I made it through all three of my legs of the Cascade Lakes Relay, totaling 21.3 miles, despite the worried concern of my van mates on Leg 3, which must indicate just how close to collapse or maybe death I must have looked while running. It was three days and two nights on maybe two hours of fitful sleep, where the first night at Diamond Lake, I fell asleep once and dreamed where at least three of us overslept and missed the start of the race. I thought I had heard loud knocking on a door nearby (which in reality I had apparently incorporated into my dream, because I came to find out there really was some loud pounding in the night when some very drunk runners from another team tried to get into some of our runners’ room, but Jean chased them away with authority in her voice.). In this dream Jesse, Shelley, and I were awakened by the hotel management when they opened up an adjoining wall to our room, revealing a beautiful honeymoon suite where we were just a part of this more expansive suite, of which the hotel management was now giving tours. It was 8:00 a.m. and we had missed the 7:40 Start, and were now unable to find any of our teammates. I concluded that loud knocking during the night must have been our teammates trying to wake us up, but in failing to do so, left the three of us behind, and now we were never going to figure out what happened or what we should do.
The second time I fell asleep I dreamed I missed the start of my second leg when I got stuck in a horseshow that I couldn’t get out of. The trainer was explaining his brutal techniques, where he suddenly hit a filly on the face with a board, and then showed the board drenched with the blood spatter to the other horses who then would behave. He claimed this was a more humane way to train horses because he only had to beat one of them, perhaps more severely, instead of having to beat all the horses. I know. It sounds like a Republican trying to explain why cuts to the lower and middle classes will help the economy, while the only cuts the rich have to make are cuts to their taxes. Yeah, I say ironically, that makes sense.
I think I was then afraid to fall asleep again because then I would have some nightmare about missing my final leg, so I lay there awake until I arose at 5:30 to go get some coffee from the restaurant. And the beginning of the race went without a hitch. We were off on a 216.6 mile trek, taking the long way from Diamond Lake to Bend, through the dry heat, the night, and the rises and falls in high elevation. From nearly one sunrise one day until nearly sunset the next, we would, run, ride, and rest (if you can call it rest) over and over again, until it was hard to remember what life was like before this new way of life.
(To be continued.)
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