Carl and the Boyz take on Ragnar

No, we didn't have anyone named Carl on the team.  Nor are we a team made up of solely men.  To be honest, I'm not sure where the team name came from.  But, that's who we were, Carl and the Boyz.
I've been wanting to do a crazy long relay like this for a while now.  My brother, cousin, and uncle did Hood to Coast in 2008 and, even before I started running, it sounded amazing.  I like running (obviously) but this race seemed to hearken back to a childish sense of adventure.  Not only an adventure, but people to enjoy it with.  If I'm feeling weak, I have other people to bring me back up.  Also, I weirdly like planning things.  The logistics of getting people to run over a hundred miles together seems like an interesting challenge.  I tried to get a team together for the Gulf Coast Interstate Relay (which no longer exists) a few years back but that fell through, costing me a few hundred dollars.  I have also now done four Beach to Bay relays (2017 write up here).  Safe to say I like the team aspect of a relay.
This race was a bit of a surprise.  Roughly a month ago, I was told that the San Antonio Team RWB chapter may need a runner and I was asked to be an alternate.  They ended up not needing me but last weekend Cody let me know that he would need not one but three runners to fill his team.  Luckily, my boss was able to let me take Friday off and I found an old co-worker from San Antonio, Cory, to fill another one of the slots.  Cory was our star center fielder for Rochambeaux, the kickball team I had in San Antonio, and loves camping and hiking.

Most of Carl's boyz

Other than Cory, I wasn't really that close with anyone on the team.  I had spoken enough with Cody and Bekka to know that I like them, but that's about it.  Luckily, it turned out well.  They had three of their good friends come in from out of state and one our co-workers, Ben, also joined in.  Putting together a team like this is always a gamble.  It's even riskier when you're expected to share tents and be around each other for 24-48 hours.  I learned a few years back that it is more important to get a relay team made up of people that I can enjoy spending down time with, not necessarily just people that are fast.  Cody and Bekka seemed to be of the same mind as me on this as they stressed that this is not a fast team, but a fun team.  In fact, Cody's motto was "I just want to run a couple miles and drink some beer."  Or something to that effect.
The race took place at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, Texas, roughly an hour from San Antonio, and competitors could start camping Thursday night.  Elie and David flew in Thursday and were met with the long line to get in.

Photo Credit: David Gaiennie

That line looked a lot like the line that Cody and Bekka found the next morning.

Photo Credit: Cody Cardinal

There were 260 registered teams, so roughly 2000 runners plus family, friends, and staff stayed in the "village."  David and Elie were able to get us a spot that turned out to be pretty good.  It was relatively quiet at night and right next to the road for easier loading, unloading, and people watching.  I got a bit of a late start and was certainly distracted by the new H-E-B that opened up here in San Angelo, so I didn't get on the road until 9:30.  Our wave start was at 10:30, so I figured that I would be able to get there right before our third runner started.  The website was actually off on the leg rotation and I was under the belief that I was going to run the 7.5 mile leg in the middle of the night.  I wanted to give it a pass in the daylight to hopefully have some sort of idea what I'd be contending with at night. Let's say it took me a bit longer to get to our site than I expected.  First there was the line to get in, then dropping my stuff off close to the village, then driving a 1/2 mile away to a parking lot that looked like this:

Then you hop aboard a shuttle and grab your stuff and have the option in walking it down or waiting on one of these rickshaws:

After doing all that and going through my safety brief, there just wouldn't have been enough time to run Bekka down and finish with her.  Instead, I decided to run Ben's 5 mile loop with him.  In the meantime, Cory offered to share his tent and I did a bit of exploring around the camp.

our humble abode

some of the food trucks.  we were given a ticket for a free meal on Friday night

I'll definitely be hitting up that come night time

the start/finish line

good job dude

I'm not exactly sure when I took this pic of Elie starting a leg

they ran several yoga sessions

In running with Ben, I discovered that the yellow loop was incredibly hilly.  We spent much of the first three miles going uphill and the last mile and a half was downhill.  I wish I would've brought my phone on the run for pics since there were some nice vistas atop the hills.
Eli brought hers so here's a pic she took on the trail:

Photo Credit: Elie James

All three trails were classic Texas hill country; hilly, rocky, rooty single track.  It made for some nerve wracking moments, especially when going downhill.  After a couple hours (Ben was runner #5 and I was #8), I took off on the same 5 mile course.  Too quickly, as a matter of fact.  After running the first mile in 8:15, I not only took a spill, but also tired quickly going uphill.  The middle 3 miles were in the mid-10 range as I struggled up the switchbacks.  I bombed the long downhill though, finishing with an 8:05 final mile.  I've gotta say that training with Dennis and Kent has made me a better downhill runner.  That leg gave me a bit of a heads up that the other two wouldn't be so easy.  I grabbed some more food and did some more walking around after my first leg.

She'd probably be super happy I took this pic

IAAP selfie!

They played a few movies throughout the night

REI's table had free s'mores!!!!!!

I tried to get some sleep in around 9 pm but someone was loving Drake just a bit too much and I couldn't get to sleep.  This led to s'mores.  Ben was still up so he and I sat and talked for a while before Cory woke up and joined us. 
I did get to sleep maybe an hour before having to wake up for my second leg.  I didn't exactly know when I would be due to run so I just slowly started getting ready.  The problem was that the bathrooms were full.  I won't get into it too much, but suffice to say there wasn't a line waiting for them. I actually ran into Cory as I walked to the transition tent, so I hustled there and started my 3 mile green loop.  The green loop is so called because it was the easiest and that was definitely accurate.  It had the same hazards as far as treacherous footing and sharp turns.  However, the climb wasn't nearly as bad.  The only problem I had was a cramp that hit me about halfway through.  I ran very well (and didn't fall down!) on the second leg but that may have hurt me later. 
After finishing and realizing just how muggy it was by the fact that I was soaked, I took a seat to watch the Western State documentary they had playing.  It ended after 5 minutes and I was still soaked, so I just sat in my camping chair for a few minutes before getting back in my sleeping bag.  Oh yeah, the shower arrangement.  There were only 4 showers for 2000+ people and there was a perpetual line of45 minute or longer.  Many of us decided to just be utterly disgusting.  Anyway, I was able to get in another 2-3 hours of sleep before the sounds of the camp woke me up around 6:30.

long line at the coffee truck.  we got the free stuff without the line

We were able to spend a few hours hanging out, a few of our people having finished their running, and checking out merch.  Ben was going to leave right after his leg so we went and took our group photo with him.  I'm guessing that pausing to take a picture cost us first place but it was worth it. Hopefully they will have them posted soon.  Here's some more pics before my last leg:

some Viking ladies

thought I was getting a tan for a moment

The REI pumpkins

a look into the transition tent, where runners pass the bib to the next leg

well, yeah, there was a guy that wore a unicorn onesie.  He also wore a denim speedo

runners in a conga line starting the yellow loop

a team finishing with their last runner

There's Elie!

Elie passing off to Cory for our penultimate leg

and he's off.  I figured I had about 40 minutes to go get ready for our team's last leg

 The last leg was one of my worst runs ever.  I figured that I could do the 7.5 miles in 1:15.  However, on the first incline, my legs told me otherwise.  I was struggling to get much push out of them and it was warmer than I thought it would be.  It was probably the toughest sub 10 mile run I've ever done and I ended up walking quite a great deal. After the first mile, my goal changed to 1:20.  After mile three the goal became 1:30.  Shortly thereafter, the goal was to just finish without injury.  Over the last  mile and a half I was able to force myself to "pick up the pace" a bit and ran it in about 16 minutes.  I don't really know why though.  That's the lesson I want to have learned before the next time I do one of these (I certainly would like to).  I ran 73 miles last week, the most I've ever run in a week, and that has to be part of it.  Running hard just five days after running a 50K probably wasn't helpful.  I could have done without the extra loop too.  I felt a bit light headed, so I'm thinking I should have eaten more/better before running too.  I had two pieces of pizza and a s'more before my second loop, but only a little coffee, a banana, and a handful of trail mix before my last leg.   For next year, I'll have to work on uphill for sure! I had a blast and hope to get on a team in 2018!

our medals say something!  photo credit: Elie James

I'm not going to do the typical "I placed this..." because I honestly have no idea how long it took us nor what place we took.  Because it didn't matter.  We had a great time, we finished, and no one got injured.  That was the whole point of the race and we accomplished that mission.

I put it up to a vote and my Facebook friends told me to post this, so there you go

 Next Post/Updates:

October's been my biggest month ever!  Thanks for reading everyone!  Even those of you that seem to get here on accident.  I'm doing the Dinosaur Trail 10k and then Mila, Cristina, and I are doing the Dia De Los Muertos 5k next Saturday so I'll include those.  Additionally, I've got an update for the San Angelo 5k rankings that'll be posted shortly.