The general rule of thumb in marathon recovery is to take 26 days (one for each mile you raced) before jumping into any hard workouts or races. Well, I took six days (raced a 5K on Sunday) and I'm prepping to race again this weekend. As my friends put it, they have never had to question my sanity - they have always known that I'm crazy.

This weekend's event is called The Relay and it is a 200-mile, 24-hour journey from the California wine country to a point on the beach just north of Santa Cruz to benefit Organs 'R' Us. The journey is shared amongst a team of 12 runners, each of which runs three unequal legs totaling between 13-20 miles. The team is split up into two vans of six people each, so Runners #1-6 complete their legs in succession before Van #2 does the same thing for Legs #7-12 (and then Van #1 takes over again). There are quite a few similar relays around the world, the biggest of which are beenhakker's Roparun from Rotterdam to Paris and Nike's Hood to Coast relay in Oregon (12,000 runners).

I have done one relay in the past (the Lake Tahoe Relay last June) and the concept is a lot of fun. The team mentality and the duration of the race can be a sweet and sour mix. It's a great feeling to have a team supporting you out there, but that joy is neutralized by the odor of the inside of the van and the feeling of getting out and running in the cold rain just hours after you completed your previous leg. Of course, sleep deprivation, running in the middle of the night and shortages of food/hydration can lead to a whole lot of crankiness by the time the finish line is in sight.

This year, my race club decided to field four teams (48 people in total) and to pit two of the groups in a competition against each other. Thus, I'll be racing for the runners team (dubbed "Real Runners Don't Tri") while we compete against a team of triathletes (named "Tri It You'll Like It"). It's not exactly an exemplary matchup, since many of the triathletes are run specialists and one of the runners is a good triathlete. However, we'll be overlooking those kinds of details once the gun is fired.

The competition certainly takes a back seat to the purpose for the event, raising awareness and dollars for organ donation programs for children. Organs 'R' Us has already raised $25 million for this cause, and we are happy to focus our support for Katie Grace Groebner, a local 5-year old who is on the organ donation list. We decided to dedicate our efforts to her, and we each made contributions to Organs 'R' Us which were matched by Chevron Corporation. If you would like to make an additional contribution, please visit our donation web page. It's easier and more sane than the method of support that we have chosen.