Race eve

The nine non-Wisconsin Rank Strangers (8 Chicagoans and a Texan) made their way to Madison Thursday evening and are spending the night at the race hotel, the Sheraton. The run adventure starts tomorrow morning.

There was some final days drama - Enterprise in Madison reneged on their 15-passenger van reservation so we had to bring a second van up from Chicago (moral: rent from Ace, not Enterprise; puzzle: why is it so hard to get a big van in Wisconsin?).

We got to visit briefly with Mark Clear and Jeff Shampo when they came to collect their van.

We'll all gather for breakfast in the morning and then Van#1 (Mark, Jeff, Renee, Bev, Debra and Pete) will get things going at 9:30AM.

Van#2 newcomer Steve Schmidt is asking a lot of good questions about process ("How does the transition work?"). A reminder that there IS going to be a race here. Guess we should help him get ready...

Rumor has it there are 230 teams which would be up about 100 from last year. Could make for some crowded transition areas with all the big vans, not to mention the company our runners will find on the course.