San Diego team captures title
by Jake Sorich
Reno Gazette-Journal
July 9, 2005
The first-ever Reno-Tahoe Odyssey, a 178-mile relay run around Northern Nevada, was a true odyssey complete with heroes, sea creatures and a few lunatics.
Members of the Reno Fire Department, which entered a team in the race, personified the heroes.
Soon after the firefighters finished, several of the helmet-less heroes were at the aid of a woman suffering a mild asthma attack at the finish line.
Tahoe Tessie, the famed Lake Tahoe monster, personified the sea creature.
Members of “Tessie does Reno,” a team from San Francisco, finished the race in a connected green and orange monster costume. Henrike Siemen, designer of the costume, said she had Tessie in mind when she made it.
The lunatics were personified by the eventual winners of the race, the National Association of Competitive Lunatics from San Diego.
After the race, NACL made the biggest splash of all the teams. The shorthanded team, they had 11 runners instead of the 12 allowed, won by finishing in 19 hours, 30 minutes. To celebrate their run, the group of mostly chemistry grad students at the University of California-San Diego jumped into the Truckee River.
After the race, a few NACL runners explained why and how they won with only 11 runners.
“We couldn’t find a 12th runner,” Dave Easa said. “It’s hard to find 12 runners to drive from San Diego to here.”
Meghan Morris, captain and organizer of the team, said she felt they didn’t need a 12th runner.
“We thought 12 was excessive,” Morris said, “That’s why (we won).”
Although they finished in first, the swift San Diego science students said they had trouble with the elevation, and finding the course in the middle of the night.
“We felt the altitude probably more than the locals, definitely,” Noel O’Sullivan said.
Easa said that despite the mistake of losing track of the course, the team still won thanks to their preparation and planning.
“We still made mistakes, I went off course a few times, a couple other little mistakes,” Easa said. “But the point of planing well is dealing with those properly, taking care of the silly details so you can move on.”
O’Sullivan said the race was fun despite the troubles with elevation and losing direction, especially running back into Reno in the morning.
“It was beautiful, we ran around Lake Tahoe at night so we couldn’t see it, but coming back into Reno was beautiful looking,” O’Sullivan said. “It was a beautiful course.”
The race starting in downtown Reno along the Truckee River. The team then travels through the Sierra Nevada mountains and along the shores of Lake Tahoe before circling back through the Northern Nevada high desert to where they began in Reno.
Eric Lerude, the event creator, said the event was a success because of the great terrain and the help of volunteers stationed throughout the course.
After the awards were handed out, Lerude was presented with a rubber chicken in appreciation from one of the teams. Lerude also said 99 percent of the feedback was positive.
Finally,
every odyssey needs a last kiss, and the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey
is no different.
The Angel Kiss Foundation, a non-profit organization
that helps parents with children suffering from cancer,
is receiving a portion of the race’s proceeds.
Kathleen Hale, executive director of the foundation, said she’s excited to be involved in an event which has the potential to grow into a huge event in the future.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity for us,” Hale said, “We’re just a small organization, but we’ve helped 95 families already. We’re fortunate to get the chance to be involved with the event.”
