Sunday, September 18, 2011
Middle of the night Green Line update
The Green Line took over at 2:45 AM at the NH Technical
College. We enjoyed a beautiful
clear night with lots of stars and a road lit by an almost-full moon, which
made it all the easier to see our breath and the frost forming on the ends of
our noses. It was teeth-chattering
cold, though we all had plenty of work to keep us warm. Leg 20 is notoriously
hard, a middle-of-the-night, 9.2 mile haul up one neverending mountain. It is a
mental beast as much as a physical one, with frequent gentle downswells that
make the runner think he is over the worst part, before pitching sharply uphill
at an angle more severe than the last.
It is so demoralizing to see those red lights bobbing in the night sky
in front of you; you think they are a low-flying aircraft, but really they
belong to the runner who is .25 miles and 1000 vertical feet ahead of you.
Overheard at this Transition Area by an obvious Boston
local: “Holy Shit! That was fackin’ hahd!”
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Nap Time!
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
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.
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.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Orange Line First Leg: In the Books!
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!
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
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!!!
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
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!
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!
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