Several months back, someone caught me in a moment of weakness, and talked me into running Ragnar. It sort of seemed like a good idea at the time... Now that it's over, I'm still undecided on how I feel about it. Definitely glad to have done it, and happy to have finished it. It was fun...and miserable at the same time.
Here's all of van 2 before pulling out of the drive way. (L to R: Mike, Kimberly, Shawn, Matt, Chad, Me, Kyle)
And in the car on our way to the first transition to meet up with Van 1 and start our part of the relay.
(Everyone is still pretty happy and energetic.)
Matt on leg 7.
Waiting at the transition for Matt to come in. Chad giving a cheer.
Matt coming in...
...and Kimberly (runner 8) heading out.
It was a beautiful day with some beautiful scenery. But, it was HOT. Not something I have really trained for since all of my running takes place in the relatively cool early morning hours.
Almost my turn.
The hand off.
The crew heading back to the car to meet me at the next transition.
Running and watching the car go by.
Mike getting ready for his run. (Mike was the youngster of our group. He was all about having fun. Shawn, too.) This was before they realized that the flag does not, in fact, have blue stripes.
Now, they're ready to roll. And yes, Shawn and Kyle did run with their wigs.
Coming into the transition.
Mike starting on his leg. And yes, he did carry that huge, heavy flag for his entire run. (Only once, though. He learned his lesson and decided not to do it for the other 2 legs.)
I felt this way after every run.
But Mike never ran out of energy or enthusiasm.
Since Shawn was the camera guy, I am lacking photos of him and Kyle on their runs. I'm pretty sure, someone else in the van got some, though.
One of our best plans was bringing Chad along as driver and Chef. We had a full on spread at our stops. Smoothies, pasta, fruit, trail mix and even omelettes for breakfast. The other teams were pretty jealous. Chad was nice enough to cook up extra for anyone who wanted some.
This was pretty much our only chance to sleep. Unfortunately, it was still too light and too early to make that happen. But we enjoyed some down time on cots and blankets on the grass.
By the time we were ready to sleep, it was time to run again. One of the joys of Van 2.
I think this is me, but I'm not sure. I left for my 10 mile run a little before 2 am. I hadn't really trained for that part, either. (The 2 am part, I mean. I had trained for the 10 mile part.)
Everyone tried to sleep in the car - with some even managing to. Shawn was pretty much on his own when it was his turn to run. No one was there to send him off and only Kyle was there to meet him at the end.
He did end up with 46 kills on his run, though. (The number of people he passed.)
I slept maybe an hour in bits and pieces, and man did I feel it Saturday morning. But not Mike, He was still having a great time.
I wish that the flames painted on the car had made me go faster.
Our team name was "Wait for Me!" Our car was also "tagged" by some other teams. It was always interesting to come back and see what had been added.
I think this was our kill total after the second leg.
There was lots of time spent waiting in the Honey Bucket lines at each transition.
I never really recovered from my middle of the night run and lack of sleep and was too nauseated to eat or drink before starting my 3rd leg. It didn't go very well. Plus it was straight up hill. Like, really up hill. Maybe an 18% grade. I was so angry on that leg and sooo glad to finish it. Plus, it was really hot. Most of the teams had people along the course spraying water on the runners as they went by. My team did an excellent job of keeping me cool, but couldn't do much about my lack of fuel and water leading up to the run. I was definitely dehydrated and worn out at the end of it. Still undecided on whether I would do it again or not.
Shawn on the other hand, was a rock star on all of his legs. (As if we would expect anything less.) He would sign up again in a heart beat.
Somewhere I have pictures of the whole team at the finish of the race, but they haven't made it into iphoto. I'll have to add them when I find them.
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