Lynn Woods Relay

I always have a tough time organizing a relay team and this one was no different. Kathy twisted her ankle hiking and Rob tweaked his hamstring somehow so I moved on to plan B.  Since Lewis hadn't been able to nail down a team he happily hopped onto the team.  Now things were getting better!  Lisa decided her injury was healed enough she could run.  We had a team!  And a good one to boot!  So Lisa would run in Kathy's spot and Lewis in Rob's spot.  The key to organizing one of these things is to get fast people to run with you.

There were 110 teams entered, a new record for this event.  I last ran it in 1996 with Rob and a couple other masters skiers.  For this version we were entered in the co-ed division, the largest group in the race.  I led off, suffering a bit in the heat but with lots of company to chase.  I handed off to Lisa squarely in the middle of the pack and she promptly got down to business passing runners in front of her and setting the fastest Doucett time for the night.  Lisa handed off to Lewis having moved us up the field considerably and he had a string of 6 runners spaced out in front of him to reel in.  He quickly dispatched them and then a bunch more, running about 5 min. faster than me.  He kamikazied down the last hill to hand off to Alex in 24th place and Alex motored right up the first hill, but finding out in the process that her cold, while much better, wasn't completely gone.  It is nice to be able to breath in a race and running fast will quickly bring out any weaknesses! However, Alex passed a bunch of people too and in the end we had a great finish.  Results for our team are below.  Here is Alex bringing it home.   Lewis is in charge of rounding up a few more teams for next year.

22. CSU NORDIC SKI COACHES (211)     1:14:36

  JAMIE DOUCETT              20:29     20:29

  KATHY MADDOCK              40:35     20:06

  ROB BRADLEE                56:14     15:39

  ALEX JOSPE               1:14:36     18:22

52. CSU NORDIC SKI COACHES (211)           20:29

  JAMIE DOUCETT              20:29     20:29

37. CSU NORDIC SKI COACHES (211)           40:35

  JAMIE DOUCETT              20:29     20:29

  KATHY MADDOCK              40:35     20:06

24. CSU NORDIC SKI COACHES (211)           56:14

  JAMIE DOUCETT              20:29     20:29

  KATHY MADDOCK              40:35     20:06

  ROB BRADLEE                56:14     15:39