Las Vegas: The Fun Never Ends!

Hello sin city!

This weekend marked our annual exodus to Vegas.

Not the Vegas you know? Well, this is about an hour and a half west of Vegas, actually. This is where MY story begins. (But I will get back to me in a moment.) Chris participated in the Baker to Vegas Relay Run. That is, Baker CA to Las Vegas, NV it covers 120 miles. The stretch is divided into 18 legs. Chris had his leg in Pahrump again and it was 5.3 miles long. (Enough to kill me, if I had tried to run it!)

It really was beautiful, in a totally desolate kinda way! Let me introduce Angie. She is pictured below with me. We were driving partners. You see, the team had a bunch of last minute cancellations & they apparently needed runners and drivers - so that is how we both came to be a part of this. (Chris was also supposed to be an alternate but was assigned to run.) So we both got roped into more than we bargained for - Angie & I had a "shift" of about 12 hours. That was the time leaving the hotel to the time we returned. Normally - if I go, I am there for support....as in "Go babe! You are doing AWESOME! WAHOO!!!" While I sit comfy in the back of the support van for about a half hour or so.

After a short discussion about my ability to get car sick with the slightest things, I was designated official DRIVER. YES!! (I really like to be in control.) Angie was labeled the "HELPER." She was in charge of writing down individual stats, manning the short-wave radio and occasionally a water passer. (The writing/reading thing would have made me hurling in no time.) Now, my job was to do the following: drive the van behind each runner - not too close, but pretty darn close, keep an eye out for upcoming runners, straddle the white line on the far right, come up on the side of the runner periodically to check on them so they could get water etc. and while doing all that - make sure I didn't run into any other vehicles or people! It is harder than you think - trying to maintain the steady speed of approx. 6 miles per hour with a runner on the side of you, making sure you keep pace and do not drift away or into them so they can hand water bottles in and out effortlessly - is truly a learned skill. Fortunately, I did AWESOME!! I didn't even run into any reflector poles on the side of the road. (Unfortunately, the driver before me did! She totally scratched the crap off the right side of the van!)

This is a video of Chris running. You can hear that stinking radio going off - can you imagine that for 7 hours in the van? All the support vehicles had the radios so they could communicate where runners where and when it was safe to pass, you know - in case your runner passed theirs. We had about a half hour of quiet - until we realized that Angie was sitting on it & that the batteries had died!

I know that I probably broke a handful of traffic laws to get that video - but I knew how much it would mean to all of you! Did I mention that I had 2 other cops in the car with me?? He, he...

And this picture was actually in the Deseret newspaper in Salt Lake!! He had just finished up his leg. Pictured from left to right: Police Chief Chris Burbank, my Chris and Steve Winters heading into his leg.

In case you were wondering...the team placed 10th in their division again. (The team picture will be posted once I get one.) The girls were spending the weekend with my parents and pretty much, besides the race...we barely left the hotel! We didn't even go anywhere on the strip. You know what? I was REALLY ok with that.