Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Polaroid Throwback
Kerry dug up some amazing vintage Google1 Polaroid pictures. These are from our 2007 running of Reach the Beach and the 2008 running of Ragnar Del Sol. The flexing pose throughout is known as the Tom Phillips, for the uninitiated. It's an homage to the greatest Google employee picture ever.
Thanks for following the blog!
As usual, we forgot to post results. 3rd overall (our previous best finish was 7th), 2nd in the mens corporate division (Bowerman AC all work at Nike...go figure). Look out for the HoodToCoast #ThroughGlass video that we're currently editing. And get pumped for the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in SF next week!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Back in cell range
Van 2 is midway through our last legs. Eddie and Andrew are finished and Ben Mears is midway through a tough but beautiful 7.8 miles. As you can tell from the pics, he's cruising.
Friday, August 23, 2013
A beautiful evening
The weather has been beautiful so far. Really perfect for running aside from a patch of late-day heat.
Great sunset from our way to Portland.
Once more into the breach, dear friends
Game time is almost here for van 2. We're currently at exchange 18, waiting for Matt and Jeff to finish. Ready to go after a quick stop at Sizzle Pie in Portland.
Knock on wood, but we haven't seen the levels of crazy van pileup delays as we did last year. Mist, OR will be the real test, but maybe the early start time worked...
Into the Night
Van 1 is in the middle of our second set of legs, leaving Portland. Uncorroborated reports are that we sit in 3rd (!) behind Bowerman AC and Portland alumni. A number of teams in the mixed division are running a tight race behind us.
Portland Traffic Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QhwOpqLJM
It's bad. Three almost-misses for Ben Liebald, Ben Carr and Angie Strange.
I think Kerry Murrill, driver extrodinaire, would have been proud of our "adaptive routing" and creative use of u-turns to get out of traffic.
About to hand it back to van 1 in Portland.
Be prepared
Hood to Coast is well-marked, with great volunteers at turns. Still, doesn't hurt to be prepared.
The waiting game
I think one of the hardest things about these relays is the waiting. Van 2 is currently in irons (as the sailors would say) at the exchange for leg 7. We should start in about an hour, but in the meantime, we can only hang out, stretch and not let nerves get to us. These races are fits of energy for a few hours followed by a slow burn of laying low and chatting with teammates & other teams (one just let us know that our blog address is 401'ed on the van--thanks Team Glory Days)
And we're off
Rob Landauer runs first, followed by John Ritter. Quite an introduction to Google relays.
Beautiful views over the Cascades today
The forest fires north of us haven't impacted the south of Mt. Hood.
Not every team takes this as seriously as us
Costume ideas for next year. Glass has been a big hit with the other teams at the start.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Running + Art
Google1 alumna Gretchen Andrus (follow her here) just uploaded a great video on running and her art. Nice work, Gretch!
Possibilities
On the eve of the race, race sponsor Nike does an awesome YouTube homepage masthead. Great video if folks are looking to get pumped for tomorrow--I hope there are some movie actors out there.
Hood to Coast 2013: T-minus 20 hours
We'll start at 1:30pm this year, so it'll be an early flight up to Oregon. Follow the blog for updates, and also follow the team on Google+. That way, you'll get to see Hood to Coast #ThroughGlass.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Lost in Transmission
Apologies to all Google1 faithful out there for the lack of blog updates at the close of last race. We know there are real faces behind those spikes in traffic typically associated with relay season. We'll try our best to keep you all well informed going forward.
When we last left our team, Google1 was sitting back in second at the Golden Gate Relay with 6 legs remaining. Defending champions DSE held a 9-minute lead. They had earlier suffered an injury that forced their runners into an unfamiliar rotation. Within striking distance, it could come down to the wire. The team took chase.
One minute, two, another three. The gap narrowed.
Victory looked plausible. Possible even. After a night of twists and turns, anything could happen. Stymied the last two years, we wanted this more than ever. Our adversaries were coming up upon the end of their rotation, but we would still be running on relatively fresher legs. We could capitalize.
Then, what's this? Another injury. Damnation! Chance strikes again. Their rotation would take an additional turn, this time to their advantage. Hopes dashed. Spirits dwindled. Would this be how it was to end?
Finish strong. We put up a fight, let's push through to the end. And so we did.
As we drove to the finish, the course was left unmarked. Unfamiliar scenes came into view at the new finish in Santa Cruz. We looked for parking, but something was odd. We hadn't seen their runner... and neither had they.
Uncertainty sets in. What happened? Our anchor arrives, realization sets. They missed the turn. We won. DSE is upset, and rightfully so. This race was theirs to lose.
A fortunate win? Yes. But not unearned. Next year will be fun. But for now, on to Hood to Coast.
When we last left our team, Google1 was sitting back in second at the Golden Gate Relay with 6 legs remaining. Defending champions DSE held a 9-minute lead. They had earlier suffered an injury that forced their runners into an unfamiliar rotation. Within striking distance, it could come down to the wire. The team took chase.
One minute, two, another three. The gap narrowed.
Victory looked plausible. Possible even. After a night of twists and turns, anything could happen. Stymied the last two years, we wanted this more than ever. Our adversaries were coming up upon the end of their rotation, but we would still be running on relatively fresher legs. We could capitalize.
Then, what's this? Another injury. Damnation! Chance strikes again. Their rotation would take an additional turn, this time to their advantage. Hopes dashed. Spirits dwindled. Would this be how it was to end?
Finish strong. We put up a fight, let's push through to the end. And so we did.
As we drove to the finish, the course was left unmarked. Unfamiliar scenes came into view at the new finish in Santa Cruz. We looked for parking, but something was odd. We hadn't seen their runner... and neither had they.
Uncertainty sets in. What happened? Our anchor arrives, realization sets. They missed the turn. We won. DSE is upset, and rightfully so. This race was theirs to lose.
A fortunate win? Yes. But not unearned. Next year will be fun. But for now, on to Hood to Coast.
 |
| Victory at Sea |
Close race. Getting supplies in Santa Cruz while we wait for teammates
With 6 legs to go, DSE, Google, and Stanford were within about 15 minutes, in that order. Now our teammates are descending from Skyline to Santa Cruz We're getting beer for the finish. Almost done! Haven't slept a wink. Too exciting!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
12 down. 24 to go.
The sun has set and we have climbed out of the heat of Napa Valley toward the chill of midnight San Francisco. Much attention to the pace chart has yielded some excelllent time projections and we are within 2mins of predicted pace after 6 hours of running. However we are 7mins down on DSE and 1.5mins on Stanford.
Much attention to the van rental company has not yieleded good resilts. They arrived with a 7 seater van hoping it would be an adquate standin for the expected 15 seater. We got cosy with the promise that a larger van would be delivered later. We shared Android phones to call the company and used many a burner number to get our calls answered as it appeard that the companies outgoing phone system prevented them making any return calls or answering any calls orriginating from a previously used number. Regardless, we sourced a second van! With enough seats! We were happy! And Cosy. But in the end the van vacated - we have ended up just cosy - and looking forward to some free van rentals.
So all 12 people on the team have put in some work. Solid performances all around and the race has settled down a little. However, things can go bump in the night - so stay turned for some early morning updates.
Heat is over
Van 1finished the first six legs and handed off to van 2. Cooled down by 20 degrees in the last few hours. Phew!
Friday, May 3, 2013
The Hay is in The Barn
One day out from The Relay in Calistoga and the team is rearing to go. Every year, it's important to remember that whatever training has been done or not done, there's no time to change it now -- all that remains is the race. The hay is in the barn as they say.
This year has all the makings of a barn burner -- temperatures forecast upwards of 90 degrees for our Saturday start and a few scores to be settled after being dethroned in 2011 and 2012.
Some new faces join a veteran roster and we'd like to welcome first timers Li Moore, Arjunan Rajeswaran and Woods Buckley to the team!
Stay tuned to the blog on Saturday and Sunday for updates, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/google1relay
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