relay: race results

Here are the results for the walking teams for the Cascade Lakes Relay this last weekend. I think we made a fine showing; we are mostly rookies in this activity. We did great!!

WALKING TEAM - START FROM SILVER LAKE

1 Rumpled Old Men Junction City 26:44:58 Mixed Open
2 Road Rivals Oregon City 27:38:28 Womens Open
3 Forever Young Pendleton 27:38:29 Mixed Masters
4 WeBe Walkabout.. Eugene 29:01:57 Womens Masters
5 WPI Rock-its Tigard 29:43:47 Womens Open
6 Sole Sisters* Aloha 29:52:48 Womens Open
7 huffin puffin Portland 30:05:44 Womens Open
8 Vintage Whine Walkers Portland 31:28:01 Womens Masters
9 MissFit WiseWalkers Portland 33:29:57 Womens Open

relay: photos

Photographs from various team members...not necessarily in the exact order in which they happened...from the MissFit WiseWalkers inaugural participation in the Cascade Lakes Relay event, from Silver Lakes, OR to Bend, Or - a total of 132.4 miles route.

along an early morning leg on 8/1/09

Gwen is "feeling the glory - finally"... we all had this moment at some point
7/31/09

exchange point #18, waiting for Cheri
there had been a communication mix-up just prior to this
van#2 rushed to the point, only to wait another two hours or so
(walkers from both vans in the photo)
...it happens!...
7/31/09


van #1: "runners on the road" sign by Dot,
new slogan inspired by a relay support staff
who caught up with them early in the morning on 8/1/09 and told them
"congratulations! you're doing great.
last year's last place team didn't get here until 2pm."
hence our slogan, written in window crayons above the sign:
"Faster than last year's last place team"
... we may be DAL, but we're not the slowest!...


the handoff at exchange #18
Cheri was 30 minutes or so ahead of the next
walker; they are members of a race walking club
and they passed us up a couple hours later despite
having started 1 1/2 hours after us
...and we were fine with that...
nice women and it was nice to have the company
on the late night routes, especially!
7/31/09


this is me coming in at 3:16 AM on 8/1/09
at exchange # 24
the end of a 6.6 mile walk on the
Cascade Lakes highway
in the dark
through the Deschutes National Forest
and I'd been up since 5:15 AM on 7/31/09
with only a 15 minute nap
...love the headlamp halo effect from being in motion...


G bringing it on home for the final leg for van #1
...still six legs to go for van #2, but this group
gets to go back to the house and shower
...oh wait, there was the clogged bathtub incident
8/1/09


a gorgeous sunset
complete with a phenomenal thunderstorm
a nice photo that barely shows
the beauty

post-relay

What a fantastic day, today!

I woke without a sore knee, thanks to the awesome and talented Betsy Mitchell, DC, despite my record time going 1372 feet in six miles downhill yesterday. I have been going to her for years; but she has been especially supportive and helpful as I increase my physical activity and through things like aching knees, twisted back muscles during dragon boats, strained tendons during whitewater rafting, DOMS (now that was a "great" one: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, tending to show up in people as they age.... great), and she has been phenomenal as I've been training for this relay. She put kinesio tape on my tend-to-ache-knee the day before I went to Bend and gave me a new set to apply before my feat yesterday. And, voila, I awoke with not only a non-aching knee, but a knee that felt great.

My training for the event, with specific focus two to three days a week on the big downhill part, really paid off and the preparation and prevention steps helped, too. A year ago I went on a round trip 6.5 or 7 mile hike with a friend and I halfway back I thought there was a chance I would not be able to make it down to the car, my knees both hurt and the more sensitive one was throbbing and aching. (You know, once you're up there on a hike in the forest, you have to get back down - you can't park your behind and tell your buddy to just swing the car around.)

My back was sore this morning; couldn't quite stand up straight when I got out of bed. Excuse me, couldn't quite stand up straight when I rolled out of my sleeping bag on a 1" self-inflating camping pad this morning. Oh, that might of been part of the problem - I was too tired to inflate my air mattress last night, which would have given my pushed-to-its-max body a little more cush to sleep on. A shower helped and I straightened right up and the back pain eventually went away.

But my hips- or my hip sockets? Something in that area needs attention. Which is why I am grateful I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow morning. Yay for me.

In another side of things - we are going to do the Cascade Lakes Relay again next year. On the ride home in the RV, we did a little strategizing and planning - which I will continue with. I will be the team captain, again, next year (like the sound of that? me!?! team captain!) and I'm getting feedback from the participants on their "kudos" and "oops." Next year will be even better.

And I have already heard back from one of this year's participants that she wants to be on our team, again. Yay!

Then tonight I had a peer editing & potluck dinner with the editor, publisher, and a few of the other authors for Alltopia, the zine which is publishing one of my creative non-fiction pieces in their fall issue. That was really nice and helpful.

The zine release and reading will be on August 23rd at 6:00 pm, at Hipbone Studio. More details to come after I get the full information from the editor.

Now I'm really tired and need to go to bed. And I have a story due today. Sleep? Write? Sleepzzzzz.

And did I tell you that my team did great! As in Tony the Tiger, grrrreaaaaaat!

Relay: results

The MissFit WiseWalkers finished the Cascade Lakes Relay at 6:30 pm - 33.5 hours!! Our team average was 3.95 mph!! We all beat our personal bests.

Relay: day 2 update

We are at the middle of leg #3 of the final van #2 group. The amazing Nikki Becker maintained just a hair over 15 min miles on her 4 miles uphill leg - most of that in the initial 1.5 miles; amazing timing. We're all doing great times and having a blast. It's hot - tho less than yesterday.

We are doing great!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: day 2 update

Van #2 finished our six legs 21 minutes ahead of our estimated scheduled time : I came in at 3:16 AM and handed the bracelet-baton off to van #1.

Now back to the house in Bend for about 4 hours sleep and a shower!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: day 2

It's 12:15 AM and we are on the next to last of this section of legs. I recently completed my first leg of the relay: 3.3 miles in 52 minutes! We have made up some time (two other teammates picked up time a couple legs ago) - so we are back on track for a 3:30 AM exchange with our #1 van.

Go, MissFit WiseWalkers at the Cascade Lakes Relay!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: 9:45 pm

We are now the active van with our 3rd walker on the road. We are keeping to our estimated time and we rock!!

I have the next leg. It's 3.3 miles, probably 72 degrees, and dark. Then I will have another leg which starts about 1:30 AM.

We are having a great time, the scenery is beautiful, and the people are great.

We will become "inactive" around 4AM.

This is bliss and I can't wait to get my feet on the road!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: LaPine sleep area

Sated with breakfast, armed with crosswords and books and snacks and water galore, we arrived at the sleep area. To sleep? Probably not a lot, though that would be a good idea. Our "active" time will be from around 7PM to 4AM. But sleeping in a park, in the shade (whew), along the busy street in town (but not the highway), with temperatures reaching toward 90 and beyond is not likely - or not likely except in short naps. Between trips to the bathroom, updates from our active van on times when they have mobile service, and our excitement and wanting for it to be our turn. No, not a lot of sleep.

So far my team time predictions are pretty accurate - our teammates are doing a great job. We are about 17 minutes behing my prediction - but I think the current walker will make up a little of that.

We are still excited. We are ready to go. We are doing this!

An adventure, for sure.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

relay: the night before

We are in Bend - all walkers and both drivers. With an RV which will stay here (not allowed to be on the route) and our 2 vans (well, one van and one suv). We are fed, carbed up, excited, having fun, and sprawled on just about every square foot of this apartment, including the porch. We went through a thunderstorm and pouring rain, had a slight delay due to a jack-knifed semi. And we're asleep or soon to be. There is a coffee shop across the street that opens 30 minutes before we leave.

We are ready.

We will have fun. We are prepared!

Relay: day 1 (pre-race)

The MissFit WiseWalkers are heading out today for Bend. Tonight we will enjoy dinner at St Francis school, just a few blocks from where we are staying. Tomorrow we will head out around 5:30 AM to get to the start of the relay; our step off time is 9:00 AM. Our estimated arrival at the finish line is 7:30 PM on Saturday.

I will post periodic updates as I can, depending, of course, on mobile service availability!

I am excited. I thought I was nervous, but that's not true. Everything has come together - we have a team, our volunteers, our drivers, a backup driver arriving on Friday night, we have vehicles. Little bumps along the path to tomorrow, but all is well.

five days to relay!

In five days, the MissFit WiseWalkers will be nearly one-third of the way through our 132.4 miles of the Cascade Lakes Relay. In just four days, we will be having our pre-relay team dinner at McMenamin's in Bend, Oregon. And three days from now, I will be preparing to go to bed early since from 5:30AM on Friday until after 9PM on Saturday I will be getting little sleep and walking three legs of the event.

The day is nearing and I am excited!
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Incongruity

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I'm walking along a dirt road in central Oregon. There is gray gravel strewn across the road to provide added traction, but most of it has has been pushed to the side by vehicles over time, so it sits in burms of gray and cinderblock red and sun faded white.

To my right there is a fence with vertical green metal rods, with a few inches of white painted on the top edges. Between them and wrapped around each one is barbed wire, twisted and warning. Intended to keep out only the larger livestock or wild animals, because the smaller ones can easily slither under, hop over or through, creep up or even burrow under. You can't really keep out the wildlife.

And just over the warning fence is a golf course. Among the early July yellow and brown desert grasses, the blue-gray sagebrush, and a few remaining native pines, there is a bright green grassy, knoll, a couple of mounds of pushed aside natural gray and weather beaten soil as hazards, and even more expansive patches of green. The green is dotted with hundreds of white balls, scattered like the wildflowers on the natural side of the road. An anomaly here in the desert as I walk.

And here am I thinking how outrageous this sight is. How ruinous of the landscape. Isn't anything sacred / where is the nature / what are we doing?!?

As I walk on this dirt road along side this golf course in the desert and post to my blog on my Blackberry.
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