They're Off and Running~Dead to Red, 2009

It's that time of year again--time for the Dead to Red, the 10-man, 244K relay from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. This is Active Son and Artist Son's fifth Dead to Red (Artist Son first ran when he was just nine and received an honorary award for being the youngest runner) and it just seems to get more fun every year.

At the beginning of the week, Dead to Red Fever began to heat up; strategizing began in earnest, supplies were gathered and packed, and an official Dashing Dudes T-shirt was designed and produced:

By last night the Fever was really burning; Active Son was now entering the realm of hyper focus, on the race, and was losing focus on just about everything else. At 1pm this afternoon, the 10 Dashing Dudes and their drivers loaded into two vans and headed for the start-line, about 20K south of the Mujib Bridge. Beginning the race at 3:30pm this afternoon, the Dashing Dudes, along with 15 other teams will run through the night, hoping to reach Aqaba around 8am tomorrow morning.

Map of Jordan from Lonely Planet

Mr. Mag., this year's team captain, dedicated this year's run to Dear Husband who is missing his first Dead to Read race in five years due to -yawn-meetings abroad; DH entertained thoughts of playing hooky from his meetings but it couldn't be. This one's for you, DH. You've been a great coach and encouragement through the years and our boys couldn't have done it without you!

Update, 6:30pm: The Dudes are in fourth place with high hopes of catching the third place team, the student team from King's Academy, an upscale boarding school located outside of Amman. Active Son is encouraged by their pace--they are currently running one kilometer legs.

Update, 7:45pm: Active Son called to tell me that they are now in 3rd place! They overtook the King's Academy team on The Hill. King's put up one runner to take The Hill while Dashing Dudes took it by a few legs of sprints. The Dashing Dudes, however, are not resting on their laurels: Active son reports that the King's Team is strong, made up, he thinks, of members of their track and field and cross country teams. He's not sure if they'll be able to hold their lead, but it looks like the neck and neck competition will keep them running their fastest through the night. Go Dashing Dudes!

Update, 10:10pm: Another phone call from Active Son and he doesn't sound tired yet; I think he is energized by the fact that the Dashing Dudes are now in 2nd place! They passed the former 2nd place team a little bit ago and Active Son estimates they now have about a five minute lead on them. Dashing Dudes are averaging 3 min. 50 sec. kilometers now. In first place is the national team, as in really, really fast runners, so 2nd place is probably as good as it can get for the Dashing Dudes--and it is very good!

Update, 12:00am: This will be the last update before the finish because I'm going to bed! Dashing Dudes are still in 2nd place, now with an increased lead. They hope to finish in just seven more hours or so. Just. I'm predicting they'll set a Dashing Dudes record time this year. Makes me feel kind of guilty for going to bed.

Update, 8:00am: Active Son calls to report that the Dashing Dudes finished the race in rare form: not only did they maintain their 2nd place position, they pushed hard on first place team who finished only 22 minutes ahead of the Dashing Dudes and broke the race record. They said the Dashing Dudes were a little too close for comfort! There was lots of whooping and cheering going on in the backround of our phone call but I was able to get Dashing Dude's official time:
15 hours, 19 minutes, and 32 seconds.

Congratulations to all the Dashing Dudes!


Dashing Dudes Team, 2009