SoCal Ragnar

Last September, Jen, Parker, and I ran our first Ragnar relay race and had a great time.  A Ragnar is when you get 12 runners in 2 vans and you run about 200 miles day and night as a team.  Jen's leg was still hurting from the Napa Valley Ragnar and we decided Parker needed to miss this one since he's playing on the High School volleyball team so I was the only one from our family to run.

Andrew, Tina, Christopher, Lindsay, and one of Andrew's friends, Ryan Sheehy, drove down on Thursday and we stayed at Tina's sister's house that night.  Since we were van 2, we didn't have to wake up too early.  In our van was me, Ryan, Tina, Andrew, Tina's brother Mike, and Tina's brother-in-law Doug.  Here we are about to take off on Friday morning (you can tell we haven't run yet since we all have big smiles and don't look exhausted).  

At our first exchange (the starting line for our team), they had lots of free stuff including energy drinks, shot blocks, energy bars, and Krispy Kreme donuts (which of of those doesn't belong with the others?).  Here's the six of us getting ready to go at the first exchange.

Doug was the first to run for our van.  We saw him a couple times along the trail and gave him water.  About this time, we started getting texts from Ragnar reminding everyone to stay hydrated since the Heat Index was going to be about 110 degrees.  As we made it to the second exchange, we saw paramedics attending to someone (see below).  This was one of many people we saw who had to receive medical attention throughout the day.

It got hotter and hotter throughout the day as Ryan, Andrew, Tina, and then Mike each took their turn.  I was the last runner (runner 12 from our team) and by the time I ran, it was at it hottest point of the day.  As we waited for Mike to hand off the slap bracelet to me, Ryan and Andrew made me promise to walk if I got too hot.  They also made me promise to take it easy and not try to go too fast.  Well, I kept the first promise anyway -- started out pretty fast but then got super hot and had to walk a couple times during my 5 miles.  Below is Mike handing off to me (and a lovely picture of the row of outhouses that were available at each exchange).

Here I am just getting started...

Below is a picture of most of the runners in van 1 from our team.  Since they all worked for Lifetime, our team name was It Took Half of Lifetime to Finish (I'll assume you get it and I don't have to explain the name to you).  Since I would be handing off to runner 1 in van 1, they were all here waiting for me to finish (except for runner 1 who is at the exchange point waiting for me).

Did I mention it was SUPER HOT???  Once I saw the finish line (which of course was up a hill), I started sprinting and passed about 4 runners over the last quarter mile.  I slapped the bracelet on runner 1 and then started wobbling to find some shade.  I found a small patch of it and sat down to rest since I knew I was on the verge of passing out.  After relaxing for about 15 minutes and drinking some water and gatorade, I started to feel better.  The rest of my van had seen me wobbling away but couldn't find me and were starting to get worried.  Even after about 20-30 minutes my feet had a strange tingling sensation (not a good feeling).  But I made it and didn't need any medical attention so I was happy about that.

We then went to eat at TGI Friday's and drank a LOT of water.  We then went to WinCo Foods to buy more water (we went through way more water than we thought we would).  Below we are in the WinCo parking lot marking down our "kills."  You get a kill for each runner you pass in the race and we had well over a hundred kills during the race.

After dinner and a stop to stock up on water, we went to the next major exchange (where we would wait for van 1 to finish their legs).  They had a golf course there where they let us lay out sleeping bags.  I can't say I got a whole lot of sleep but it definitely felt good to lay down for a while.  At night, we wore our safety vests, which as you can see below work quite well.

Here I am waiting for my second leg to start (all decked out in the vest and the head light).  That leg was much nicer since the weather had cooled down (actually was almost cold before I started running).  I felt great after finishing that leg and didn't even need time to cool down.

We then went to the next major exchange to try to get a little more sleep before our last leg would begin.  This one was basically right on the beach and was very foggy.  In fact, it was so foggy and humid there that anything outside of the sleeping bag was drenched by the time we woke up (including Ryan's phone which was having trouble working in the morning).  Here's a picture after it got light and you can still see the fog is pretty thick.

Andrew's last leg was 11 miles and right in the middle was this HUGE hill.  The picture below doesn't do it justice but it was a major hill.  We also saved a runner from another team that we saw go off course.  We turned our van around and picked him up and brought him back to the course and he was very grateful (although then he had to go up this hill so I'm not sure how grateful he was feeling at that very moment).

After dropping Mike off for his last leg and driving up a ways, we decided to find a spot about halfway where we could give him some water.  We waited for a while and then heard another van talking about their runner getting lost (along with a few other runners).  That made us a little concerned so after waiting a while longer, we decided we should try to call Mike.  When we got in the van, he had already tried to call everyone in the van (at least the ones whose cell numbers he had).  We called him back and he wasn't real happy (about getting lost or about us not answering the phone).  We had him describe where he was and then eventually figured out how to find him and drove him back to the course.  He had heard about one of our runners from the Napa Valley Ragnar getting lost and wondered how that happened.  Well, now he knew...  Here we are waiting for Mike (and before we knew he was lost).

Once Mike was finished (and had taken off his shirt -- this was a running theme, a few of the guys took their shirts off at each exchange and, no, I didn't partake in that part of the festivities) he handed off to me for my last leg (and the last one for the whole team).

Here I am near the beginning of the last leg.

I also felt pretty good on this last leg.  It was 6.3 miles but right along the ocean.  The good news is that kept it pretty cool -- the bad news is the wind was blowing off the ocean right into my face so it felt like I was running into a constant headwind.  I'll admit there were several times I wanted to stop and rest but I kept pushing through and thinking...only 5 more songs on my iPod, only 4 more, etc.  Finally, I saw the finish line (see below).  At that point, the whole team is supposed to join you for the last 100 yards or so.  When I got there, only about half the team was there so we had to stop for a bit to wait for the others.  Needless to say, I wasn't real happy about waiting for anyone because I wanted to be DONE at that point.

We saw this banner in one of the tents near the finish line and it seemed to capture the experience well.

Here I am not long after I finished -- feeling good about being done but still sweating...

Here's the whole team posed for a picture at the finish line with our medals around our necks.

We went back to Tina's sister's house and spent the night before driving back home in the morning.  Some of the girls wanted to play games but as you can see, I'm pretty much exhausted at that point.  I kept putting my glasses on Sadie's head (Tina's niece) and she thought it was pretty hilarious when I said she looked SO smart.

On the way back home, most of the van was sleeping as I drove and I suddenly saw this bright green streak go across the sky.  Since Tina was still awake I asked her if she saw it and she said "saw what?"  I have to admit at that moment I thought it was possible I was just delirious from the whole experience but I told her I just saw this green streak of light go across the sky.  She gave me a strange look so I just let it go.  Lucky for me, she saw a story on-line later that day that talked about a bright green streak of light that many people had seen in the sky that day so I was officially not crazy.  Apparently, it was some type of meteorite that was the size of a mini-van being burned up in the atmosphere.  Pretty cool ending to the Ragnar experience, my second UFO sighting!! (you'll have to ask me sometime about my first...:-))

Anyhow, it was so fun we are going to do the Napa Valley one again this September so I'm continuing to run each week to get ready.  Can't wait for the next set of memories!