On April 18, 2018, I received a message out of the blue from a former Little League baseball teammate whom I had not spoken to in close to a decade.

He had a proposition: “I’ve put together a STACKED team of (David Douglas High School) grads for a Hood to Coast team this summer … Would you be interested in driving our van?”

That set off an unexpected reaction, which has led to planning summers around relay races. After a year of driving, I was promoted to running. Three times the majority of this team has run the Hood to Coast Relay, but this year we wanted to try something new.

So we took on the Cascade Lakes Relay this past Friday and Saturday. The annual relay race in Central Oregon has three different events — the CLR 36, CRL 24 and the Walk Relay. The CLR 36 and the Walk Relay start in southern Oregon at Diamond Lake Resort and end at Riverbend Park in Bend.

With only eight runners, we landed on the CRL 24 — the 132-mile race that starts at remote Silver Lake and ends at Riverbend Park. We were excited to take on a new race that claims to be “Oregon’s most challenging running relay course.”

On our “Slow and Available” team is Joey Peacock, Daniel Tew and Nick Anderson, my buddies from high school. Then there’s Nick’s older sisters Missy Leland, Kara McAffee and Emily Meldrum. And finally, making his relay team debut was Emily’s husband Brett Meldrum.

The following is a diary that attempts to capture what it is like to run the Cascade Lakes relay:

Friday, 11:30 a.m.: A white, 15-passenger van pulls up to my house. It’s time to start this thing. But first, we stop at my parent’s house near Sunriver for a team lunch before making our trip south to Silver Lake. These tacos are likely going to be the final meal we have until Saturday evening.

5:30 p.m.: I finally get to the starting line to begin this 132-mile journey with a 7.2-mile run. The starting gun fires and we are off. First mile, feeling great. Second mile, never better. By the time I reach the fifth mile of this leg, all I’m wanting is some water and some shade and neither are coming. Off in the distance I can see the exchange. It looks so close. Why aren’t the people getting any closer even though I’m running as fast as I’ve ever run before?

Finally, after a time of 1 hour, 10 minutes, I reached the exchange. I’m fine with the time because that was my hardest run of the last three months.

8 p.m.: Nick finishes his brutal 8.8-mile in Fort Rock, but unfortunately his toughest run is still yet to come. We run into my parents who are stationed at the Fort Rock Waterin’ Hole to volunteer. While our van still has 22 legs to run, they have a long night ahead of them as well to make this race run smoothly.

9:30 p.m.: The sun has completely set and the strawberry moon makes an appearance. And it is stunning. Kara, laboring through the final two miles of her 5.5-mile run, says the moon is “giving her energy” as we slowly drive by to give her some water. Perhaps that’s a good sign for all of us these next eight hours or so.

10:40 p.m.: We’ve reached the halfway point of our first of three rounds of running. Joey is on the run and we finally catch up to him to pass along some water. But he has a story to tell. To keep it brief, he started his run with a shirt, nature called, and now he no longer has a shirt.

11:35 p.m.: We are somewhere on National Forest Road 22 approaching Willow Butte about 20 miles east of La Pine when all of a sudden it looks like a spaceship has landed in the middle of the forest. But it wasn’t a spaceship. It was a rave with a DJ, lasers and smoke machines. It was a nice pick-me-up after six hours of racing.

Saturday, 2:30 a.m.: Team energy and morale is running low. All everyone seems to want is to eat actual food and to sleep on an actual bed. Neither of those options is possible. Emily is finishing up her first leg, meaning we have a crucial choice to make: Do we stop and rest for a little bit before starting our second round of runs, or do we just power through?

We decide to power through.

3 a.m.: Running on a Forest Service road in the middle of the night is awesome. It’s a bit scary, but that is what makes it awesome. It also helps that all the aches, pains and tiredness I was feeling earlier disappeared. In fact, I feel so good that I’m going to ignore The Eagles blaring in my ears, telling me to “Take it Easy” and really try and challenge myself. That’s what these races are all about.

I finish my leg and … where’s Nick? Where’s the van?

Twenty minutes later, they finally show up. As it turns out, they thought it was more likely that I injured myself than set personal bests in the 5K and 10K during the run.

8 a.m.: Once again, Joey started his run with a shirt and returned to the van without one.

12 p.m.: I finally finished my third and final leg, a 4.25-mile climb from Elk Lake to Devils Lake along Cascade Lakes Highway. I hit the goals I had set for myself for the run. Now I get to sit back and watch my seven teammates finish their race. Nick powered through his difficult leg up Mount Bachelor. Joey started and finished his run with his shirt intact for the first time. Daniel ran his fastest leg of the relay and navigated Missy back to the course after she took a wrong turn getting into Bend.

5:30 p.m.: We finally reach Riverbend Park and the afterparty is bumping. Now we just have to patiently wait for Emily to finish the final 3.5-mile run around the Deschutes River. At last we see her approaching and we all meet her to cross the finish line with a time of 25 hours, 28 minutes, 28.8 seconds. We weren’t the winner of the CRL 24, that went to Bend Beavs Trail (17:50.25). Cascadia Elite won the CLR 36 in 24:47.51 and Second Wind won the Walking Relay in 22:30.34.

Sunday, 2 p.m.: After an evening and morning of eating way too much food, relaxing in a hot tub and finally sleeping in an actual bed, we make one final stop at the world’s last Blockbuster. Then it’s finally time for us all to go our separate ways.

Monday, 3:30 p.m.: It has been less than 48 hours since crossing the finish line and plans are already beginning for the next relay.