Brian Solomon, a Runner For The Not So Junior Striders says "The Odyssey is the coolest race in all of the Reno-Tahoe area, I've done it 7 times." Most Odyssey runners would agree. Solomon says the best part about this race is anyone can do it. He adds "The comradery of seeing other people running out people you don't typically see every day I think that's probably the coolest part about it."
The marathon is a total of 178 miles, with typically 12 people on a team, each runner will run about 14 to 18 miles each. They even stagger start times so everyone can experience the event together. Solomon tells us "You get to see every level of runner and everyone competing, where as a lot of races where you just do a marathon everybody starts at the same time and a lot for times you're running by yourself."
He says he's been running for 6 days a week for years, but running the Odyssey doesn't come without it's challenges, he says "The hills... the hills are tough." Duylon Solomon, another Runner For The Not So Junior Striders and Brian Solomon's son adds "It was pretty tough with all the hills and different challenging terrains."
Duylon Solomon has been running with his dad since he was 6 years old. This was his first time running the Odyssey. He says "It was pretty tough I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be, and I've done a lot of races before, but this one was pretty tough."
They said their team finished in under 21 hours, not leaving much time to find a place to sleep. Brian Solomon mentions "I heard people were staying the night in hotels and so we just set up sleeping bags in South Lake Tahoe." While only getting roughly 20 minutes of sleep Duylon Solomon says "Going at it with no sleep for three runs in a row...so that was pretty tough."
But in the end, once they crossed the finish line they were able to take team pictures and receive their medals of marathon completion. Duylon Solomon says "Yeah...(Holds up medal) Pretty fire."
Although some runners say the best part of the entire race for them was..."The best part was probably finishing, that was pretty nice." says Duylon Solomon.
