Sure, there’s the Boston Marathon. New York is a classic. Even San Francisco is amazing. But they have nothing on the Robert DeCelle Memorial Lake Tahoe Relay. Why? Because it gives an individual sport of running a chance for camaraderie. A goal bigger than one person. That’s why it has lasted so long and is still the oldest relay race in America. And these deep-running connections can be seen in the unique running of the 2020 event.
Time To Make A Diamond

Jessica Sime and Tom Reed, Leg 3 and Leg 6
2020 has been a pressure cooker to say the least. Massive events that have been put on for centuries were cancelled all across the globe. For some reason, runners are gluttons for pain and pressure. The DeCelle Memorial team and its alumni saw this not as a problem, but an opportunity to do something different and inspirational. This is when Plan B came into place — join forces with Operation Rebound and local high school teams to make it a fundraiser!
In the words of Robert Horry:
“Pressure can burst a pipe, but pressure also makes diamonds.”
2020 Running Of DeCelle Memorial
And on October 3rd, 2020 that’s exactly what happened. A team came together of six high school students, one from each high school and an adaptive runner from Operation Rebound. To see how the race went down, who the fundraiser was for, and just to get some positivity in your life, watch the recap video below:
If You Wish To Donate
To make sure every penny goes to our high schools, we’re having donations go through El Dorado Community Foundation as they hold a 501c non-profit designation. As usual, we’re putting our money where our rubber soles hit the road and created three different levels of donating:
$100 – Receive an LTR long sleeve shirt, 2 Lake Tahoe glasses, and Operation Rebound baseball hat
$50 – Receive an LTR long sleeve shirt
$25 – An Operation Rebound baseball hat
You can donate online via this button:
Sponsor
A special thanks to – El Dorado Community Foundation for helping make this year’s event possible. Also, a big thank you to the Stardust Lodge for donating two rooms for our adaptive race participant, his guide, and our drone pilot.
All Schools Will Benefit Equally From Fundraiser:
As we stated above, all monies that are raised will be divided equally across ALL high schools within the region and will include the following:
El Dorado High
South Tahoe High School
Ponderosa High
Oak Ridge High School
Union Mine High school
We hope to see you all in 2021, and until then… keep on running!