I recently organized a team for the 2010 Wild West Relay consisting of coworkers from Handel and a 
group of Laramie High School cross-country runners. This is the third relay team that I have organized and the second time that we have run the Wild West Relay—the other was in 2008. The Wild West Relay is a 200-mile road race from Fort Collins, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO that is run by teams of usually 6 or 12 runners. On an interesting side note, this year saw 2 runners attempt the race solo and one of them was able to finish the 200 miles (only the second solo racer to ever complete the Wild West Relay).
While every time I have been involved in one of these relays it has been a fun challenge, this year presented some additional challenges. One issue was the ability to recruit and keep team members. This year we had fewer runners available from Handel and less interest from our running friends. Luckily, through a coworker’s daughter I was able to connect with the Laramie High School Cross Country Team to recruit runners for the relay. Even with heavy outside recruitment, one of our team members (on the day before the race) decided not to participate in the run and left us with a team of 11 runners instead of 12. This presented a serious problem, as each runner on a 12-member team is responsible for 3 runs. The last-minute defection meant that we had runs of 4.7, 7.8 and 5.3 miles without a runner. To compensate and ensure that we could still field a valid team, three of us decided to bite the bullet and take on an additional run each.
The race itself presented some individual challenges as well. The high school runners did an outstanding job; although we did have one collapse at the end of one of his sections, a very tough eight-and-one-half-mile run that starts with a five-mile climb to almost 10,000 feet. He recovered with some rest, Gatorade and a can of chicken noodle soup (great for quick carbohydrates and sodium). Taking on an extra leg at the last minute left me running on empty for my last run, and I heard the same from the other two people who ran an extra leg.
Despite the obstacles, we “handled” our relay and finished in a respectable time of 30 hours 42 minutes, which equates to an average pace of 9:16 per mile. Our team was 9th out of 32 teams in our category and 47th out of around 120 teams overall. Despite the challenges leading up to and during the race itself, we persevered—individually and as a team. I know I spent more time training physically and preparing myself for previous relays, and I know that some of the other runners would echo the same sentiment, so “heart” was what really got us through this year.
This experience has once more reminded me of the “heart” of not just the Handel relay team members, but of the whole company. Our RiteTrack software is a wonderful tool to help agencies overcome obstacles and challenges in managing their employees, work environment, data, services, customers, etc.; and our Handel team is full of heart and effort which we continually apply to all of our customers and their challenges.