Cascade Lakes Relay

So I'm waaaaaaayyyy behind on posts so I'm backdating some entries, starting with a recap of my relay race at the end of July.

The Cascade Lakes Relay is a team relay covering 216 miles from Diamond Lake to Bend. This is about 15 miles longer than Hood To Coast, the most popular distance relay race in Oregon, but CLR is all at high elevation too. It's a twelve person team split into two vans and runners alternate like Van 1 Runner 1, Van 1 Runner 2.... Van 1 Runner 6, then Van 2 Runner 1, Van 2 Runner 2, etc. Most legs are about 5-6miles and each runner does three legs so total is about 15-18miles/person over the course of, say, 30 hours. It's an all day/night adventure.

I found out about the race from a trainer at my gym while I was in there doing a workout for my half marathon training. I've never done a relay and thought it sounded like an interesting challenge so I joined a team of people I didn't know, a little over half had been on a team together the year before.

And I was really looking forward to it, until I bumped into our team captain Sandy (who was actually injured so she drove Van 1) at the gym just as I was finishing a fast workout and got talked into doing a training session with her and another trainer Robin (who happens to be the younger brother of my friend Rachelle from high school), and while trying to show off that I could keep up on squats and leg presses, I ended up limping for the next week and had pulled my quads. Awesome. And then instead of taking it easy, I just kept up the activities. E.g. I ran into my old college buddies Chris and Brandon and Alex and went rock climbing with them at Smith Rocks but started sliding on a downhill part of the trail and pulled my just-healing quads again. Then just as it was feeling better, I'd go for a nice long run to try to keep up with my training. Then just as it was feeling better, I hiked South Sister in the snow with Brandon and Alex, which was amazing but very hard on the quads. I went to see a physical therapist for the first time, who basically just gave me leg massages and showed me some strengthening exercises and told me not to play so hard (yeh right). And with just a week to go to the relay, I was feeling a bit better but I had drastically cut down on my training and was feeling really out of shape, considering that I had some of the longer legs of the relay and that I'd said I'd be running 8:30 min/miles or even faster. I saw in an email from Sandy to our team that someone named Matt was stepping in at the last minute since another girl was injured. (I already met most of my team a few weeks before when we picked out which legs we wanted to run and had discovered that the guys were all middle-aged and married, no young hotties like I was hoping, oh well can't be expected). Anyhow I thought maybe Sandy would know someone else who'd like to run so that I wouldn't slow everyone down, plus there were some things happening at work and I felt guilty taking the Friday off for the race. But there was no one to take my spot, so I sucked it up and prepared to run.

My first leg was the very start of the race (8.5 miles) around Diamond Lake so those of us in Van 1 drove down the night before and camped in Sandy's parents' rv so I could be at the start line by 7:30am for our heat's start (based on our average min/mile as a team). And surprisingly, it wasn't so bad... it was a nice cool morning around the lake. There were only about nine starters at that time, and I was #4 I think. One guy stayed the same distance in front of me the whole time, couldn't get closer. And one guy stayed about the same distance behind me. I saw them every so often on the trail when it took certain turns. That leg was a mix of paved trail, dirt trail, dirt logging road and paved highway. I had a watch and assumed that I was probably running 9-10 min/mile so I was pretty shocked when I passed the only table with water and the volunteer said "one more mile!" I thought it must be one more mile to more water because I couldn't possibly be nearly done. But then I eventually saw all the vans on the road and the handoff point. I'd finished 8.5 miles in only about 80 minutes. Whoa! Then it was pile in the van, catch up to Runner 2 and try to give him water and encouragement, drive ahead of him to park and wait for him to catch up, try to give him water and encouragement, wait til he got ahead, catch up to him, etc, until we passed him to beat him to the next handoff. And that's how it went the rest of the day because my next leg, after the rest of the five runners in my van and after all of the six runners in Van 2, wasn't going to be until about 11pm-midnight depending on how others ran. We didn't have to run in order, e.g. just because I ran first for Van 1 doesn't mean I had to run first every time.

So... a very, very important parallel story... the night before while we were camping, it came up that I was single and Sandy commented "oh, I have a guy for you- Matt. He's in the other van, you'll meet him at the handoff tomorrow. He's great." That's pretty much all she said. And I thought both ooohh, Matt... and hey just because I'm single doesn't mean I'm gonna just like any other single person. But I also kept feeling lately that 1- I was about to meet someone awesome and 2- that it might happen running, or doing something with sports. Thus I joined a softball team (beer league) when my friend Terry invited me. Thus I was doing this relay. So my curiosity was piqued by this elusive Matt and I thought about him during my first run and wondered what he'd be like. I only knew that he was coming from Portland.

It was really a beautiful course through the back highways. And my van was fun, got along well with everyone. I was happy I had the first leg when it was cool because the later runners in our van had very hot, dusty runs. So finally it came time for the handoff from Van 1 to Van 2. While Van 2 was running, we were going to go park at a designated parking spot and just chill for several hours, rest, pee, etc. And finally it was time to meet this Matt fellow... who... was just as attractive as I'd hoped he'd be, and looked like in my age range... and carrying a dachshund named Zoey who I tried to befriend in hopes of getting a chance to talk to Matt. Zoey is Matt's little darling, a 9 yr old wiener dog who he had to bring with him/who he takes everywhere. I thought it was kinda cute. And he was definitely cute. I tried to talk to him a little and couldn't tell if he was just being polite, or was shy, or was interested or not... And then we had to hop in our van and head to the resting area while he hopped in van 2 to run.

So each team had to provide two volunteers to help staff the race, or pay to hire staff. And our volunteers no-showed so we were almost disqualified. Instead Sandy struck a deal with the race directors (this was only the 3rd year of the race and Sandy had done it the past two years and kinda knew them) that we would volunteer at the rest area. So during our "break," we took turns "directing traffic" at the rest area, though there wasn't much to direct so it ended up not being so bad. And I had a chance to ask Sandy... "so what's with this Matt guy?" but essentially all she told me was something like he's an awesome guy, divorced, no kids, super nice and agreed to be on the team again (was on it last year) at the last minute and is very much like that from what she can tell, helpful and willing to do whatever he can for others. Hmmm, divorced, that was one of my deal-breakers I thought. I've done so much justifying to my mom and Jesse and others about how I didn't want to be with anyone who was divorced because... well... 1- I'm jealous enough of people's exs, I try not to be, I know I have my own, but this is someone who he promised to spend his life with (and no one yet has promised to spend his life with me even though this is something I want for my life, even if I haven't yet been with the right guy at the right time), so 2- that promise ended so would it be the same with me? and 3- would I be loved as much as wife #1 if I ever became wife #2? So naturally, after all that justifying I would now be interested in someone who's divorced. That which you fear you attract, right? Or maybe it's God's or my guides' or the universe's way of saying really Gretchen? Are you really serious about that qualification? Are you going to be inflexible?

Yet I found myself thinking about Matt, wondering about him. I'd gotten such little information about him while talking to him, just that he lived in Wilsonville and sold pest control but he used to do environmental chemical auditing, and he has a little dog. So I daydreamed about talking to him more and what I would ask, etc. I noticed a team roster with phone numbers in our van and considered putting his number in my phone, not that I had reception, but ya know, for afterwards, but then thought that was stupid and I should just get his number from him. And I thought about asking Sandy if he was interested but it seemed so junior high ("so does he like me? What has he said about me?"). And finally saw him again as Van 2 finished, getting to be around 6-7pm as the evening was getting cooler, and he was the last runner of his leg (pictured running). I tried to talk to him a little then too, but he had just finished and both our vans were standing there except the gal Jamie he'd handed off to. Plus he might not even be interested in me, though he seemed a little friendlier this time. And he finally took his sunglasses off and was even cuter when I could see his brown eyes. Dang it! Now I have a little crush. (The other pic is me and Robin, my friend Rachelle's brother, who ended up joining our team) That van had a crazy misadventure though, one of their runners got heat stroke and they had to take her all the way to St Charles hospital in Bend... scary but thankfully she was okay. But their van was one person short so they had to split her legs.

Jamie's leg was probably the best in the entire race. The sun was setting. She was out on a back dirtroad with little traffic and it was packed well enough that there wasn't too much dust kicked up when vans passed by. And at some point during this my cell phone finally gets reception again and I see I have a text message from an unknown 503 number that says something about good luck in the race. I have no idea who it's from, maybe Alex and Brandon's friend Shanna I'd met in Portland the weekend before. Anyhow my leg was second-to-last and it was nearly midnight when I started. It was pretty cool since we were still at a high altitude but I warmed up enough while running. My second leg was 7.2 miles on loose sand and it was MISERABLE! At nearly 500ft elevation gain in 7 miles it was all uphill, not exactly steep but gradually steep the entire way. And it was pitch black and through a forest, which was a little creepy. I wore a headlamp but it's really disorienting running at night because I could only see about four feet in front of me and had no idea how fast I was going. When I got the handoff, there was a guy who received his handoff at the same time, and at first we were running with me just slightly ahead. At some point he passed me and I spent most of the leg trying to catch up to him, pulling closer, watching him pull ahead, feeling really frustrated and tired... ARGH! It was really discouraging whenever he pulled ahead again. And the road was this loose sand so I felt like my feet were slipping around all over the place, like running on the beach. It was hard to see where the road was more compact from cars, plus it was washboard so it was just awful to run on. Then, when vans would pass to catch their runners or get ahead, their headlights would help at first but then would end up washing out my vision so I couldn't see the road's texture anymore. And they kicked up dust so then all I could see were dust particles like stars all over. I felt exhausted and slow and miserable. Yet... in the last 1-2 miles I finally caught up to the guy I'd been following. And the thing about passing people, you can't just keep going the same speed when it's just slightly faster cause then you pull ahead of them barely and you're running right in front of them and it's awkward. You just have to speed way up and blow past, then once you've broken their hopes of keeping up with you or catching you, you can settle back down to your pace. And right as I was behind the guy, my van passed and my teammate Heather said something like "finish him, Gretchen." So I had to speed way up to pull ahead, and then I was on a roll. I passed another guy and could tell by the sharp turn I had to make that I was in the last mile. The hard thing about doing a relay is that, even though it's the end of my leg, I still have another leg tomorrow, so I don't want to give it everything I've got, and risk pulling something or being too tired tomorrow. Anyhow, I finished in just about an hour. Yes, much MUCH faster than I thought I was going.

We had one more runner before handing off to Van 2. Which meant I'd get to see Matt again briefly. Then they had to run all night and we would get to go park at LaPine HS and rest for a few hours. Our first runner would probably go around 6am, so we'd have a good six hours of break. It was getting really chilly by then, just about midnight, as we stood at the handoff point. Plus I was sweaty from having just run. I found Matt holding Zoey and strategically placed myself in the group so that I could talk to him. He said something about hearing I was pretty fast on that last leg, AND let me hold Zoey for a minute. Hmmm, I thought, maybe he is interested, he's a little more talkative. Then his van-mates said something about how they were going, and he responded to them something like "okay, I'll catch up, be there in a few minutes," I'm assuming so he could keep talking to me. "Uhh, no, we're all going now, the handoff's been made and we need to go..." So he went with his van, I went with mine... We finally made it to LaPine HS after what seemed like an hour of driving. Most of our van was passed out and I was exhausted but stuck in the middle seat. The race actually had things pretty well set up, there were volunteers at the high school selling hot eggs and toast and you could use the locker rooms to shower. Those who didn't have a place to sleep could sleep on cots in the gym. Really quite impressive.

So we finally got rinsed off, into Sandy's parents' rv by 2am or so, set the alarm for 5:45am... and just like that Sandy was getting a phone call about a minute before the alarm went off. Van 2 was supposed to call us with an hour or so notice... but instead they were faster than expected and called us just as Matt was starting their last leg. Crap! That meant he'd probably be done in like 45mins, so we had to leap outta bed, throw on running clothes, get everything back into the van, and haul balls to the handoff. Matt beat us there by a few minutes and our runner Ken had to literally jump out of the car and start his run. Meaning no time to talk to Matt :( And our poor guy Ken, who's not really a runner and just did it cause his girlfriend Heather was doing it, cramped up so halfway through his leg Jamie had to get out and finish it for him.

By the time it was my last leg, I was pretty tired. It was about 8am. My stomach felt terrible too. Sidenote: I saw tons of people I knew from high school, and a guy from my dorm, throughout this race, it was kinda cool. Anyhow my last leg felt incredibly long, even though it was the shortest one. I felt so tired and slow during it. My legs were really starting to feel sore and tight. And it was boring. My first leg I'd forgotten to bring my iPod but was able to keep my mind occupied (which really is most of the battle with distance running), but thankfully I had it my other legs, but even my iPod wasn't helping. Ugh I just wanted to stop and walk. I passed so many people ("road kills") who were walking. This leg was also mostly all uphill, only about 300ft over 6 miles so about 50ft/mile, not too steep but enough to notice and wish it was flat. Honestly the thing keeping my mind occupied at the moment was Matt. I'd see him at our last handoff then at the finish. I think he's interested. What should I say? I wonder if he's going out with everyone after the race. I wonder if he's going back to Wilsonville that night, cause the night we were camping I know he'd driven down and stayed at Sandy's empty house but she's going to meet back up with her parents tonight so maybe I should offer my coach.... Maybe I'll get to kiss him... someday. Maybe that can be my reward to myself for finishing this dang leg is that I'll get to kiss him someday... if he's even interested. Geez I even look slow. Good thing Matt wasn't around to see that. Oh and shockingly my time was like 45mins! I had no idea! I felt so slow and was actually running like 8:30min/miles. Guess I underestimate my speed. So we very briefly saw Van 2 at our handoff before they started the last part of the race. Thankfully our van now had a few hours to actually go home, shower, I had to pack because I was flying to Seattle the next morning for a work trip, and then meet up later at the finish line as our final runner crossed. So I got home, found out Amy had broken one of my sprinklers which the last broken one (that I ran over with the lawn mower) took Mom and me about 2 hours to fix, felt exhausted and crappy (THANKFULLY Amy had a friend who fixed it and it wasn't a big deal after all, yay!), showered, packed, took a 30min nap and rallied to get to the finish line. And just maybe... hang out with Matt. And hopefully the team would all be going out, since that's what Sandy had said we'd do.

Our team Running On Empty ended up finishing 22nd of 130 total teams, 15th of 89 in our division, in 30hrs 45min 29secs for 216 miles (average mile 8:32). Not too bad at all! But... no one wanted to go out afterward! WHAT?! Apparently everyone in my van had eaten (it was about 2:30pm when we finished) during our break and van 2 just wanted to go shower and relax. Argh! Now how am I going to hang out with Matt, if he is even interested? I was trying to talk to him but also not seem like I'm just hanging around him, it's a delicate balance to strike, ya know. So we each got a teeshirt and a medal and took our team photo and then everyone started unpacking their van, getting their stuff situated, which my van had already done so I went to help Van 2 with their stuff, and say goodbye to my van-mates.


So it seemed like that was going to be the end of it... everyone was heading out, Matt had already said he was heading back to Wilsonville that night, guess that's it... But he did offer to take my picture... so I did walk him to his car... where he finally asked if he could call me sometime, and come back to Bend to take me out. Well if you don't have to head out of town right this minute we could get something to eat, I threw in. So we went to get a burrito, then sat in his car in the parking lot talking for hours, then to the grocery store to get a soda, then sat in his car talking for hours, then walked Zoey around the high school parking lot. Turns out, we have a lot in common, including that his birthday is the day before mine. He's sweet, funny, smart, hardworking, laid-back, sexy, easy to talk to, was a Marine, has a degree in computer programming, traveled, okay was married and was (is??) a Mormon, but something about him I really really like. And ya know what, I did get my reward after all! ;)