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| Team At Start: We've picked up our packets and we're awaiting our 6:30pm start time. |
| Photo Op: Since we're here at Timberline Lodge (6000 ft elevation), we might as well get our picture took in front of the mountain. |
| Our Start: Teams are started 20 at a time, every 15 minutes. The first teams went off at 8:00am. We're a fast team so our start time is 6:30pm. The super-elites (they will finish in the 17-19 hour range) start at 8:00pm. We figure on about a 24 hour finish. The starts are arranged so that all teams will finish by 8:00pm Saturday. We headed up the hill on Friday afternoon to find teams already strung along from Sandy (33 miles from the start) all the way up to the start. Some of the slower teams (Max time limit is 36 hours) had already been out in the sun for hours. |
| First Exchange: All the exchanges look like this: pink tape. The exchange of the batton (a flexible metal wrist strap encased in plastic) must occur within the chute. All teams are required to log all their exchange times and hand the sheet in at the finish. |
| TypicalExchangePoint: As the race goes on, the teams compress a bunch, what with the slow teams starting first. Later exchange points get pretty hairy, and sometimes it's hard to find a potty. |
| Night Time Running: Sorry, no picture. If you've never run at night, it's kinda wierd. Especially since there are over a thousand other people out there with you. Rules require reflective vests and flashlights be worn by all runners from 6pm to 7am. It was wierd having the cars on the road light up maybe 15 bouncing reflective vests waddling up a long hill in front of you in the darkness. At exchange point 6, the runners came up off a side road that for the last 3 miles had no vehicles allowed on it. There were no street lights there either. At the exchange there was a large flood light and 50+ teams jockeying their runners into position for the hand off, but you didn't know if your runner was coming until about 50 yards out. A race volunteer with a flashlight examined runners numbers with a flashlight 20 yards outside the circle of light and radioed the number to the exchange point volunteer, who yelled it on the PA system. From then you had about 15 seconds to get your next runner in the chute for the handoff. And so it went. Runner after tired runner trudged up the hill, out of the darkness. The exchange was made. Then runner after fresh runner sprinted out of the circle of light and back into the darkness, not to be recognized again until 5 miles later. |
| Jabby - Zabby Hand Off: Our hero is all fuzzy and getting the handoff. This was my third leg, and as many vans had printed on their sides: "The Third Leg is Long and Hard". I didn't have much left after gunning it for the first two. But this was my first daylight leg, so I managed to fall off my best pace by only 20 seconds/mile. I was pretty pleased. |
| Decorated Vans: They give a prize for best-decorated vans, and almost everyone has some decorations. Here are a couple. The North American Distance Sprinters were fairly creative. They handed out blue antenna balls that had "Go! Nads" printed on them. My favorite team names were "Bunghole Liquors", and "Naked Love Pretzel". There were MANY other good ones. |