Party Tour

Seven people on a team, each guy (or gal) runs 10 miles or so, ending in a counterclockwise circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe. It's every bit as much fun as it sounds.

Monty and I drove up from the compound, along the Eastern Sierras. It's my favorite long drive. I'd be living there now, somewhere between Bishop, California and Gardnerville, Nevada, if it wasn't so durned hard to get to civilization from there.

Before going to Tahoe I drove to Reno and picked up Emilio De Soto (who took most of these pictures) from San Diego and Greg Hitchcock from Portland (he writes most of our Long Run columns).

We then high-tailed it to Fallen Leaf Campground, which sits between Tahoe's South Shore and Emerald Bay. We stay there because with all the other people joining us, team runners and hangers-on, along with their dogs, this is the place to be. Half the fun of the relay is the relay, but what makes this an annual Party Tour stop is the hanging out before, during and after the run.

This is especially true if you like to bring dogs on your road trips (like my Greyhound Moonie). Technically, dogs are supposed to be on leashes in this campground, but if you pick your spot strategically you can be 120 yards from Fallen Leaf Lake and away from snoopy camp police. Of course being a bit further out means you might run into an equally snoopy bear (above).

How this race works is, you drop off your first runner at the starting line and then you race to the Red Hut Waffle Shop and stuff yourself. It's a long day, and you need fuel. Then you try to get to the end of leg-one before your first runner gets there, because if you don't you'll lose valuable time.

And so it goes. You put your best guy on the fourth leg because at 12.3 miles it's the longest. If you don't have a best guy you put the new guy on that leg because he doesn't know any better. If you have anybody not suffering from an injury, you put him on the last leg because it's downhill. If you are lucky enough to have two of these people you put the other one on the third leg because it's also downhill.

You put your worst guy on the second leg because at 8 miles it's the shortest. But it's also uphill, so if you can put a strong guy there that's also a good idea. We put local Reno 50+ standout triathlete Rick Trachok on this leg, and he ran about even with the two teams that eventualy beat us, which is to say, our performance wasn't his fault.

You'll usually have one guy who'll demand first leg because he thinks he's in shape and wants to duke it out with the other first-leg runners head-to-head.

I will run any leg. As a result I have run almost every leg in the 32 years I've (off and on) been doing this relay. Except this year I refused to run 4th because I WAS suffering an injury and didn't want to run any further than I had to. So, when everyone made their requests known the 6th leg was left over. Generally, this is always the leg left over. This leg is hilly before you get to the hilly part. Then 2 miles from the end it gets really hilly, and steep. But I was up for it because I was in reasonable shape, I've run this leg a few times before, I'm altitude trained, and I try to adopt an attitude of taking the curveballs life throws at me.

Plus, big deal. It's a hill. You just run slower.

It takes anywhere from 7 hours to much, much longer to finish the race, and we know when we've had a good relay because we get to the traditional post-race pizza hall before it opens for business. We then sit around outside and grab-ass and drink beer until it opens (right), at which point we go inside and play grab-ass and drink beer.

At left is 7th legger Greg Hitchcock, then Monty at 5th leg with girlfriend Claire McCarty attached, the author inappropriately groping hanger-on Paul Thomas, with Emilio at right, a real stand-up guy for taking on the overlong 4th leg.

By far the most competitive division are the over-40 males. Our team was fifth overall out of about 90 total teams, and we were only third in our division. But at least we beat the girls teams.