the race to end all races

so this past weekend was the del sol ragnar relay race in arizona. on the drive there, my friend karl asked if this race had become my 'moby dick.' i thought it was an adequate comparison. planning for the race nearly killed me and i had really reached the point where i would rather have died trying to do the race, than not done the race at all. and im not even a runner. i dont even really like running.

so the ragnar relay race is a 12 person 182 mile race. each person runs approximately 15 miles but broken up into three different legs. so one person starts and runs their designated first leg, then passes the baton (or slap bracelet) to the number two runner who then runs their leg, then passes to the third person etc. this continues until all 12 people have run their first leg, then it repeats. three times. the relay doesnt stop either. we started at noon on friday and ran throughout the night and finished around 3 pm on saturday. its grueling. and i dont even like running.

so in december, my friend nellie, a runner, joined a relay team of a guy, rodney, that ran the race last year. in january, her friend decided to start her own team and took nellie off of the other team and put nellie on her team. at the time, she started her own team because rodney had a full team and many other people that expressed interest in running on a team. roughly 10 people beyond the 12 he needed. also in january nellie and i started dating. so when nellie told me they needed more people and asked if i wanted to join the team, i of course had to say yes because im her boyfriend. but i dont even like running.

so if captain america is the ideal or best captain ever, then nellie's friend would be considered captain afghanistan. she never actually registered or created a team, which we realized once the deadline had passed. she didnt really do anything, but insisted she would take care of it. the only thing she did do was drop off of the team. so i called up the race people and asked to be a late entry. not surprisingly they accepted my offer to give them $1000 even if it was later than they wanted. had i thought more about it, i would have thought that it might be hard to find 12 people willing to pay roughly $100 to run in a race. but it was an impulse buy. plus i had a list of interested people, and i had a running girlfriend who really wanted to run in this race and so i had to make it happen. i like the companionship and affection she gives me. still dont like running though.

so this was about the time that i started becoming obsessed with the race. of the ten names we had that were interested, only one ended up actually running. i recruited my roommate and his girlfriend and two friends from l.a., karl and dave. and for about a month, they were really the core and the only people on our team. we asked everybody we knew and the excuses were ridiculous. its amazing how many people moved last weekend. roughly twenty of my friends were moving or involved in some family member's move. a lot of people didnt want to pay to run in arizona when they can run for free in california. so funny. the funniest part is that i know that most of them arent even taking advantage of this 'free running' that they so much enjoy from the great state of california. i know that it wasnt cheap. i understand that people dont have the money, but a lot of people couldnt see how it was going to be a fun experience. they acted like they had something better going on that weekend. i wanted to tell them that i knew they didnt have plans and that they were just going to go to another singles party at someone's house. the exact same party that they went to last week, with the exact same people. none of which they talked to because they dont know them, but they have 'seen them around.' but they couldnt do something different. they had to go to the party as though it was going to somehow get them to the altar, even though none of the previous 50 had. anyways, as of the monday before the race we only had 9 people. in the following 2 days we found 2 more. i cant express enough how hard it was to find these 11 people. seriously hard. everyone on our team was searching for people and no one could anyone. ironically, it was 2 days before the race and we needed one more girl for our team. remember captain afghanistan? shes female. it was also ironic that earlier in the week when we only had 9 people, rodney's team needed one more girl. remember how nellie used to be on that team? remember how i dont really like running?

so the day before the race 2 people dropped out. one guy couldnt get work off and one girl was sick with the flu. she was also my roommate zach's girlfriend. they decided that it would be a good idea to break up the wednesday before the race. she dropped out thursday. i also dropped a bowling ball on zach's groin thursday night in his sleep for letting that happen right before the race. so it was thursday night, we had spent all day calling everyone we knew when finally nellie found her cousin in arizona. then, miracle of miracles, at 10 pm that night our friend called and said that he had two buddies in arizona that were willing to run with us. and they were awesome. they were 'bug boys.' your typical early 20s, return missionary guys that sold alarm systems in arizona over the summer and then stayed there because one of them was opening his own sales company. they were training for the moab half marathon. ive never loved bug boys more. they were just upbeat and your typical 20 year old athletic guy. i dont even know if they knew much or anything about the race. we basically told them where to meet us and what time and when they got there we said, 'hi, go run 7 miles for us.' and they essentially responded: 'ok. great. ill do it real fast too.' and they did. so we had our 12. i still dont like running, but i did like the race.

so it was quite the ordeal to get there and it nearly killed me and i harnessed many bitter feelings towards people and probably wasnt too pleasant the whole time because it was such a hassle to make it happen, but im really glad that i did. its been less than a week and im sure i would do another one. i might even organize it. i had no idea what i was doing before, but now that i know, im pretty sure it would be smoother to put together. not that i like running.

but the experience is unique. i do encourage it. you have to be in good shape. not quite marathon shape, but good shape. you dont really sleep the whole time. maybe a couple hours, but not much. and if you arent in good shape, it really is difficult on your body to run in those conditions. its also more taxing than i anticipated to run then rest, then run again. it doenst really make it easier. i think i would have rather run 16 straight miles than have it broken up. but the breaking it up is what made it really neat. my first leg was after sundown on a secluded road in the hills above phoenix. the stars were out, there werent many cars on the road, and it was a awesome, peaceful run. the second run was unique because it was at about 4 in the morning. i was running off of 4 hours of sleep on thursday night and only about 2 thus far on friday night. tough, and just cool running at that hour and again in some random part of the desert. the last run was just terrible. it was 6 long miles along the same road. by this time we were out of the hills and my leg was along a major road in scottsdale. it was seriously a straight line for 6 miles. it was hot and my legs were shot. it was more of a mental battle to not walk more than anything. i didnt get my exact mile split, but it was probably around 25 minutes/mile. at that point i really didnt like running.

so i really dont hate running. i just prefer it in sports or at the nike run hit remix where washed up hip hop artists are singing as you run. but these relay races are also a good time. its a unique experience and a great bonding time and a fun way to spend your weekend. coming from a guy who doesnt really like running, its definitely worth doing.

(here is a team photo after we finished. top row l to r: eric manning (joined wednesday before the race), quinlan (added on thursday night), karl, nellie, leslie, ann marie (joined wed. before the race), dave, april (the only one of the original interested ten that actually joined and ran); bottom row: zach (arizona boy), zach (roommate that breaks up with girls at inappropriate times), me, derrick (or 'D' as his friend zach called him. also an arizona bug boy).