iPhone charger needed!

Does anyone have the kind that plugs into the lighter? Guess these vans don't have a USB port...! There are 2 lighters in each van so we could use a couple per van...

If not, I'll go buy one - my phone won't even last one day! It is dying as I typ.... :-)

Come and Take It! (a.k.a., What to Pack and Some Other Things)

Hi everyone – we had a great meeting Monday night with most of the team present.  For those that couldn’t make it, this blog post will catch you up!

First, Jenifer passed out the team shirts – which are VERY bright, by the way! We may not need a headlamp and reflective vest after all…. They may be asking us to turn down the volume on our shirts, as we are scaring the wild dogs and feral pigs!  (Just kidding... we still need one...)

(Thank you, Cindy Featherston for this awesome photo collage!)

Hanh and Rosie, Jenifer has your shirts, so just coordinate with her if you want to pick them up (or you can get them Friday night).

Now, on to the schedule and details for the weekend:

Friday Plans

We agreed that we would leave at 5:30 pm on Friday evening – we will meet at St. Theresa Catholic School, and you can leave your cars in the parking lot for the weekend. We will go straight to our weekend house in Flatonia (which is on the way to Gonzales), drop off our stuff, and anyone that wants to go on to Gonzales for the TIR party can do that – if you prefer, you can just hang out at the house. The good news is that we do not have an early start Saturday morning, so we can sleep in! Simon apparently is planning to consume plenty of beer Friday night, so we now know we need to watch him…

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday morning start time is 10:04 am. We can either pick up packets Friday night if we decide to go to Gonzales, or we can also just get them before our start time. So we’ll coordinate what time we need to leave the house Saturday morning, but we’ll all be together, so that will be easy.

We will obviously be spending lots of time in the vans over these 48 hours! You pretty much know the schedule – run your leg, get in the van, hang out (and for Simon, consume some beer). Melissa is really looking forward to her midnight run through the woods….. Looking for volunteers to accompany her for that one! And seriously, for any night-time legs, we should consider having a companion running with the leg runner. But we can work all that out in the vans.

Cindy has sent out all the leg information, with estimated times, so be sure to study it - especially if you have fans that want to come watch you along the way, so you can tell them where to be!

Packing

I previously posted the packing list from the TIR website, but we have come up with a few other things you might want to bring. I have noted below what you need to bring as an individual, vs. what we can share as a group (and in fact, already have enough for the team). So just focus on your individual packing list (unless you are bringing something for the team, in which case your name is next to it).

INDIVIDUAL ITEMS

Clothing:

· Running shorts/tops (including extras, if you want to change out of funky clothes)
· TIR team shirt
· Running shoes, and socks (including extras)
· Rain jacket (just in case...)
· Clothes for lounging/sleeping
· Shoes for lounging (so you can get out of your running shoes)
· Er… um…. Undergarments… (definitely bring EXTRAS!) J

Personal care:
· Travel size sundries (shower supplies, toothbrush, etc.) – we will hopefully be able to shower at the school gym in Wallis for $5
· Towels
· Baby wipes (or as the website states, “a creative washing method….”)
· Sun screen — spray on

Race gear:
· Headlamp/flashlight (we can share these, but if you have one, bring it)
· Mace (to repel the dogs and feral pigs!) (For those that weren’t there last night, we got off on a tangent about feral pigs – but I am not sure they will chase you – I think they are afraid of people!)
· Reflective vest (we already have several, so if you don’t already have one, we can all share – they are one size fits all)
· Watch/Garmin if you want…
· Sunglasses
· Cap/visor
· Phone

Lounging:

· Mat/sleeping bag/blanket
· Pillow

Food/drinks – bring whatever you want – we can go grab food for meals if you don’t want to bring actual food – we will be going through several small towns with small-town choices (i.e., local restaurants, and my favorite…. Dairy Queen!!)
· Water/Sports drinks/(beer?)
· Breakfast food for Saturday pre-race, and Sunday mid-race
· Snacks/energy bars/whatever you eat during the day

GROUP ITEMS
· Cell phone charger for iPhone (Caroline and Jenifer to bring) (if you don’t have an iPhone, bring your charger!)
· 2 coolers per van (one for food, and one for beverages) (Caroline, Jenifer and Paul to provide)
· Flip chart size of van 2 running legs, estimated hand-off times, etc. I have one for van 1 as well. (Jenifer)
·  Zero Odor/Febreze (Jenifer and Caroline)
· Flashlights (Caroline, Jenifer, anyone else that has one – we’ll have plenty!)
· Trash bags (Caroline will bring enough for both vans)
· Texas State Map for each van (Caroline and Jenifer)
· Driver directions (Cindy/Amy to print out and bring on Friday)
· First aid kit (Melissa and Kevin) (Kevin, I think you said you had one…?)
· Toilet paper (Caroline will bring enough for both vans)
· Tarp for the seats of the van, if we need to sit on the ground, etc. (Caroline and Kevin)

Updated Leg Info

Hi everyone - only a few more days until our big event!  This week, I received an email with our official start time - 10:04 am.

Jenifer has updated the leg info using our start time, with estimated handoff times at each exchange.  We'll have a copy of this in each van, and we'll track our actuals, so we always have the latest estimates on handoff times - this will make it much easier for the vans to pick up and drop off the runners at the right times.

I am also attaching a link to the leg descriptions - I will print these off, cut them up, and put in sweat-proof ziplocs for each runner to take with them on their legs, but if you want to check them out now, here they are!

http://www.lonestarrelays.com/TIRTESTSITE/InteractiveMap/Interactive%20Map%20Files/2013_TIR_Leg_Descriptions.pdf

Here is some info on course markers:

The types of markers you will see are:
1) Cones
2) Signs (on the dirt roads)
3) Chalked arrows (blue dot, red dot, and white arrow) – these are from Leg 1 to the first half of Leg 25 (excluding the dirt roads)
4) Blue and Red stickers (sometimes with stick flags in the parks) – the stickers are from mid-Leg 25 to Exchange 34 at MacGregor Park.
This is what they look like...



Looking forward to this weekend - hope we have nice weather like we're having today!!

Team Song!

I know the suspense is killing you, because clearly you are all highly interested in our team song!  :-)

After receiving only 4 votes, the poll is officially closed.  The winner ..... drum roll please..... is......

We Can't Get the Hell Out of Texas by George Jones

Confirming Team Meeting - Monday, Mar 18 6 PM

(Adding directions:  See below....)

It's a go!

Hello HART team,

We are confirmed for Monday night at 6 PM at St. Theresa School (Music Room). This is the same location that we met last time, before we had the full team.

Caroline, can you add directions to the facility for those who were not there last time. Your directions were helpful and I cannot find them!

We might congregate at the door, as we have to let in. If anyone arrives late and we've gone in, call or text me at 713-560-7780 and we'll come to get you.

Dana, if you are available we can call you and put you on speaker from my phone.

Melissa, thanks for you hosting!

Thanks, everyone.

Jenifer

Directions to St. Theresa School:

From I-10, exit Westcott/Washington and go south - turn right on Durford, and right on Rodrigo, and the school building is at the end of the street on your left.

From Memorial, go north on Westcott, go through the roundabout and stay straight, turn left on Durford, right on Rodrigo - school building is still at the end of the street on your left.

See y'all Monday!

Team Meeting

Hi everyone,

It looks like we will meet on Monday evening, around 6 PM at St. Theresa School (to be officially confirmed) but please hold that day and time, if possible.

We will go through all the logistics, make final team decisions, etc.

Agenda to include:

• Van departure time on Friday
• equipment / stuff to bring
• food options
• lodging for Saturday night
• How the two vans will stay connected on schedule
• T-shirt distribution (I pick them up on Monday)
• Timing our legs
• leg/route descriptions -- distribution of (possibly laminated) cards with your legs. We might need to make that a individual task
• AOB

Please bring copies of your DL with you, please.

We should probably decide on our post event celebration!

I'll confirm if this a go. Kevin and Caroline will be back in town, so hopefully we'll get the majority of us there.

Jenifer

HART Team Meeting & General Update

Hi everyone,

I am working with Melissa on scheduling a team meeting this week, or possibly the week before the event. We are hoping to have the meeting at St. Theresa's school which is very close to Memorial Park. We are thinking a 6 PM meeting so that we can catch people on their way home from work. However, we can be flexible. Dana, we'll put you on speaker phone!

I will need copies of everyone's driver's licenses at the meeting. More to follow shortly on that.

In general, things are coming together. Briefly:

• I am assuming the leg assignments and van grouping is OK with everyone, as I have not heard any dissent. Please review if you have not done so already to make sure. We can move things around.
• The shirts should arrive at my house Monday. I will take them to the screen printer on Tuesday. It takes a week to print so I might distribute on the Friday night before the event. But, I can make arrangements with those of you who might want them earlier.
• Van 2 team members (Melissa, Dana, Paul, Kevin and me (Jenifer)):  I bought some "dog repellent" today and I think we can share it -- so no need to get any on your own. 
• Van 2 team members -- The driver I arranged may not be able to join us. If any of you have any friends that want to tag along and help drive that would be great. If we have to drive ourselves, it's not the end of the world.
• I am working on getting signs printed for our vans. I am not quite sure how we attach them to the vans. I think it might be difficult to identify our vans from all the others without signage. Other ideas on that are welcome!
• Caroline and I will pick up the vans and Friday late afternoon. Our current thinking is that we all meet at St. Theresa and van pool from there, if possible. We do not have unlimited mileage on the vans and we will be over the limit just getting to Gonzalez and back, so the less off the path driving the better. Cars can be left safely at the school for the weekend. 
• Remember to vote for the song on our blog! 

Leg Assignment - Please review

Hi Everyone,

I changed things up a bit based on "who knows who" information I received. I believe this arrangement balances out the men/women as well as ensure that everyone is in a van with someone they know, which should make it better.

Anyone is free to switch with others. Just let me know because it may change the estimated hand-off times.

I used the 10K pace you entered into your registration unless you sent me information separately, which some of you did.

If you want this via email, please send me an email at jenkihm@yahoo.com.

Jenifer

(Hopefully you can all see the file now...)