Day 1 (3 hours 34 minutes)

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Texas time and had trouble getting back to sleep. A packed runner bus took off from the Horizon casino at 6:15. Leticia and I, along with a caravan of other vehicles followed the bus to the staring line 13 miles away. It was dark, but not dark enough that I couldn't see how hilly the course was. I hadn't counted on it being quite this challenging. I took Meredith's advice and ate a pack of carbo beans and drank a carbohydrate drink on the drive up. The weather was cool (44 degrees) and sunny but there was no wind.

I was surprised at how tough all the other runners looked. It was a far cry from the typical marathon bunch. A shotgun blast got the race started and we all dashed down a hill that was much too steep for my tastes. As a result, runners were passing me left and right. I remembered that I'd said I'd walk down steep hills, but since we were only two minutes into the race, I decided to shuffle instead. After a mile or so, I settled in with two Mormon college guys from BYU. Adam and Daniel were running their first marathon which absolutely shocked me until I found out that they were only running one, not all three races. They were extremely polite and oddly enough, were tossing out hip-hop lyrics regularly as we ran along. I'd lose them briefly when I'd spot Leticia and then catch up and then lose them again when I walked up the steeper hills. They drank little and ate nothing. I, on the other hand, got a series of hand-offs from Leticia, and managed to take in plenty of carbs and electrolytes. We counted three support tables offering cups of water. That's it.

After coming off the mountain, we were in the midst of the South Tahoe business district. The course was not coned off and we had to stop at red lights. We ran through parking lots, dodged dog walkers and jumped curbs. At the halfway point, our time was roughly 1:39:30. Too fast. We'd already caught a handful of other runners. I kept waiting for the serious runners to pass us, but not a one did.

After we left the business district, the roads got scary. We were on a narrow highway, with car and 18-wheelers flying by at 70 miles an hour. We ran into traffic, and there was lots of it. A massive road rally in Reno added thousands of motorcycles to the mix. At times, there was no more than 12 inches of road to run on.

Adam and I lost Daniel at about 18 miles. I lost Adam at 23. The last three miles were almost entirely uphill. At one point, a boat on a trailer swung wide across the white line. Four times, I had to stop and press myself sideways against the highway guard rail as large trucks flew by. Amazing. There were no spectators expect for the support crews, but I had a dozen people scream at me from the highway called me a "fucking idiot", a "fucking dumb ass" and a "dumb fuck". Nice. More than one diver told me to "get the fuck off the road". It was clearly not apparent that there was a race going on. I just looked like a complete idiot running on a busy highway.

The temp had climbed to 70 degrees, but I was too focused on the cars and trucks to notice. I tried to look into every eye to make sure they saw me. The altitude made my legs feel very heavy. The Garmin finally said 25 miles (the course was not marked). I overran the turn-off by about 100 yards. I was already pissed. This didn't help. I finished, had my time recorded and we drove back without eating or drinking; just left. The last three miles took me 32 minutes. Adam was about 20 minutes behind. He must have walked in after we split up.

As we were driving back into South Tahoe, Leticia spotted a young guy who looked like he was about to fall over. It was Daniel. We turned around and offered him some Powerade. Although he'd turned it down several times along the way, he drank all we had left, turned and gravely trudged up the hill.

Despite a crappy time, I finished Day one in fourth place. There was a super-fast guy who showed up specifically to set the three-day record. He was shooting for 2:45, but walked up the hill and finished in around 3:00. Supposedly, he doesn't expect to run tomorrow. One other guy who finished ahead of me hurt his heel. After soaking twice in the 55 degree lake, I feel okay. Not good, but okay.

Tomorrow, the route is supposed to be much safer and much easier (although their idea of easy may differ from my idea of easy). I won't run this thing again, and wouldn't recommend it, but I'm looking forward to getting day two behind me.