That's What She Said: Relay Around Tucson

When I heard about the RAT (Relay Around Tucson) I was intrigued. It's a race on The Loop bike path, which I know well (at least in our neighborhood). A team of up to 10 would take turns running segments of the path, starting at Rillito racetrack, making a loop around the entire city, and ending up where they began.

I've always liked the idea of a group relay (maybe eventually something longer like Ragnar or Hood-to-Coast). Sounds like a fun time with friends interspersed with a bit of running in interesting places.

So we put the idea to the Tucson Orienteering Club, and when we got a bunch of interest, we suddenly had a team - yay! We called ourselves "O Rats!"

Photo credits include Alan Craig, Yvonne Poe, and Cristina Luis, plus Damion Alexander on bike - thank you all!

Gathering at the start with some semblance of a plan for the day:

Alan is ready to tackle the first, and coldest, leg of the race:

Go RATs!

Looking good, Alan!

Early on we noticed Team Shrek, with their fun Shrek-wear and face paint:

They were definitely in the running for best costumes:

Alan approaching the first exchange, with the Catalinas on the horizon:

A successful hand-off of our team wristband to Charles:

The rest of us drove a couple more vehicles than necessary for the first part of the race, as we didn't realize that most of us were prepared to spend the entire day following along and cheering on our teammates. Eventually we got ourselves into one vehicle as a couple people had to leave to be productive or something.

It turned out to be a huge amount of fun driving around together, hanging out and getting to know each other, watching the runners, helping each teammate get ready, and enjoying the beautiful weather:

Charles ran two of the shorter (back-to-back) legs and we popped in at the second exchange to cheer as he cruised past:

Which didn't leave Gavin much time to prepare for the start of his run. He was only slightly late getting the wristband from Charles, then he made up for it with a big effort along the Santa Cruz river (so many underpasses!)

Meanwhile I scrambled to get myself ready. My teammates kept me updated on Gavin's faster-than-expected progress, even letting me know exactly how much time I had to get in and back out of the porta-potty...

Gavin approached the exchange with the slap-on wrist band at the ready:

Just for kicks, I posed with an outstretched arm, ready for Gavin's perfect hand-off:

And a couple of our teammates documented the event, too funny:

The reflective vest was required for my leg because of several road crossings. It helped being familiar with these so I could look ahead and judge when the walk signals might start and end. I hit 2 out of 3 of them with no waiting, that was a minor accomplishment.

Damion the bike photographer came by on the Ajo Way section, Hi Damion! Hey, can you ride ahead and punch the "walk" button at the next intersection? Many thanks!

Finally done with most of the street crossings, time to focus on just running as well as I could. Our team was setting a precedent of "solid effort" and it was good motivation to run like I was racing.

One of the funniest things about the relay was the RaceJoy app that most of us had downloaded onto our phones. It would track each runner so the next person in line could be ready to go on time. Even better, we could send inspirational greetings to our teammates. Once we discovered the extent of those options, the entertainment really began.

There were all kinds of canned "way to go!" and "looking good!" cheers available, plus some odd ones and many with hilarious sounds. My favorites involved a Scottish accent. Also, you could type in custom messages and a monotone female voice would read them off to the runner. Gavin started sending Wikipedia facts about random things for no particular reason.

I only wished I had turned my phone volume up louder so I could hear them better while running, but I sure could tell that my phone was getting pinged a LOT and it made me laugh. For every runner on our team that got this treatment, they would turn around and start texting harder to the next person, so by the end of the race we were amusing ourselves and admiring each other's creativity.

I was pleased to be able to pass a few other teams, including Team Shrek. I was also glad to be finished with those 6.9 miles, time to hand off to speedy Billie - go Billie go!

Damion rode alongside her for a ways (they knew each other already) and she showed off her athleticism:

Superman posed for photos while we were waiting at the next exchange:

John getting ready while the rest of us clown around (and send encouragement to Billie's phone):

This was a well-designed relay exchange, complete with a chute to make you feel fast and all official-like:

John ran off for his 5.2-mile leg that turned north across the desert, and the rest of us drove around to the other end. Hey, it's a fellow Rivian adventure person, with an excellent license plate to boot!

John finishing his leg and handing off to Yvonne - go Yvonne!

I saw the "mer-people" team posing for a picture and couldn't resist snapping one myself - another excellent group of costumes:

Yvonne handing off to Billie for the start of leg 9, as we continue running faster than any of us had expected:

Billie was our team's secret weapon - fast AND with a ton of endurance. I could have run a (short) second leg, but nowhere near as quickly as Billie did.

Before we knew it, we were at the final exchange (where we discovered a snack table for the first time - it's probably good we didn't see one of those at earlier exchanges). Cristina headed down the path in search of the finish line:

Go Cristina!

Our team was in high spirits as we drove back to the place we started:

We had a few minutes to wait, so Billie got to experience the inside of Tug-E's gear tube (I think she could sleep in there):

Somehow we got all focused on the status of Team Shrek, as we had been back-and-forth with them for much of the race. We figured out how to track their last runner and it looked like maybe they were catching up to Cristina? For some reason, it became urgent that we stay ahead. Billie started sending app messages to Cristina to "keep running, stay ahead of Shrek!"

Whether it mattered to Cristina or not, she did run fast enough to reach the finish line before the green team. Yay for the O Rats!