44th Annual DeCelle Memorial Tahoe Relay Race

It was a beautiful day for a run around Lake Tahoe on Saturday for the 44th Annual DeCelle Memorial Relay Race (6/14/08), minus the haze from the smoke blowing in from the California fires, that is. This was my first experience running in this type of race, relay style- the slap and go kind, and I had a fantastic time playing leap-frog with the runner, shouting and cheering and snapping pictures. (The only relays I have have ever competed in were swimming, of course.) There were 7 people on my team, Turi and Chris who work for the library with me, Peter Lubbers and his two sons Sean and Rocky, and their friend Hayes. Everyone met at my house at 5 a.m., and then we drove 2 vehicles up to the starting point where we picked up our t-shirts and waited for the start. Here is a picture of the seven of us before the race- in the back from left to right is Chris, Hayes, Peter and Turi. The front row is Rocky, Sean and me.

Hayes ran the first leg of 9.6 miles- here he is the second one back, running through town:


Peter ran the second leg, the shortest (at 8.2 miles) but steepest leg up Spooner Summit. Here's the view of the road he ran up:

(What mountain is that Scott? I'm sure you've climbed it since you'll climb anything that'll hold still for a few minutes at a time!) And a close up of the Gu/water hand off:

I really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with Peter- he is so positive about running, and stinkin' fast too, I've noticed. :)

He handed off to his younger son Rocky who ran 10.3 miles. I got a geat take-off picture of him, as he tagged his dad. I must say that I am in complete awe of him and Hayes and Sean- when I was in the sixth grade I ran 600 meters in P.E. and thought my lungs would pop, not to mention all lack of feeling in my legs plus my vision went dim. The fact they participated and ran most (or all, in Hayes' case) of their leg would have been daunting to me at their age (I think they were all between 11 and 13? Sorry, I don't remember exact ages.) Way to go guys!


I think Chris needed some agua, and I caught him trying to drink the lake during Rocky's leg- Silly man! You can't drink the entire lake!



Next up was Turi, and he lucked out with the longest leg- it said 12.3 miles, but his Garmin GPS tracker said 12.6 miles, and the total miles on the race packet was off by .3 miles. Thanks for picking up the extras Turi! Caught him smiling, which means he wasn't working nearly hard enough! :)



While we were waiting for Turi/after Sean took off on the 5th leg, Chris got a hold of my camera and nearly broke the screen with his mug shot:



Then he took some other random pictures when we were least expecting it- Peter:


And Sean:

And Rocky:

And Hayes:

At which point Peter managed to snag the camera from him and get a really nice one of he and Turi and I:

Off subject a bit there, but fun pics! I like this next one- Sean is sprinting into his tag-off with Chris at the end of his 10.6 miles, and Rocky didn't even notice his brother coming up behind him... Watch out!


Here comes Chris on the 6th leg (10.5 miles), sprinting up the hill so fast that Turi missed the shot!


And saving the best for last, here I am floating (see? not touching the ground!) down the steep windy road (see that car above my head to the right?) with the final 10.5 miles down and around the bottom tip of the lake. Emerald Bay was turquoise and sparkling as it always is, and the views of the lake were magnificent! (Although running on a shoulder with barely 2 inches on the outside of the white line with a sudden 200 foot drop-off and no railing, toward oncoming traffic made my heart beat a little faster than from just the running!)



I did not run as well as I'd liked because I couldn't quite get enough oxygen from within all the haze, and so was forced to walk an almost embarrassing amount. I won't post my split, 'cause next year I'm going to nail my leg of the race, whichever one it may be. But that aside, I had a wonderful day playing leap frog with all the runners on our team, shouting (like a girl in Chris's case) and cheering each other on, and taking wacky pictures too. Thanks to everyone on this team for the high spirits, and all-around memorable day!

A few extra photos here- Our official posted time: 11:25.08, and yes, that's us. Sgt. Lubbers and the Melodious Colon Band. Chris's idea. No really! It was his not mine!


And a finishing picture of all of us in our race shirts and medals (looking a little dazed, I might add...)


Finally, two bonus pictures of my bestest library running buds- Me and Chris and his peanut butter bagel,


And Turi too~