Photo Gallery 1

Things couldn't have gone better! This year, we were lucky enough to have with a team that had no last minute dropouts. We were able to recruit substitute runners for three of our team members who unfortunately had to drop out from last year's run: Bruce Smith, Tyna Chu, and Ann Helm. Through contacts within the team, we were able to sign up Dave Polidori (referred by Sara) who swims with Stanford Masters, Mark Johnson (who works with Dave Polidori), and Corinne Alston (who runs with Ted Weber). It turned out to be another friendly, talented group of folks, just like last year. And, we were lucky to get the services of Dave Hill to join us this year -- he almost had to bow out because of travel plans associated with his job at Stanford, but his trip was delayed just long enough to allow him to run with us.

(Ann Helm thought she would be able to run, but was advised by her doctor not to do it, being in her fourth month of pregnancy).

We arranged the usual vans, and this year we stocked them with bagels and Patty's cookies, and put "Artie Party" banners on the sides like we did last year. Our starting time was relatively late, 3:00 PM in the afternoon. The race officials must have thought we were a fast team -- and as things turned out, they were right. We divided up the vans thusly: Van 1 -- Patty, Bob, Ted, Corinne, Dave Hill, and Artie; Van 2 -- Dave Polidori, Stuart, Jolyn, Mark, Dave Mull, and Sara.

The first rotation

The weather at the start was PERFECT! Just a cool breeze and not the stifling hot sun that we experienced in last year's relay. As a result, everyone had great runs, and all of the Van 1 runners mentioned that it was a great day for running!

The mood at the start was somewhat intimidating. Usually, teams who start later in the day are expected to run fast and place high in the standings. As the teams lined up, several teams were introduced by the announcer as being divisional Relay winners from previous years. To counter this intimidation, we sent out the most ferocious runner we had going for us, sending a message to the other teams that The Artie Party was also a force to be reckoned with! Look out for major roadkill here!

At 3:02 PM, we were off along with the other teams, and Patty gave the team a very nice leadout. It seems that once everyone got hold of the wristband, the competitive juices seemed to flow, and everyone was running at speeds way under their projected paces.

The strategy for Van 1 was to make sure every runner was well supported during each run. So, the van made a stop or two on every leg to provide water, a shout of encouragement (or an insult, if Ted was running), and bit of directional help if needed. We repeated this pattern for the entire length of the Relay, and many vans were doing the same thing.

Despite the rolling hills of the Silverado Trail, the Van 1 runners all had superb runs. Things were going so well that we seemed to create some competitive animosity with one of the other teams, the Mt. Vaca runners, who sported team #84. (You'll see "Mark" from that team running along side Corinne in one of the photos on the left. We diced with Mark's team for the rest of the Relay.)

While the van was supporting Corinne's leg, the team also clapped and cheered for runners on other teams -- but one runner on another team maintained his game face and didn't seem to respond to the Artie Party's enthusiastic support. So, Dave Hill ran along side Mark, who was trailing "Mr. GameFace" by a few yards and said, "You have to drop this guy up ahead, he's taking this too seriously!"

By the time the last runner, Artie, came into the van exchange in Napa, the first van was putting in a first rotation split of about 3-and-a-half hours. Artie exchanged with Dave Polidori of the 2nd van just as it was getting dark. As it turned out, the darkness caused problems with the Van 2 runners during their first rotation.

After Dave smoked his first leg at a 6:57 clip, it got noticeably darker, and flashlights were a necessity. Stuart managed to step on a number of dead snakes on his first leg. When he got to the finish of his leg, he kept saying something like he stepped on some unknown thing, shined his light on it, and saw a snake! Then he realized it was already dead. This happened at least twice on that leg!

By the time Mark got the wristband, it was pitch dark, and he had to navigate off-road through the two ranches. He didn't get far before he knew he was lost. His wrong turn on the ranch happened less than 20 yards from a car full of volunteers. He continued up an asphalt road to some kind of dump, and in the process was running along side some animal which was less than waist high (the weeds were waist high, and this animal was smaller, and not afraid of Mark ... maybe mountain lion, maybe dog, we'll never know ...). At one point in the run, he stopped and yelled "HHHEEEELLLOOOO!" Apparently, that seemed to work, as he successfully found his way out of the ranch, back onto highway 116, and onto to the Casa Grande High School where he exchanged with Dave Mull.

Unfortunately for Dave, he didn't get a very good start either. Dave missed the turn from Ely road to Caulfield road just a half mile outside of the exchange. (Captain's note: When I did the Relay two years ago, the same thing happened to our number 11 runner -- he missed the same turn onto Caulfield Road). It turned out that the group of runners around Dave also missed the turn. By the time Dave and company discovered their error and got turned around, it resulted in adding an extra two miles on an already long 7.1 mile run.

And when Sara got the wristband from Dave, her flashlight went dead going up Petaluma-Pt.Reyes road. However, the full moon provided a lot of light, and Sara actually grooved on running in the moonlight. Since she had no flashlight to signal her arrival at the van exchange, it was difficult to see Sara coming in. But as the other team vans approached the Cheese Factory from a distance and illuminated the shadowy figures of the runners, we were able to make out the silhouette of Sara's graceful stride, and we knew it was her!

Despite all the adventures, the team was grovin' right along, and everyone was having a great time. So far, so good!

(Continue to Photo Gallery 2)