Scheduled for April, this race will see 12,000 human participants and bipedal robots from over 20 companies compete across a 13-mile course in Beijing's Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as E-Town. Competing robots must have a humanoid appearance and mechanical structure capable of bipedal walking or running movements. Eligible robots must range in size from 1.5 and 6.5 feet.

This futuristic race marks the first official competition where humans and robots go head-to-head. Yet, it isn't China's first brush with integrating humanoid robotics into sports. In a trial run last fall a bipedal robot named Tiangong participated in the Beijing Yizhuang half-marathon. Though it covered only 100 meters, the robot received a medal for completing the event. Tiangong is gearing up for a full-fledged run at this upcoming event, with an anticipated speed of up to 6.2 miles per hour.

If you are looking for more races, this is a great time of the year to find one in your area. There is a good website called Running in the USA with a long list of events, complete with links to websites and registrations. I count 241 run/walk events in Wisconsin just in May and June advertised there.

Also if you are a PaceSetters member and have signed in at our PaceSetters website, you will see the races that you can receive registration discounts for because you are a member. Just checkout out our Discounts page.

The Iceberg Runners, a group of PaceSetters runners with the motto "Old, Cold and Slow," approached me several weeks ago about joining their team at Runaway to the Bay, a 55 mile relay event from Oshkosh to Green Bay held in early April. I accepted the invitation. As a first timer I thought this might be a good opportunity to record our observations and see if we ended up with enough good material for a future newsletter. We felt like we did. So here is how it went.

It seemed that our team was well prepared for this event. My teammates were all veterans of this run. This was a relay run with no designated exchange stations, meaning all exchange points could happen at any location and mileage along the route. We were each asked questions and then meetings happened to determine our mileages, order, and start/stop handoff points. Our plan was ready to go six days prior to the event. This was assuring for a rookie participant like myself. Some members of other teams said their team had no clear plan the day prior and knew that even if they did, things would get changed anyways on race day. Whether a team wanted a detailed plan or would just figure things out as the day unfolded was a nice option that fit the personality of each team well.

It was an early alarm clock for us, about 4:00 am, with a 5:30 am Appleton meeting point. The temps were chilly, near freezing, with a light frost in some spots, including Joe's car windows. What a surprise to see our team vehicle artistically decorated by Bucket's wife! Nice to know we would be moving along the course in style, surely in contention for best decorated vehicle, a 5-person truck that all 6 of us would squeeze into. Already, some early team camaraderie. We were in the first wave, with our lead runner starting at 6:30. We traveled along with a glorious full moon hanging low in the western sky, reaching Oshkosh shortly after 6:00 am. The winds were nearly calm with clear skies; Lake Winnebago looked like glass as the sun started to rise above it. A pair of us were somehow recognized in the swarm of people by a spouse of a mutual friend, who had taken a picture of us a day earlier and sent it to her knowing both of our teams were starting in the first wave. How did she do that?

There was excitement in the air. Some runners (on other teams) started their party early imbibing in Mimosas that were offered near the start area. After the national anthem, our lead runner, Chuck, was unofficially 3rd across the start line as things began. We cheered him out, then travelled just past our first exchange point, to the Vinland Still & Grill. With an empty parking lot at this point, Bucket took the first quick porta potty break, and came out exclaiming that it was a "10," pristine and dry with a delightful scent. Mike was next to try it, but discovered his teammate Joe was a peeker when Joe pulled open the door while still in use. Who would think it was necessary to lock the door? He was quickly tagged with the "Creeper Joe" nickname. One common bond we all had was a love of music, and Bucket had come with a nice assortment of CD's, from Steve Miller to XTC to Boston, plus some random songs even he could not identify. We asked Siri and learned we were listening to "Strength" by The Alarm, a powerful song to help lift us all up.

The lot was filling up with other team vehicles. It was fun seeing how many were decorated, or still getting decorated. Many smiles and laughter for this early in the morning. We quipped about a vehicle we would continue to see throughout the day with a shark tied to the roof, wondering why they were not playing the Theme from Jaws. As we pulled away from a now half full lot to get to our first exchange point, we heard exclamations shouted out at our vehicle. Wow, everyone really seemed to love our decorated truck, and we waved back beaming at them! How embarrassing to discover they were actually just trying to inform us that we were driving away with our rear tailgate still open, with some of our gear teetering on the edge. We were able to stop in time before losing things, but while laughing at ourselves for being so foolish.

Chuck had completed 7.5 miles, our longest planned leg, even more impressive considering he is 77 years old! Although the temp had only climbed to 37, the sun was shining brightly, reflecting off Lake Winnebago, beginning to provide some welcome warmth. Mike wasn't eager to strip down to his shorts any too soon for that 2nd leg but would soon be glad he did. Mike was asked to run until he ended up at the ER, another way of saying his leg would be completed at Theda Clark Hospital, hopefully while still standing.

Our team vehicle continued towards that next exchange point, making a few back and forth turns to give Mike some well appreciated extra cheers. Then this question was asked in the vehicle, "When was the last time you actually ran?" That's not a question you want to hear on race day regarding your teammate. It was there at the hospital that our 3rd runner, Gary, was caught with his pants up. The team had become occupied with a conversation with a hospital employee about the illustrious history of the Iceberg Runners, then posed for their usual pictures in front of the hospital emergency sign. So when Mike arrived Gary was not yet in sight and then still needed to shed his pants and get himself ready to go. One of a couple exchanges that didn't go quite as planned.

Things were busy both at Smith Park on Doty Island and Barker Farms Park, landmarks that many teams elected to use as exchange points. A generous bag of delicious homemade cookies were passed on by Bucket to fellow PaceSetters team Chasing Bobbi, after they had consumed many of the Iceberg Runners cookies the previous year. The traveling party was in full swing. Many old and new acquaintances were intersecting paths right in the roads, often times forgetting that there was not only a race of runners going on, but live traffic sometimes not associated with the race. It was one of the only times I sensed frustration with some of the team vehicles who were not able to freely navigate, perhaps messing up their plans. Admittedly it was easy to forget that there were some serious runners here not just in this for the sheer fun of it. Here I also realized how effective the staggered wave start was. It helped keep the slower teams like us out on the course with more runners, to say hello and perhaps run alongside with at times, and finishing closer together.

As Gary completed our 3rd leg at Barker Farms he provided an unexpected footnote for our day. After handing off to Joe, Gary pointed to his calf and exclaimed, "I got bit by a dog!" A woman was walking three leashed dogs. Two of her dogs were aggressively snappy, and while she held their leashes tight, it was the third dog that suddenly lunged at Gary. It would have been a better story to embellish and say it was a 140 lb Great Dane, but in reality it was only a 25 pounder. But apparently it bit more like a 30 pounder. The lady made no apologies. Somehow Gary kept his composure and continued on. A band aid seemed to take care of things. Just prior to running his segment, Gary and team were discussing the classic rock band Three Dog Night in our vehicle. We of course later turned that memory into Three Dog Bite in Gary's honor.

Joe did well with his mainly eastward route. Our 5th runner, Scott, took over and continued until Rocky and Tara's Nut Haus in the tiny town of Dundas. A very popular stopping point, the parking lot was overflowing. Our 6th runner, Bucket, proclaimed that he needed to lower his grading of the earlier "10" porta potty in Vinland to an "8.5" because this one in Dundas was the new "10" standard due to it's enormous size and foot pump sink with soap. An outspoken runner overheard Gary talking about his dog bite incident and she knew exactly which dogs and lady he was referring to. She said she cussed out the lady for not controlling her nasty dogs, which made Gary feel better. Our exchange handoff was not smooth here at the Nut Haus. As Scott was finishing his leg, several of us had to scramble to find Bucket and push him out onto the course. This location is a well known route milestone, located in the middle of nowhere, popular for its Bloody Marys, discounted here for all participants. Scott celebrated his successful leg with one, perhaps also to commemorate the namesake of his own hometown, way up dare in Ontario hey. Wow, how his Bloody Mary overflowed with a medley of treats sprouting out of its top! So many were sold that they ran out. The race organizers are hoping to correct this for next year.

A runner that stood out on another team had some wild purple hair. I'm not sure if we figured out if his hair was real or not. It seemed to be, but then we saw his teammates at an exchange point all sporting different bright hair colors. All wigs? All natural hair but dyed? We might have to give it a yank.

With Bucket now on the course, Scott took over as our driver. Unusual choice, yes the guy with a large Bloody Mary in his hand. Scott claims his drink stayed in the cup holder and only the garnishes were consumed while driving. Bucket was running with a bum knee, and now also a sore neck he inherited after banging his head on his rear gate window while navigating out of the back earlier that morning. He soldiered on, shirtless in the warm mid day sun, until he made it to the start of the gravel path of the Fox River Trail, a great effort that we all admired.

It was nearly noon and we had now completed over 60% of the course. Our plan had five of us now taking on our 2nd legs, which would get us to the Green Bay finish line. The remaining miles were all along the Fox River Trail. Most of that trail is a rustic former railroad right of way. Nice, but fairly non-descript with few notable landmarks. So not much more to observe or comment on. Our final runner's leg was 1.5 miles long, making it a challenge to navigate through Green Bay, find parking and meet him in time along the river trail for all 6 of us to cross the finish line together. We were able to accomplish that, so that was a great way to cap the event off, even with Norman photobombing us for our team picture. 

I had never done a run, then drove around in a car for 4 hours before getting out and running again, so this was unchartered territory for me. The weather conditions were ideal. Chilly and fairly calm early in the morning, then warming nicely in the sunshine yet not becoming uncomfortable, and having a bit of a tailwind from the SW behind us for nearly the whole way. We all felt pretty good out there, running negative splits, meaning our speed on the second legs were faster than our first legs. Although I was told there was no team pressure to push too fast, and that we would just be out there trying to enjoy it, we did that yet still beat our anticipated finish time by over 40 minutes. And everyone was so friendly, fun and supportive along the way, it was a continuous 55 mile party. Followed by a real finish line party with cold beer and hot food. It certainly was a long day, yet there was no time for naps or doing any Sudoku puzzles, it's amazing how fast the hours went by as we meandered together along the route. Eventually we returned to Appleton and had some more beer and food with our spouses. I was not home until after 7:00 pm. My shower and then bedtime were welcome closing moments to complete this full day!