Two Days, Three Countries... on Foot!

This past weekend was the event that I've been training for since February - the RoPa Run, a relay race that is 530K from Paris, France to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was a great weekend consisting of many miles run, many calories consumed, and many new friends made. Nike sponsored two teams, Courage and Lowlands Express. Being a sports company, let's just say there was a little friendly competition involved. ;)

Here's how it went:

We all met at the Nike campus at 7:30am, packed up the vans we'd be living out of for the next two days with clothes, and packed up the campers we'd be eating out of for the next two days with food. I was amazed at how this works, because it was so different than the other relays that I have run. Each team actually had a CAMPER with a catering staff to make hot meals for us during our breaks. Each team also had two masseurs that rode in the campers to massage our poor muscles... it was fantastic! :)


The start of the race - go Lowlands Express!

We got to Paris (which wasn't exactly Paris... the Eiffel Tower was no where in sight - I'm pretty sure we were somewhere on the backside of Charles de Gaulle Airport... but I guess it is technically Paris), and our team started the race at 5:00 pm. This is the cadence of how things worked: Van #1 (which I was in), sends out their bikers and Runner #1. Biker #1 rides in front of the runner and reads a map, while Biker #2 stays behind the runner for protection. Runner #1 runs about 2K (or more or less depending on how the runner is feeling, the weather, bathroom necessity, etc...hehe). When Runner #1 is done, he/she tags Runner #2 and jumps back into the van. This process gets repeated for Runners #3 & 4, and keeps on going until the checkpoint with Van #2, which was usually between 3 or 4 hours. Once we got done with our first set of legs, a hot meal was waiting for us, along with a massage, and about 1 or 2 hours of sleep. My highlight of the first leg was a part of the race where the van couldn't access the runners. So, what we had to do was have 3 runners go out, and two would ride bikes while the other would run. We did this for about an hour. It went through the French countryside, which was just beautiful with lots of wheat fields and old French farms made of the traditional greyish brown brick. It felt so relaxing... the running came easy.


Beautiful church in the French countryside


Running through the French Countryside

After our break, it was about 1:00 am and time to start again... most people would think running at this hour is awful, but it was again just so peaceful. The stars were so vivid in the sky, and it was fun to pick out constellations with the bikers to pass the time. This leg again went by very quickly, and we got to rest again.

To be honest, I was getting pretty mentally exhausted, so I don't really remember the 3rd leg, except that it was hot! I did get a pretty nice tan last weekend... :)

The 4th leg again went through the night, and it was so fun... we were running through towns in Belgium, and each town had a huge party to celebrate the RoPa teams. It was great! :) The only problem was that people were getting really drunk and wandering through the narrow streets, so it was kind of dangerous for our driver. This was the leg where our team finally passed Courage, which was kind of fun. We had to keep trying to maintain our lead, because we had runners of all abilities in both vans. We ended up neck and neck at the end, and ended up saying "screw it"... all of the runners got out of both vans and we all ran into the checkpoint together as one big team. It was a powerful moment...


A bit of entertainment in a small Belgian town - everyone was Dutch for the day!

After we all ran in, I had the best 5 minutes of the whole race... a shower! Oh, did I forget to mention that we didn't have a shower in all of this run? Oh yes, we were all smelling oh-so-sweet by this point. It was great to feel clean, and then get another hour or two of sleep.

The 5th leg was a challenge... the whole leg had no van access, so we got two bikes from our Van #2, and then had 5 runners in the course the whole time - 4 biking, and one running. We alternated as much as we needed to, which was often by this point. We ran through the Dutch town this time, and it was amazing - they were up at 5am to cheer us on. I have to say, a tear came to my eye more than once (I know, I know... sappy dork, but, proud of it!). I've just never experienced such great community support in any race. One town even had dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz, and made us a yellow brick road to run over - it was so fun! :) It felt so good to get to the last checkpoint and hand over to Van #2 so they could bring us home to Rotterdam!

We finished all together in Rotterdam. I have no idea how many hours it took, and I really don't even care to be honest... for me, it wasn't about the time... it was about the physical and mental ability to do something like this. We had a great team, and that was made it possible and pleasant. I will definitely do this event again! :)

Crossing the finish line with the whole team - caterers, runners, drivers - everyone who made this event a success. It was such an emotional moment for all of us.

Nike Lowlands Express Van #1:

L-R: KP, Belinda (biker, S. Africa), Roman (biker, Kazakhstan), Arnold (driver, Netherlands), Lan-Lan (runner, Netherlands), Karen (runner, England), Claudia (coach - Belgium), Anthony (runner, Netherlands), Eduardo (runner, Italy)

Thank you, Nike!

PS - I woke up this morning after running the equivalent of a marathon and a half with NO PAIN in my legs. There is something to be said for having masseurs in your group... wow!