SBV baby on the way!

Prolific racer, adventure swimmer, teacher, coach, business owner, dog-lover and soon-to-be Mom!

Our very own superhero MB will be adding "SuperMom" to her resume starting early next February. Congratulations to MB, Adam and Bentley on the expected addition to their family.

Flashback to the 80's

The SBV traveled back in time tonight, hitting the Mountain Winery scene with the Donnas, Blondie and Pat Benetar.

New team member...

Congrats to MCH, Chris and Skye on the arrival of baby Greyson 6/24/09.

MB and G2 had a great visit in Felton. Mom was looking good and talking about gearing up for track season next winter!

Tahoe Relays 2009 - Yeah, baby!

Pam, Carrie, Michelle, Ashley, Katie, Brooke, Mo, Tiffany, Teresa, Megan and Marisa all arrived at the Colorado Ct cabin on Friday night to start a weekend of Impala filled fun. Camp took place in South Lake Tahoe which is located at an elevation of 6200 ft. Friday night was spent organizing the logistics of the relay plus making and eating pasta dinner for eleven.

Saturday was relay day- which involved 7 legs around the 72 mile around lake. Mo drove car number one filled with Marisa, Pam, Brooke, Michelle and Megan which went to the start line to see things get started. Teresa drove the second car with Carrie, Ashley, Katie and Tiffany – they departed shortly after 7 from the house and provided support for the first leg of the race. The two cars worked in a tag team effort throughout the day shuttling the runners and provided support to their teammates.

Marisa ran the first leg (9.6 miles) and had escorts (or some might say an entourage) the whole time – Brooke ran the whole leg with her and Teresa jumped in for about 4 miles of it. Marisa averaged 7:20 pace for her leg and put us in a good position to start out the relay.

Michelle ran the second leg (8.2 miles) which had the greatest elevation gain of the day (1000 ft in 3 miles). Michelle had Pam as a personal motivator/escort for the last 4 miles (the major uphill portion) of her leg. Michelle rocked the hills averaging 7:50 minute pace for her leg.

Carrie ran the third leg (10.3 miles) which basically went downhill for 7.5 miles then rolling hills for the last 3 miles. Carrie had spectacular views but had legs feeling like rubber once she hit the rolling hills. Michelle jumped in for the last 2 miles of Carrie’s leg to ensure a speedy end (she averaged 6:53 pace) to a long leg.

Megan (aka Dr. Daly) ran the fourth leg (12.3 miles) which was the longest leg of the day. Pam and Michelle did strides during Megan’s leg to provide support with food and drinks (due to Megan’s fast pace no one could run longer than 100m with her). Megan caught countless other teams during her leg and averaged 6:28 pace – wow!

Ashley ran the fifth leg (10.6 miles) and was on a mission to catch the GVH team (aka girls in yellow). Ashley did not disappoint and caught our competitors mid way into her leg. She averaged 6:46 pace (this pace included a 90 sec pit stop) and was so on fire from her fast running that she walked into the lake after her run.

Teresa ran the sixth leg (10.5 miles) which involved a killer hill the last two miles. She started out with intent to make up as much time as possible (“put them in the hole”) on the only all women’s team ahead of us. She came through for the team and managed to gain more than 5 minutes on the team ahead. She even had three sub 6 miles during her leg. She averaged 6:24 pace and this is with a 2 mile climb at the end – wow!

Mo ran the seventh and final leg (10.5 miles). Mo’s leg started with a downhill into emerald bay followed by an immediate uphill. Megan and Teresa jumped in for a couple of miles to motivate Mo to a quick start. Brooke jumped in next for about a mile and Pam brought her home by running the last 4 miles with Mo. It was truly a group effort and fun to see everyone smiling
through the leg. Mo averaged 7:47 pace and brought the team in to a finish time of 8:26.19 (just 7 seconds faster than our total time last year). The team placed 2nd in the open female division (14th overall) – those darn college girls from Chico State finished ahead of us.

Saturday night was spent celebrating our relay run with pizza, salad, wine, a movie and great conversations. Sunday morning we woke up early to run on the Rubicon trail by Emerald Bay. This was followed by quick showers at the house and departure of everyone with the exception of Pam, Carrie and Marisa. Sunday afternoon was spent very leisurely with a long walk around
the tahoe keys, dinner at a thai restaurant and writing this weekend report.

What a wonderful weekend – another reminder of how fun a weekend away with the girls can be. Thanks for your efforts and company this weekend!

B2B

It was an early morning for the SBV, meeting at 5:15 to carpool to SF. When the gun went off at 8, we were ready. Rumor has it that nudity was banned this year, but we observed otherwise.

Some choice quotes were heard over the length of the 12k course:
"(pause)...Wow."
"Hey, tie me up, baby!"

"We're your waterboys!!"

The Relay pictures

Thanks to Gowri, Megan, and Shaluinn who made it out to cheer for The Relay in the early morning on Sunday. It was so great to see you out there. You were incredible cheerleaders! Attached are a few pictures from the weekend (I took a few and so did Soeren, Jodi's boyfriend).

The Relay: 200 miles from Napa to Santa Cruz

Congratulations to our SBV'er, "Dr. S", and her Impala teammates for winning the Relay and setting a new course record! Below are excerpts from captain Flora, the mastermind of the entire operation:

Despite the cool and wet conditions, The Impalas finished 5th overall with a time of 23:19:23 in The Relay, the 200 mile race from Caligstoga to Davenport (Yes, Davenport. It's by Santa Cruz). The Impalas beat the next closest women's team by 6.5 hours and also broke the Open Women's Record, which works out to be a 7:00 pace, but if you add the extra 2 miles Jeannie did, it was 6:56 pace.

I was truly inspired how each and every one pulled through the horrible conditions with a great attitude. This relay was a great mix of fun, laughs, adventure & competition, and the masochistic sleep deprivation and bad weather showed how truly tough the impalas are.

VERY Special thanks to Soeren (& thanks to Jodi D. for lending us this wonderful guy) and Ed (my husband) for driving us through the night and keeping us even keeled! I love it how some stranger called Ed, "Yo Impala Driver!" And also to Brooke S. and Keri H. for volunteering for 5 hours in Napa County! And also to Terri O., for help in organizing. And to Nga and Karen (& Scott) for letting us crash and shower at their beautiful homes in the middle of the night for a refreshing 1.5 hour nap.

Here's a recap of the race:

Erica S. started out the relay always ready with SMILE (whether it was 2am or 6am) her contagious positive energy kept us chugging along! Erica just ran a 30k the week before! Angie L. got tons of roadkill with her consistent pace and her fast hands, fast feet. Angie sported a sports bra and reflective vest for her night run and totally mastered looking sexy, sporty, and safe all at the same time.

Nga D. was a super competitor outkicking an innocent guy in the last 100 meters of her final leg (but then gave him a hug afterward). Nga also did a great job of cheering, screaming "kill em'" to Jacqueline as she passed people who were struggling to get up that crazy run to the bridge at 2:30AM. Nga was also the master time keeper, diligently taking everyone's splits! Carrie R. was super speedy on all of her legs. It could have been the double espresso gel in the middle of the night (which can provide quite a jolt for a non-coffee drinker) or perhaps it was because of her awesome varsity history bag. We may never know. Michelle F. was the energizer bunny. Michelle was a last minute add-in but despite having a great race at the Big Sur marathon just one week ago, she was still able to run all 3 legs seamlessly. WOW. She was such a great cheerleader and supporter, getting out of the van in the cold, dark night to hand off water to her teammates. Jacqueline T. was the last leg of Van #1 and is seriously part mountain goat, as she powered up the hardest climbs in Sausalito and Santa Cruz mountains like she was doing 400 repeats on the track! Amazing.

Knox B. kicked off the 2nd van, consistently knocking out spectacular splits each time, including a 36 minute 10k (PR)! Smoking! Knox also kept our van bumping with her awesome music mix. Megha D. powered through a very tight hamstring, and ran awesome splits. While waiting for her to come through, I heard the crowd exclaim, wow, she is hauling! Who is that girl? Next came Emily Leahy, an Impala out of the woodworks, who has an uncanny ability to pleasantly smile during her race like she was on a casual Sunday run, but behind that innocent smile, she is deadly - knocking off 22 roadkill at 4am - the record amount in a single leg. Jeannie S. followed up with the HARDEST legs and has been voted MVP due to her courage and perseverance. Jeannie had to run up a dirt hill with 6 inch deep mud at a cow ranch at night through thick fog and almost ran straight into a random black cow on the trail (but since it was pitch black you could hardly see it was there, except that you could hear it breathing), but once she got on flat pavement for her last mile of the first leg, she pulled a 6:00 mile! Then, for her last leg, due to down power lines, she was a diverted onto an alternate path which added an additional 2 miles to her Very Hard leg! Jeannie is a rockstar and practically ran a marathon by the end of all her legs! In additional to her awesome running splits, she brought so much laughter with her trashtalking and energy. =) Flora L. (me) had to follow up Jeannie's leg, and even though there were times going uphill on my 3rd leg, I wanted to let up but everyone's performance inspired me to keep chugging up the hill. Karen R., our very own president, carried us home to record time, looking incredibly strong and smiling with a fist pump too. Karen gets the award for most creative cheer - her signature a$$ honk... =)

There are so many more stories and adventures to be told! Congrats to all the Impalas who raced so well this weekend!