Bridget and I finished the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey over the weekend, which may conclude our runs for the year. (Or at least we need a running break.) And I think both of us felt that this run was a lot harder than the half marathons we’ve ran in the past. And while I wouldn’t sum up the run as fun, there is another F-U word that I’d like to use. Yep, you guessed it… fulfilling.
The RTO is a 12 person relay, which begins in Reno, goes up to Tahoe, runs through Genoa, continues through Carson, then Virginia City, and finishes in Idlewild Park. All in all, our team runs a total of 178 miles. Our team was divided into two vans, and while one van is running, the other gets to take a break and “rest up.” So let’s see how things played out.
Friday 10am – Van 1 (not us) starts the race at Idlewild Park.
2pm – Our van heads out to Truckee for the exchange point to wait for Van 1 to finish up. On our ride up, the rain began to fall, and then we saw lightning strike a tree, with smoke coming out of it afterwards. Kinda crazy.
3:30pm – Jason starts off the first leg for us. Luckily, the rain had stopped, and he begins to climb his way up to Tahoe.
6:30pm – We began to have a friendly rivalry with another team that was composed of NSET members, a running group that we some times run with on Saturdays. Sean, our super star runner who runs 6:30 miles in his sleep after boozing up the night before, took the lead from them. Our exchange was hurried, and I jumped out of the van, ready to go.
My directions said to cross the highway, and get on a path. I started my run, crossed a small street, and saw a path. There weren’t any other runners around to follow, and I was a little hesitant to take the path. But if it was the wrong way, someone would have marked it, right? Well I then began to run around the back of where other RTO vans were parked. I hear a group of people cheering me on, and my confidence rose that I had chosen the right path. The run ended up being amazing… seeing huge meadows in the back of the Sierra mountains. I even saw a local running, and she cheered me on. But then something happened… the trail ended. I found another trail, and continued on the dirt path until that ended. And then it hit… it wasn’t the right path.
Ahh cranky… I backtracked my way to the starting point. I looked at my watch, which I started a little bit after my run, and 36 minutes had passed. I went on the right trail this time, and tried to pick up the pace (or maintain it, but whatever). After about an hour of running, I found the van, who was desperately looking for me. I was determined to finish my leg, so I threw them our baton (a bracelet), and they drove to meet Bridget at the next exchange point. I finished my leg, and I ran an extra 4 to 5 miles. Awesome Andy. (However this was the most scenic part of my run, right up the River (over by River Run trail).
7:15pm – Bridget began her leg of the race, which was the first part of Tahoe. She had a beautiful run, and she basically passed a lot fools up on her way to the end. We had also lost our lead to the Vixens, which she was making up for.
8:00pm – Van 1 picked up the exchange, and our team was off the hook for the time being. We were in South Tahoe at the time, so we went and got some pizza, and beer. We then drove to our next exchange point, and decided to try to get some sleep in the Van. We got about an hour until the call came that Van 1 was finishing up quickly.
Saturday 12am – Jason starts us off again, and he keeps his pace up going up on Kingsbury Grade. 3 miles straight uphill, he picked off a few different runners who chose to walk. Brad continues to go up after the baton is passed.
2:30am – My turn to run through Genoa. Sean picks off the Vixens for the second time, giving us a good lead. My goal was to extend the lead, and we did pretty well. (I couldn’t get too lost since I only ran on one hill.) 6 miles later, it was Bridget’s turn.
3:30am – Bridget finished our leg, and we met with the best exchange that offered donuts and coffee. This wasn’t something that looked good at the time.
4am – We had two hotels, so we go back and sleep as much as possible.
6am – We get the dreaded call to wake up and go. No one is feeling great. Knees hurting, stomach turning, but ready to go, needless to say. And we head out to Virginia City to wait for the exchange.
11pm – We lost our lead once again to the Vixens on our route down from Virginia City due to blister monsters attacking Michelle’s feet. They were now a good mile ahead of us, until Sean ran his leg. For the third time in the race, Sean took the lead from the Vixens, and gave me a good lead. I started off down at Double-R, and I needed to go 7.5 miles to Wild Island. I started my run and this was by far the hardest run I’ve had. At one point, I started to walk, my legs were spent, but then came the goo. Yep, I grabbed the high-energy crap, and hoped that it would do something. And like magic, my legs started to go again, and we were ready to go. I finished with Ron trying to give me beer at the end. It was a good feeling to be done.
12pm – The last leg went next to the Truckee, showing a large amount of Reno’s homeless population. Bridget’s last leg was also the last for the team. It was no easy matter at all. She started to cramp up in the last leg. She muscled through it, and our team ran her in as soon as she turned on Booth Street. We ran through the finish line as a team at Idlewild. And we were done!
That turned out to be a long winded time line. We finished our race at 27 hours and 20 minutes. I think we finished 57th overall. We traveled at about 183 miles with the extra I ran 🙂 I even ran a bit more with Bridget, so I could say I ran a marathon. I had about 19 miles for the RTO, and then I accidentally ran an additional 4.5 to 5. And so I picked up a few miles with Bridget.
What’s amazing is the people who won RTO started off with six people, but two of them got hurt in the first leg, so they won it with four people. They finished at about 18 hours. Freaking nuts (The average is about a 6 minute mile.)
Anyway quite an adventure to say the least.
Reno Tahoe Odyssey Unofficial Times