As many of you may know, I have been training for the Big Sur Marathon on April 26. Usually post marathon I’ll take a couple weeks and relax with some light runs… not this time.

That’s right. Less than a week later, on the following Saturday, I will transform from a PavementRunner to a member of Lori’s Lusty Lads for The Relay. It’s a 199 mile twelve person relay from Calistoga to Santa Cruz.

There are several of us doing the Big Sur marathon the week before, so our legs will not be as fresh as most, but a lot of us couldn’t resist the opportunity to be a part of this amazing challenge. This is the same event that Dean Karnazes runs solo. He covered it in his book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner. He runs it every year covering 199  miles on his own over the weekend as TEAM DEAN. (I highly recommend picking up the book below, it is a fantatsic read about an amazing human being.)

When the idea was brought up amongst our training group, I took awhile to think whether or not I would have the energy to participate. Once I started seeing the 12 slots begin to fill up, I knew it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. Even if our group decided to do it again next year, experiencing it the first time around was something I wanted to be a part of.

This whole week, I’ll be covering in detail how the event will unfold and which parts of the course I will be running. Our team logo is above and when the team asked me to design it, I was honored. We are currently having them placed on dri fit shirts and I’m real excited to see how they turn out. 

Oh ya, the team name and it’s origins. 

Lori’s:

Many of us started running as participants in the San Francisco National AIDS Marathon Training Program. This is where many of us met Lori. Words fall short in explaining what Lori has done for so many of us. We all knew that her name would have to be a part of our team’s identity since she is an essential part in many of our lives today.

Lusty:

Here is the definition: exhibiting lust or vigor; stout; strong; vigorous; robust; healthful; able of body. With the emphasis on strong, vigorous, healthful and able of body. Plus it sounds sexy. Ha.

Lads:

Well, because apart from Lori, the remaining 11 members are men. (or lads).

And there it is: Lori’s Lusty Lads. There were many different versions thrown around and many covered over our 18 mile run a month ago. I think for about an hour we were throwing names around on that training run. The things that cross your mind on long runs.

But, the name is set, our 12 are set, we are registered and paid for. We are hashing out the final details on Saturday and in 3 weeks we will be running as a team for 2 straight days. I can only imagine the stories that will come from this.