minivan for the drive home. The next day Erica and Chris managed to get an emergency repair job for Green Line. That got it started but the mechanic told them not to let the engine stop prior to reaching New Haven as it likely would not start up a second time. It could have been worse! The van did make it to the finish. Had it died midrace our adventure would have gone with it.

Here is the picture Erica took the next day of the Green Line at the finish. Sort of says it all.

Matt

Orange Line Reaches the Terminal

2007-09-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

I handed the wrist strap off to Paul and off he went. Like me he seemed really up for his run. Since his leg was only 4.8 miles we checked on him mid-route and then went straight to the transition area. There we dropped off Sally to get ready and I headed down to the basement of a church where they were kindly serving breakfast for the relay racers. While you could get healthy things to eat I went for the breakfast cakes and rolls. Yes plural! After two days on the Cliff Bar diet I was dieing to eat real food, and breakfast cakes are among my favorites!

After they talked me away from the tables (and further face stuffing) we went to meet Paul at his finish.

Paul blew away his predicted time, running his leg 35 seconds per mile faster than our forecast! When he came in to hand off to Sally off we went again. Sally's final leg was 4.7 miles so it we had to hustle.

Like Paul and the rest of the Orange Line that day Sally had no trouble trouncing her predicted pace, knocking 33 seconds off of it! When she arrived it was Amy's turn after which the Orange Line would be done!

Well maybe. One fear remained. Would the Green Line runners manage to run all of their legs? The news from their van remained grim. While they were all clearly determined to finish their legs they were in anything but the best of shape. The combination of running, lack of sleep, and getting soaked in the rain was not doing them much good. Would they make it? If not how many of us would have to run a fourth leg?

Sue soon found her solution to the potential fourth leg problem. I have never seen her look fatigued let alone exhausted. When I saw her collapse after announcing that she was NOT running a fourth leg I knew I had a chance for this one-in-a-million picture!

Yep, that is Sue! Looks pretty tired to me! Would she have run a fourth leg if asked to an hour later? Well I guess we will never know! :) If you have been reading this blog you know the Green Line pulled through for us and nobody ran anything other than their scheduled legs!

When Amy left for her final leg the sky opened up once again and it poured. We all thought our poor teammates in the Green Line would get rained on yet again. I tell you it seemed that van had a curse on it!

Like the rest of the team Amy also came in faster than predicted despite the weather. While she was at it she picked up a couple of puppy dogs!

By the time Amy's leg came around we had finally figured out that we needed to get the foil seals off the bottles before handing them out! So here she is actually getting water from a bottle you can actually drink from. Yes, we were proud of ourselves for figuring this out! Look, it had been a day-and-a-half with little food, or sleep and lots of running. What do you want?

Once Amy arrived the Orange Line handed off to the Green Line and they took off after Ali. Nature finally came through for them and just as quickly as it started raining it stopped. The Orange Line now took off for the beach and the finish line party and barbecue!

Actually, party second shower first. Our next mission was to find a cheap hotel where we could get a shower. Near Hampton Beach (the finish line) we found one. I told the guy at the desk we wanted to rent it for an hour so that we could take showers and then leave. He looked at me kind of funny, like I must think he is really stupid or something. It was only when the women went upstairs and left the guys at the reception area to watch TV that I think he believed me! Post-showers we went down to the beach to greet the Green Line at the finish.

Before the Green Line arrived it was time to get some final Orange Line pictures!

Sans running outfits from left to right. Front row: Sue, Amy, and Sally. Back row: Paul, Rodger, and Matt. As you can see our road kill counter had a lot of action! Everyone had a collection of bones and puppies by the race's end. A reminder of all the people we saw and met in strange outfits, and oddly decorated vans. Every one of them part of a team that had no doubt spent hours coming up with a humorous team name. But, of course, none as good as the Rosie Ruiz Fan Club!

Matt

The Orange Line: Running at Dawn

2007-09-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

It seemed like the Green Line was cursed. During the Orange Line's night leg the rains held off. When we handed the wrist strap over down it came. Then we got the strap back, and what do you know it stopped raining! So while Rodger started in the early dawn it was at least a dry start.

We met Rodger at about the 3 mile mark and he told us to just meet him at the end. Since his leg was 9.2 miles we decided to partially ignore him. Instead we would drive to the finish drop Sue and I think Paul and Amy off. Then Sally and I would double back to meet Rodger at the 6 mile mark to make sure he did not need anything. Well the first part of the plan worked! Up until this point in the race the Orange Line ran like a well oiled van. We stayed on course and we always hit our meeting points. Getting fancy put a temporary end to that. We missed Rodger as he had already passed the 6 mile mark by the time the van got there. Before we could figure out what happened Sue had already taken off. In the end this did not matter too much. The van headed back to the transition area picked up the crew and headed out to meet her. Still it was our first, and fortunately last, missed meeting.

Due to construction Sue's final leg was rerouted. This turned what was supposed to be an easy 4 miles into a brutal 8 replete with hills. As always though she turned in a remarkable performance!

About those sports bottles with water we purchased the night before -- they came with foil seals that you first had to peel off. Needless to say we kept forgetting to do so. So it is likely that Sue in this picture is trying to get water from a sealed bottle. Sorry about that!

I was up next. Like the rest of the Orange Line I was pumped for my last leg. It would be the one and only time during the race I would actually beat my forecasted pace.

No doubt one reason I finally beat my pace forecast was that I was being chased! After the first van pass Rodger yelled out to me that a bone was close behind! That meant to move it or I would get passed. A few miles into the run I realized my rival was faster on the uphills but that I was faster going down. The course was 8.6 miles long. Mile 7 to 8 was up a hill and from there to the end it was all downhill. I knew that if I could hold him off until mile 8 I would get to the transition area first. I did, and I did! Heck, I even had enough to surge the final quarter mile or so. I was so proud! Why? Beats me? Earlier I was passed by a guy who I later found out ran the leg at a 5:30/mile pace. The way he blew by me you would have thought I was standing still. Next up was Paul.

Matt

Orange Line: Sleep at Last!

2007-09-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

After the hand off to the Green Line it was time to head for the hotel to catch some sleep. First we stopped at a gas station convenience store to get some supplies. What do you know they were having a sale on bottled water -- in sports bottles no less! We took a case. Now on to the hotel. Captain Erica had booked two different hotels. The "bad" one was near the current vehicle transition area (VTA), the other "good" one near the next VTA. Since we had to eventually drive to the next VTA (that is where the Green Line would hand off to us) we opted to go to the "good" hotel.

Did you know that six people running in sequence can go really far? Yes, this is a little known fact. The result was a much longer drive than we had anticipated to the hotel room all the while chewing up valuable sleep time. Once we finally arrived we discovered to our horror that $130 a night in NH buys a night at one of the worst dives I have ever seen! If you saw Erica's picture you have SOME idea, but it really does not do justice to the place. At this point though the Orange Line runners were so tired it hardly mattered. Some of us took showers and then we all collapsed one place or another. All except Rodger who decided the van looked more attractive. It WAS a close call.

As we were about to announce lights out a call from the Green Line came in. The news was not good. Health problems were running rampant and there was talk of runners have to bail out of their current leg. If that happened everybody would move up a leg in the rotation. Among other things that would have the Orange Line take over on leg 24 instead of 25. The immediate problem was that if we needed to arrive for the early leg we would have to cut our sleep time by well over an hour. First, we be running after just five runners. That in itself would have us on course over an hour earlier. Second, we would also need to drive further from the hotel to reach our new start. The leg 24 transition area was 8 miles about further away from us than the leg 25 transition area. Given how tired we were this was very bad news. The deal Erica and I struck was a compromise of sorts. They would call at 3:30am if we needed to head out early. If we did not get a call we would arrive at around 5:45am at the leg 25 exchange. With fear in our hearts we went to sleep. Given what I know now all I can say is that the effort put in by the Green Line was nothing short of heroic! At some point I hope a few more of them share their stories here.

There was no call. We left the hotel on schedule and headed up to the VTA. An amazing thing happened at this point: despite the lack of sleep, and physical exhaustion the Orange Line was psyched to run! I have no idea why or how but we were all high as a kite and ready to tear up the course.

At the VTA Kathy handed the wrist strap off to Rodger who took off in the dark. Fortunately, dawn was approaching as the light on the back of his vest immediately fell off! A bit of confusion later, Erica and I hooked up and I headed with her to the Green Line. We needed to get the vans together to transfer some items and I planned to lead them over to the Orange Line van. What can I say, the Green Line looked, well, green. :( They were exhausted and clearly physically distressed. I was sure they were miserable too. Amazingly though they all claimed that their spirits were high and that their enthusiasm remained strong. With a smile Ulli held up a now empty box of Imodium AD! You gotta love a group that can run, laugh, and all the while consume Imodium AD like it is hard candy! A little directing later the vans were together and the supplies transferred. Each van then headed its separate way. The Orange Line in search of Rodger, and the Green Line in search of the hotel.

Matt

Nightfall: The Orange Line Runs Again

2007-09-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

At 6:24pm, a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule, Green Line runner Kathy arrived into vehicle transition area 3 and handed the band off to Rodger. It was the Orange Line's turn to run again! Nightfall was now approaching. Under the race rules teams need to wear reflective vests with blinking lights and a headlamp from 6:00pm to 6:00am. So dutifully, Rodger donned his safety gear. Sunset was a bit later so he managed to run mostly in twilight. He made the best of the light he had finishing nearly a minute ahead of his predicted pace!

Next up was Sue. While there was some light at the start, by the time she ended it was pitch black. Clouds had arrived leaving not a star in sight. The team now discovered something: all runners and vans look identical in the dark! From the van it was nearly impossible to figure out if an approaching runner was ours until he or she was at the van door. For runners, the situation was no better. While Sue was on the road I got ready and went to put on my Garmin. This gizmo is a GPS watch that tells you, among other things, how far along the course you have gone. My Garmin! Where was it!? From my point of view this was a major crises! I run with it all the time. I count on it to tell me how many miles have passed and how many there are to go! Where was it? Despite turning the van upside down I could not find it. Time for Plan B. When Sue came in I would take the one she was wearing (Paul's). While not ideal it would work. In the meantime Cathy (my wife) called to get an update and remarked that I sounded rather distressed. I told her the bad news but that I could use Paul's. I was still depressed.

After I took the Garmin from Sue off I went for my second leg. At this point I discovered that a well equipped team is one that has individual reflective vests and headlamps! Runners sweat! Yes, I know, big news. Putting on the safety gear after somebody else had just used it was just gross! Nothing to do though. The stuff is mandatory. In any case you would be crazy to run without it at night.

Eventually, I made it into the transition area and handed the wrist strap and Garmin off to Paul. There I was greeted with by Sue holding MY Garmin! I had it back! They found it in the van in Rodger's equipment bag where it had fallen in. You have no idea how happy I was to see it. My spirits considerably brightened I went back to trying to get pictures of the team running at night. Alas, this proved nearly impossible absent some easy way to figure out who our runners were which we did not have. After many, many attempts across many, many runners I finally got one of Sally! But, alas, this is it.

When Sally handed off to Amy it was time to head to the next vehicle transition area. At that point the Green Line would start up again and we could get some sleep. We arrived at 11:53pm looking forward to heading off to the hotel that our indomitable Captain Erica had reserved near the next vehicle transition area from where we would start our final legs. Unfortunately, the Green Line was delayed. More unfortunately, the news coming from there was getting worse and worse. Ever more dire warnings that various members were ill and might have to stop running! It was not too early for a very fatigued Orange Line crew to panic.

Lunch/Dinner, a Shower and a Nap?

2007-09-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

With the Green Line in charge it was off to something like lunch and dinner. It was past 2:00pm and our spreadsheet said to expect to get back to running sometime around 7:00pm. So whatever we could grab now would be it until early tomorrow morning. As in 1:00am tomorrow morning! The Orange Line drove down the road to get gas and spotted a burger place where we sat down for lunch. You can see it in the picture's background with the yellow umbrellas on the left. Our lunch spot was located along the race route and the outdoor tables gave us a great view to spot the runners as they came by.

Here is Erica right after declaring that I would never get this picture! It was not easy. She is quick and I had to run ahead to snap it!

Post lunch it was off to a cabin owned by Sally's family to shower and get some sleep. As they say the best laid plans . . . It turned out the cabin was a bit further away than expected and the Green Line a bit faster! The end result was a quick shower for each of us and then a rapid return to the course as the Green Line announced they would be done sometime before 7:00pm! In fact they would hand over the wrist strap at 6:52pm.

While the Orange Line was happy to hear that the Green Line was swiftly covering the course we were less happy to hear initial reports that some of their party was not feeling so hot. Would we need to run extra legs? Would the rotation be moved up requiring people to suddenly run legs they did not plan to? It was not yet time to panic but it was time to be concerned. Matt

Orange Line Legs 5 and 6

2007-09-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

Next up Sally and then Amy after which the Orange line could leave for lunch/dinner, a shower and a nap! Sorry, I do not have a picture of Sally on the run. But, she was terrific! Our spreadsheet had her estimated pace at 9:13 and instead she came in at a blazing, drum roll, 8:12! Wow! A minute per mile faster! The Orange Line was HOT! Next up Amy and another blindingly fast run. Her predicted pace was 9:59 and instead she ran her leg in 9:21! At 2:22pm, a full 22 minutes ahead of schedule, Amy handed the wrist strap over to Ali and the Orange Line was then off the course.

Go Green Line! By now the Orange Line was tired and hungry. But, boy were we having a good time! Matt

Creative names

2007-09-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

One of the most amusing parts of the race was reading the team names and mottoes on the vans. You can find a complete list of team names here.

Some of my favorites: The "GoGo Girls", who run in pink wigs and tutus, Team "Got the Runs" (Van 2 latter re-dubbed "CAUGHT the Runs"--apparently it was going around); "Fat Guys Don't Bonk," "Don't Drink That It's Not Gatorade," and "Snakes on a Van"... None of them top Rosie, of course, but still there are some good ones. Erica

Blogging Suspended

2007-09-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

I am away from blogging until Sunday. When I return I will add more pictures and race details! Until then maybe some of my teammates will add their own bits of the story. Matt

Orange Line Legs 2, 3, and 4.

2007-09-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

Rodger slapped the team wrist band on Sue and off she went! For those who do not know Sue she is an incredible runner. She is the second fastest grand master half marathon and marathon runner in a ALL of Connecticut! Add to that her recently completed first half iron woman triathlon and the team had, justifiably, high hopes for her runs. She did not disappoint flying through the course. Our spreadsheet forecast her finishing in a 8:15 pace instead she did it in 7:54!

Sue arrived into the transition area and off I went! Up a road affectionately named the, "Kanc." This is 7.7 miles of highway that climbs 1,500 feet. Fortunately, I had great support throughout. Indeed, the Orange Line support crew worked like a well oiled machine. We were great! :) Prior to when a runner would take off we would get a list of their preferred support stops and what they wanted. No matter what we would stop to check on people a couple of miles in. You cannot begin to imagine how important all this is to whoever is out on the course. Here Sue is handing me my water bottle a few miles into the leg.

There is a bit of relay race jargon that our team took advantage of to help with the team's spirit during the race. When you pass somebody they are known as "road kill." We had no delusions of grandeur and figured we were as likely to be passed as to pass people. So we kept count in both directions! We had a chart to which cute animal stickers were added when we did the passing and Halloween stickers when we were passed. Rodger quickly abbreviated this to "puppies" and "bones." We then made a sport of calling out our puppy and bone counts as the van came by. Encouragement for the runner often include the driver yelling things like "two puppies ahead," or "a bone closing behind!" On the way up the Kanc I scored a total of 7 puppies! Here I am letting the van know the current score.

After my climb up the Kanc the wrist band went to Paul who then had a 4.8 mile downhill jaunt! Our spreadsheet had predicted that he would run it in an 8:45 pace. Instead he toasted the route at a 7:06 clip! At this rate the team might even put in a respectable finish! As you can see he looked great afterwards as well.

Next up was Sally and then Amy both of whom would also greatly exceed their predicted paces!

Matt

Go Rodger! Runner 1 Leg 1

2007-09-17T17:57:00.001-07:00

Relay teams started according to their predicted finishing times, with the slower teams leaving first. At 7:30am the first group went out with additional departures every half hour. Our team had a 9:00am start time. The last team was scheduled to leave at 3:00pm! Needless to say, it seemed unlikely that we would win. Then again, there is Rosie's strategy . . .

After a brief team chat we decided not to use the Rosie strategy and thus prepared to run the race. First up was Rodger whose first leg was 6.6 mostly downhill miles. A little before 9:00 he warmed up and then came running to the start. The gun went off at 9:09am and our odyssey began.

You would think that those riding in the van can relax and enjoy the scenery. After all you ARE in a van and the person you are supporting is on foot. Boy would you be wrong! As we soon discovered you are busy nearly every minute of the race. First problem: find a place to stop where we could hand Rodger water on his route. The first leg, unlike most of the race, followed a biking trail and thus vans could only hope to intersect runners at various trail heads along the route. We stopped at the first one we saw but quickly decided Rodger had already passed it. We then drove down a bit further found another trail head and parked. Less than a minute later Rodger appeared, trailing the rest of the pack. We handed him a water bottle and off he went.

Next stop the first runner transition area (RTA). There Rodger would hand the team wristband off to Sue. While we stood around (and as you can see took pictures) we saw one runner after another come through. Where was Rodger? Was he hurt? Had he just falling behind? This was our next lesson, all through the race you see people coming through the RTA. Remember the slower teams started earlier and the faster ones later. After asking around a bit we discovered that we were looking at runners from 8:30 group come through. Whew! Then Rodger appeared! First among the 9:00am starters! Great job! Basically, he told us his strategy was to start slow and then finish as fast as possible. This is generally the ideal strategy in a race, as it typically produces the fastest overall time for most runners, and he pulled it off perfectly!

Rodger's final time for the leg was 0:47:30 for a 7:12 pace! This was way faster than his predicted pace of 8:23 which was based on his recent SF marathon performance. As it would turn out, Rodger would be the first among our many team members that would turn in times which greatly exceeded our pre-race predictions!

Matt

The Orange Line: Pre-Race Morning

2007-09-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

It turns out that in a relay race like this each van is its own little six person world. While there is some interaction between vans it is mostly pretty brief. The Green line had the technologically more advanced equipment so a series of post-race notes will have to do for the Orange line report. I am going to do this over a couple of days so it reads something like a live report. Why not, Rosie ran something like a marathon!

Van decoration is both a complex and important process. More important than you might have ever thought! The point of decorating your van is not to just impress everybody with your skills as a stand up comic (although that is, of course, quite an important element) but to also let your runners figure out which van is theirs! Yes, on the road with your van are another 350 or so identical 15 person vans. Absent anything to distinguish them nobody would know which support vehicle is theirs. Actually, while we were decorating we knew none of this. We just thought we would impress people with our creativity, since we certaintly had no plans to do so with out blinding speed! The vans were named the Green and Orange lines after the color of the window chalk we used on each. Here is Paul standing in front of one after the initial round of graffitti was applied:
Behind his shoulder on the small window is a T inside a circle that is the official logo of the Boston subway system. Across the two big windows it says, "Rosie Ruiz Fan Club Riding to Victory."

Matt

Reached the Beach!

2007-09-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

We did it! Details to follow...

Van 2 pulls through

2007-09-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

Despite the collective gastrointestinal distress, everyone on the Green Line is sticking to her guns and running her intended legs! What nerve! What dedication! What a lot of Immodium AD!

Overnight update

2007-09-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

What's it like to run in the night? Reviews were mixed. A few of us dug it, others were made nervous by the frequent rustling in the roadside bushes. Ulli came face-to-face with something black, white, and smelly. Let's not even think about how that might have turned out.

Hard to appreciate how hectic the night legs are. We "leapfrogged" so the van was occupied with trying to pick out our runner in the darkness and rain (note for next year: distinctive glow-in-the-dark patterns on the safety vests are a MUST), offering water and moral support and bear bells as needed.

The Rockettes of Road Safety:

The Filthiest Hotel Room in NH

2007-09-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

We stopped in shifts overnight at the Firebird for showers and a brief nap (and in the case of us on the Green Line, lots of bathroom time). Three of us took to the beds, three tested the comfort of the van seats. Afterward, we thought Merle was being sarcastic when she said 'Thanks for letting us sleep in the room.' Matt's characterization of it as "unbelievably filthy" turned out to be a gross (literally) understatement.

At least the staff was friendly!

Would YOU sit in this?...

The Wrong Kind of Runs

2007-09-15T05:55:00.001-07:00

Fully 1/2 of Van 2 has been struck with some kind of stomach bug that has them spending far more time than desirable in the Porta-Johns. They're in pretty bad shape. We're hoping with a little rest and Immodium they'll be able to finish their legs, but it's looking like Roger may get his wish to pick up more miles.

All through the night

2007-09-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

Update from the road! We've been out of email contact most of the night but can now report proudly that Team Rosie is significantly ahead of the game! We're on track to beat our projected paces by a cumulative hour or more. Roger is pulling energy out of somewhere; Paul is proving Matt's 8:30 bet last week to have been a good one; Sally and Amy are shining; Erica, Heather, and Ulli from Van 2 are all happy with performance, and Merle is rocking her very first road race of any length--what an initiation. Kathy has pulled out 11 miles while suffering from a stomach flu and all that involves (!). Rival teams have been trying to get Ali to defect using very lucrative contract offers. (So far she intends to finish the season with her current club.) And the problem with being Matt and Sue, of course, is no one gets particularly surprised or worked up about their usual stellar performance. And all of us are doing this on no more than 2 hours' sleep if we've been lucky, and no sleep at all if we've been the norm.

We met with our first major misfire when Van 2 was a good 15 minutes late meeting Van 1 at VTA 18. Fortunately Runner 7, Ali, had taken her own car instead of riding the Green Line, so was there to pick up her leg just as scheduled. Otherwise, judging from the growls coming from the Orange Line, there would have been significant team-induced injuries. The rain held off until around 1am, and even then there's so many other discomforts to think about that it's barely registered.

Roger Takes Off!

2007-09-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

... no, not "takes off" as in team defection (though that may happen later)...We're officially ON THE TRAIL with Roger starting us off in style. Pre-race prep this morning included team photos, breakfast at the lodge, Garmin lesson, and pimping out the vans (Thanks Ali!!).

It's a beautiful morning for running and we have high hopes for a fantastic day.

Cannon Mountain

2007-09-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

Picked up Miracle Merle and the rest of the New Haven crew yesterday in the Rosie bus, and embarked upon an epic cross-New England trip to Cannon Mountain, which kept moving farther away the closer we seemed to approach. Arrived tired and hungry at around 8:30 pm for the safety check, orientation, and registration, and were much revived by pasta and cold beer. After a team meeting at the Nordic Inn--the first time everyone met each other--it was, thankfully, to bed.

Woke up early to a nice chilly morning. After some rearranging of supplies and van decoration, we'll head to the start for 7:30 am breakfast & team photos.

More to come!

Potential Team Mate Swap

2007-09-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, Cade has been called away from the team due to a death in his family. Our deepest sympathies go out to him and his family. The team though may not be down to 11 members. Word on the street is that Merle my join us. I and at least ten other people are keeping their fingers crossed that this works out!

Who is Rosie Ruiz?

2007-09-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Rosie Ruiz "won" the 1980 Boston marathon with a record time of 2:31:56! Rather cleverly she figured out that the marathon would be much easier to win with the help of public transportation. Alas, it turns out that using mechanized help is, well, against the rules and she was stripped of her victory. Why name the team after her? Well "running" 200 miles by splitting it among 12 people who actually mostly ride the course in a car seems like a fitting tribute to this rather clever woman! You can get additional details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_Ruiz.