Around-the-Clock Relay Treks Through Napa Valley in Rain, Sun

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY AL FRANCIS

A nationwide running relay known as the Ragnar Relay Series finished a two-day relay on Saturday through the Napa Valley.

More than 300 teams participated in the San Francisco to Calistoga adventure, with between six to 12 runners per team.

The teams took turns running around the clock starting from San Francisco on Friday and trekking up to Petaluma and then through Sonoma's Valley of the Moon, accompanied by overnight with drizzle.

Saturday morning, the runners, spectators and team members following along in vans and cars were greeted with pounding, pouring rain and slippery, flooded roadways and sidewalks.

The Napa Expo fairgrounds was used as one of the relay transfer points where one runner would finish their leg and another would pick up the team baton for their leg.

One team from Los Angeles formed a human tunnel and a finish line tape for their team members as a woman runner picked up the next leg through the City of Napa.

The final leg in Napa Valley ended in Calistoga Saturday evening. That was after one of the women runners went off course and missed a turn off Highway 29, which was lined with orange safety cones.

She had to double back in the dark to finish her leg of the race. A team member had come to rescue her on foot.