Race Day--"I want a mug!"

The day of the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay has finally arrived. The motor home support group has strung themselves out across the desert in anticipation of the runners. Coming out on Friday evening was a good idea. Not only did we get to sleep later but we were already parked and had our RV's set up before the rest of the volunteers, participants and spectators arrived. Once we started setting up the Stage Two area things got busy in a hurry. In addition to the three RV's from the motor home support group we had a fourth that belonged to a member of the Ham Operators Group. The Ham's set up so there was communication between the stages and the folks working the race. One ham would go out one mile in front of the stage to radio in when a runner was a mile out. That way the people at the stage could have the next runner in place and ready to go. Part of the preparation was setting up the "chute". This was an area three feet wide and eight feet long that the runner had to enter, swipe his baton (which had a micro chip in it) across an electronic pad on a table and then hand the baton to the next runner. This picture shows a baton hand off in the chute during the race.

In addition to pride of winning the team with the best time in each flight is given a mug. That's right, no trophies or plaques for this officer's. They get a mug. The mugs are made of glass and are unique to each year's race. They are very coveted by all participants. A few of the mugs are given out to individuals who have gone beyond their normal duties. I was fortunate to be presented a mug for my volunteer work on Friday morning of helping to sort out and distribute all the equipment. Don Leith has received a mug each of the 17 years he has volunteered to work the race, although he did lose some of them when the tornado hit their house last year.

We also received other goodies for helping with the race. Each of the Motor Home Support Group was issued a t-shirt, a long sleeve denim shirt and a cap, all with the XXV anniversary logo on them. In addition to these official shirts most of the running teams had their own team shirts with their unique insignias. One young man, who was running in one of the later flights, had arrived very early to Stage Two. He spent a great deal of his time hanging out with us at the coach. He said his team had elected to have long sleeved t-shirts this year and he did not care for the long sleeves. He gave his shirt to Joanne. As it turned out he was from the "Stars Team" made up of members from the Los Angeles Police Academy and one of the fastest teams in the race. Not to be outdone, I got a badge. One young man approached me to see if I had a portable air compressor because he teams mini-van had a low tire. I no longer carry the portable compressor since this coach has air bag suspension and air brakes and has it's own on board air compressor. I had him pull his van over to the front of the coach and was able to get him aired up. Turned out this was a team form the U. S. Marshal Service. For my help he gave me a Junior U. S. Marshal badge. It is on the side of my cap in the picture.

Our assignment for the day was to support the motorcycle safety patrol group. Our assigned motorcycle riders were working the area between Stage Two and Stage Six at Shosone. Around 9:00 am eight beautiful Honda Gold Wing bikes came rolling in. They turned out to be a great group of guys, mostly retirees who took their job of safety patrol very seriously. Their job was to make sure all the runners and their support teams were obeying the safety rules along the highway. They could write penalty tickets, called "greenies" since they were on green paper, that could definitely hurt a teams final time. This was definitely a case of civilians giving tickets to cops. The guys would normally go out of their way to keep from having to issue a greenie and would give the offender verbal warnings first.

The first flight left the starting line at 9:00 am and the first runner made it to Stage Two about 9:45 am. There were nine flights, each starting at one hour intervals. The picture to the left is of the first runner arriving at Stage Two. With 247 teams running we pretty much had runners coming in all day. We had several stations set up to assist the runners. The Ham Operator set up his RV directly behind the chute and kept track of communications and the arrival times. Next to them was the medical tent where the EMT's had to administer aid to several of the runners during the day. Nearby were two ambulances that had to be used to transport some of the runners to Stage Three where medical helicopters were waiting. Next to the medical tent was the two RV's belonging to RV Support Group (Don & Vicki and Steve & Vicky). They checked in the runners and issued them their numbered bibs they pinned to the front and back of their running shirt. Next was our location to support the motorcycle safety patrol. All around us were the cars, vans and other vehicles that brought the runners and their spectators to our location. At any given time we would have 50 to 100 vehicles there. Also, we usually had around 200 people around, either working or watching the race.

Our last runner for Stage Two arrived around 5:30 pm. Once this runner was through the chute and his team mate moved out we were through for the day. By 6:30 we had everything broken down and ready to load on the truck as it came behind the runners. By 7:00 almost everyone had pulled out leaving the three RV Support Group's coaches plus the coach owned by the Ham Operator. The Ham moved his coach away from us so he could run his generator late while his family enjoyed some movies on their TV. Joanne and I, Don, Steve and the two Vicki/Vicky's sat down to relax. Don got out his grill and cooked hamburgers and we had a leisurely dinner before turning in and to watch the sunset on Stage Two of the XXV anniversary of the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay.