Portland morning

Man. You guys look exhausted. In Portland the sun is shining, we're showered and just had a glorious breakfast at Fuller's.

Final Leg and Final Thoughts

So I'm a little late in getting this up to date... that's what sleeping 1 hour on a High School Gym floor, followed by more running and one heck of a post race party will do to you.

Van 1 truly shined in our third leg. Terence received the baton from Eddie at around 6am and charged (mostly uphill) 7.5 miles. One of my favorite moment from leg 3 happened while Terence was in mid run and went as follows:

Me: "Damn, I wish I had another coffee at that last exchange."
Stevie: "I wish I actually trained for this!"

This was topped only by Grant wearing Esther's (tiny) coat as a warmup while waiting for Peter to arrive. Grant did not disappoint, attacking the hills in his final 6.9 mile leg.

Clearly we were getting tired since we starting dropping the baton at exchanges -- yep, we were definitely ready to call it a day.

We arrived in Dobbs Ferry at close to 11am to wait for the arrival of Van 2. Lucky for us the Ragnar folks were ready for us and were serving up burgers and beer.

Will closed it out sprinting to the finish just past noon. We were about 30 minutes off our goal for a 185 mile race. Still waiting for the official results, but it appears that we checked in at 2nd place out of 200 teams losing out only to a team of College Cross Country runners from Union College, while capturing the top Corporate prize. Not bad for a team that was plagued by injuries and last minute replacements over the last two weeks... including being one man down with less than 48 hours before the start (thank you Terence for jumping in last minute!).

I consider my lucky to be a member of such a talented and fun team. Big thanks to Eddie for bringing us all together (especially for getting our former Captain and team leader Tom Phillips back). And an even bigger thanks to our drivers to our drivers, Esther and Kerry. We couldn't have done this without you.

-Mike

Crossing The Hudson

From the second Eddie handed the baton to Terence, we were *flying* for leg 2. Everyone pretty much met or exceeded goals this go around... And picked up lots of road kill. NADS has extended their lead to 25 minutes, but we're keeping at it. 

The highlights:
Terence: "This van is hot and stuffy. Do we have any fig newtons"
Mike: "I'm sure that combination of words has never been spoken before!"

"That can't be Stevie ahead. That runner is wearing pants."

Stevie after leg 2: "I puked into the Hudson River... And felt much better"

Finally Esther was sick of the guys because we couldn't get over the fact that the toll taker at the mid Hudson Bridge was (as Grant claimed) "movie star hot!... Ok maybe a little trashy, but hot!" 

Peter is about to hand off to the ridiculously speedy Grant...
I think we've earned a nice long nap. 

The pursuit

Van 1 has finished their legs and van 2 is underway. Eddie clocked
5:50s on his first leg and Nathan is really blazing out there.
Holstrom is waiting on deck.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Trucking Along

Greetings from Catskill State Park. Team Google1 is 20 miles into our 185 mike trek from Woodstock to NYC. Terence G (the new guy) led us off in speedy fashion followed by spirited runs by Mike A, Stevie D (on her first relay!), a hellish hilly run by Erin M and now Peter M (another Google newbie) is about to hand off to relay vet Grant -- the king speedster of van 1. We've got a ways to go to catch the first place team... Union College's North American Distance Squad (get it?... those wacky college kids!). Stay tuned...

And they're off

Terence led us off at 4:00pm from beautiful woodstock ny. The weather
looks to be holding for us and mike just took the baton. 34 legs to
go.

--
Sent from my mobile device

The gorgeous Hudson River Valley

Before setting out on a 185 mile journey down it's spine, it's worth it to consider the history of the river valley we'll be running.

The valley was originally settled by the Mahican indians (later made famous by the author James Fennimore Cooper--and still later by Daniel Day Lewis). The Dutch established trading outposts and Fort Nassau (just south of Albany) in the mid-seventeenth century.

The valley featured prominently in the French and Indian War as the bulwark of British defenses against a French invasion from Lake Champlain. The new American state recognized this fact as well and established West Point on the banks of the river.

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1821 led to a dramatic increase in the traffic seen on the river, but the scenic beauty continued to inspire those who built their homes in the valley and the early American artists who became known as the Hudson River School of art, chief amongst them Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

So think about that when you're running down this beautiful valley at 3:00 in the morning.