It's a running adventure that takes participants through several scenic spots in Northern Nevada. The 12th annual Reno-Tahoe Odyssey started early Friday morning.
Over 3,000 runners will travel Friday and Saturday. How the relay race works is runners are in teams of 12 and they travel together in a van. One runner completes five miles and continually rotate until the 178 miles course is completed.Â
"People go 'oh my gosh' 178 miles! You don't run that all by yourself you have a 12 person team, divide the 12, you each run 3 legs, 5 miles a pop so it's like doing a half marathon," said Eric Lerude, Race Director.
Runners start at Wingfield Park, head up to Truckee, then up to Tahoe City, go down the west shore of Tahoe, get to South Lake Tahoe, then up and down Kingsbury Grade, through the Carson Valley, Virginia City, and finish at Idlewild Park.
A lot of work goes into planning the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey. Organizers say from obtaining the permits, to organizing volunteers, to the "swag bags," the Odyssey takes an entire year to plan. Considering the sheer size of the event, 178 miles and 3,000 plus their team vans on the road, road closures seem inevitable, but organizers say they are able to keep all roads open to traffic except one block of C Street in Virginia City for a couple of hours.Â
"Well we don't close roads for this event because we use so many roads. We try to be on less busy roads and when we're on busy roads, we're on the side of the road."
Since this race is an accomplishment to complete, we asked, "What do the winners get?"
"Not much," said Lerude, "Bragging rights really. The top teams get a free entry into next year. They get some relatively modest prizes."
The Reno-Tahoe Odyssey is extremely popular and teams are often wait listed because the event is capped at 3,000 participants.Â
