In it for the long run
by Rhiannon Potkey
Ventura County Star (CA)
July 7, 2005

Twelve women. One mission. Plenty of sleep deprivation. When the sky turns pitch black on Friday night, a Ventura-based team of female runners will be in the midst of pulling a unique all-nighter while competing in the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey.

The 24-hour relay event, featuring more than 35 teams, spans 178 miles and consists of 36 legs of varying distances and difficulties. Braving the altitude, the elements and the unknown, each team member will run three legs in a leap-frog order format.

It was an enticing challenge the locals couldn't let pass them by.

"I have never done anything like this, so it is totally a once-in-a-lifetime experience,"said Ventura High graduate and UC San Diego sophomore Blair Ryan. "How often do you get to put together 12 women who want to do this?"

During a Christmas break training run, Ryan was recruited by fellow Ventura resident Michelle Martinez to gather the younger members of the team, which is appropriately named "Now and Then."

The team consists of six high school and college-aged runners and six runners ages 39 and older. There are two sets of mothers and daughters on the team, and because of the tight-knit nature of the area's running community, most of the others have familiarity with each other.

"We have totally run the gamut and branched out in ages, which is really cool,"said 41-year-old Nancy Fredrickson, the Ventura College distance coach. "It is a very different dynamic, but it's been a fun thing bringing us together."

The generational gap gives the team just the right mix of spunk and savvy, according to 39-year-old Kathy Higgins.

"Each of us has our own strengths," said Higgins, the co-owner of the Ventura Bowling Center. "The younger ones are so much quicker, but the veterans are more familiar with pacing ourselves. You get to be a smarter runner when you get older."

Fredrickson calls herself the "weak link"of the team, but the race provided her with the motivation to improve that status.

"It has given me something to work for to get back in shape,"she said. "Sometimes you need that little poking and prodding."

Former VC runner Katie Bunker, 22, didn't need much prodding from her old coach to join the team.

"She told me about the race while I was babysitting her kids. I didn't know anything about it, but I said, 'Sure, sign me up,' "Bunker said. "I think it will be cool to have the support of 11 other people who are going through the same things you are -- like lack of sleep and running at all hours of the night."

The team is viewing the road trip as part bonding experience, part endurance test.

When they recently gathered at the Martinez household for a meet-and-greet dinner, they were giggling like little schoolgirls about having to wear reflective jackets and beeping flashlights during the night portions of the run.

"We think that is going to attract the bears and mountain lions at 3 in the morning,"Fredrickson said. "This is definitely going be a girls trip. No kids. No husbands."

As they make their way through the Sierra Nevada mountains and along the shore of Lake Tahoe, the course will also give them a brush with history.

They will run where the Donner Party once traveled, follow the tracks of the original transcontinental railroad, pass through ghost towns and retrace steps galloped by Pony Express riders.

Two vans carrying six team members will be in close proximity to the runner on the course, and stops can be made at a hotel for quick naps between legs or a change of clothes.

Aside from the challenge of staying awake, Ryan will have to deal with managing her Type I diabetes. With the help of her insulin pump, she will be constantly monitoring her levels.

"After each leg I will have to replenish and make sure I have enough glycogen stores to start the next leg,"she said. "As long as I give myself time to adjust, I should be fine."

With no prior experience heading into the race, the team's expectations for its first 24-hour relay are low. But once the first runner steps to the starting line, things may quickly change.

"Nobody is too intense about it which is kind of fun, but we are definitely competitive, "Fredrickson said. "We try to talk like we aren't, but we are."

Copyright, 2005, Ventura County Star

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