Sunset2Sunrise Relay - Part 2

Mishap #1:

We arrived to the starting line just 3 minutes before our scheduled start time. Luckily, the race director was flexible, and let us start with the next group. We made it through the first two legs without any incidents. Then, leg 3 happened.

The first problem was that the driving directions were difficult to understand. One of the streets which we were supposed to turn on had multiple names and we couldn't find it. The second problem was that the van did not follow the runners because the runners had different directions. As we were driving along toward the third exchange point, the van got lost. We were about 2 miles off the course. As soon as we realized the mistake, we turned around. No big deal. But on our way back, we saw a runner from another team... about a mile and a half off course, and headed the wrong way. We tried to turn around to stop her, but traffic was too heavy. By the time we turned around, she was gone. We spent about 10 minutes trying to find her, but had no luck.

At this point, we knew our runner was going to beat us to the exchange point, so we hurried off. However, when we reached the exchange point, our runner was missing. We spent about 30 minutes trying to find her, and eventually she made it back on course. The problem was that now we were about 45 minutes behind pace. The teams that started after us had already passed. No big deal. We'd make it up.

The good news about getting lost is that we learned some valuable lessons for our next relay:

1. Study the directions ahead of time, and make sure you know where you are going.

2. Make all runners carry a cell phone at all times.

3. Dont run if you can't find your way out of a paper bag.

Just one last thing I forgot to mention. This runner who got lost...got lost again later. While running one of her night legs, she ran right by the checkpoint and the runner who was waiting for her. It was clearly marked. He was standing right in front of her. He was waving her down. He actually had to chase her down with the bike. Maybe the real lesson is simply, make sure your runners are on the same planet and not in some dream world.