my ragnar del sol 2012 experience has now been over for 24 hours, and it was an adventure, yet again, with unforeseeable twists and turns. my shoulders are sunburned, my abs ache, my quads are killing me, but i’m still looking forward to my next ragnar relay. and i don’t want to wait another year!
if you aren’t familiar with ragnar, it’s an overnight relay with 12 people to a team, split between 2 vans. we started an hour and a half northwest of phoenix, leapfrogged each other around the north side of the valley and ended up 200.5 miles later in tempe. every member runs 3 legs, and we get e little bit of rest in between.
i was supposed to run 6.7 miles, 6.7 miles and 4.8 miles.
BUT (there’s always a but)
we got a text at 4:40 am friday morning that one of our runners wasn’t coming. (cue the googly eyes)
and i couldn’t find one of the costumes, so my van had to come and pick me up. good thing, too, since i found the costume in my clean laundry pile (don’t ask, i don’t know the answer.)
at least i didn’t have strep throat, right? that was not fun.
we headed out to wickenburg for the start and, just like last year, i didn’t know anyone in my van. by the end of the race, that never matters, though. we bonded over the race and the fact that we had to figure out how to split up all those extra miles. and fretting over whether or not gordy would make it to his friend’s wedding at 10am on saturday. he was runner 1 and hoped to be done in time to have a buddy pick him up and take him to the hitchin’.
my first leg was 6.7 miles and i ended up running in the middle of the day. it was 80º and H.O.T. HOT. i usually run a 9:30 mile, but had to walk a lot so i wouldn’t overheat. i could feel my body starting to shut down and know i would have, if i hadn’t listened and taken it easy. a couple of other teams stopped and poured water on me, which was a huge help and my van stopped twice for me. i felt bad about slowing the team down, but knew they would rather have a slow teammate than another 3 legs to split between them because i dropped out.
an hour and 12 minutes after i headed out, i tagged aaron in for the first one we were splitting from our delinquent runner. halfway in, he said he needed relief. scott came in and finished the last 2 miles. aaron stopping at 2 miles was testament to just how hot it was out there. he ran 9 miles on saturday morning and said the 2 miles in the heat was worse.
(both vans, at the first exchange. missing scott, who was running)
after some food, that i forced myself to eat, we ended up at the next van exchange. van 2 was running & we just had to wait for them. it was loud at the exchange and there was music. through the beauty of social media, i asked ragnar when it was shutting down and they were kind enough to do just that about 7pm. i caught about an hour of sleep before we started hearing that van 2 was getting closer.
we started back out at about 10:30pm and i slept a bit more, hydrated, and ate enough that i wouldn’t fall over. my second leg was also 6.7 miles, but i was running at 3am. the lack of sun was glorious. i was pumped to make up some time, but remembered i had a 6 mile uphill climb. add to that a heavy headwind, and my time was exactly the same as it was for my earlier run/walk. i didn’t, however have to walk at all, so that was good. i felt better about it and didn’t feel my body shutting down at all. this leg happened to be a no van support leg, which meant that my team couldn’t stop and give me water or make sure i was ok. i had my phone on me, though, so i sent them a few texts to let them know i was feeling good.
i had about 40 minutes to rest this time, instead of 6 hours, since i was going to pick up a couple of miles from the drop out. i still felt good and this last leg was flat, so i booked it in at 8 minute miles. my van wasn’t even there yet, since they never expected me to run that fast. frankly, i didn’t either, but i was pumped and feeling it.
we drove to the next van exchange, all took naps, gordy ran his last 2 miles, we got him to a drop off spot, looking like waldo and he made it to the wedding on time.
my last run was 4.8 miles, northeast of the valley. i was the bringing us back down south. it was hot again, i had hills to climb, i had no van support, and no water station. was i elated to see a table with the ragnar symbol halfway in. a surprise water station is a beautiful thing, but not as beautiful as this:
(a thing of beauty)
when you see that sign on any leg it’s a great feeling. when you see it after running 19.5 miles in under 24 hours, it feels amazing.
i hustled in to hand off to aaron’s girlfriend, who came in to save the day and run our last missing-runner leg. not having to split up that last 6 miles was a game-changer for us. there’s no way we could have done it without her.
after her run, we dropped her off at her car & headed to in-n-out burger to scarf down some calories. i’d burned through over a days worth and hadn’t eaten enough to keep me moving. we cleaned out the van, headed to the finish line & ran in the last few hundred yards with andi. gordy even came back between the wedding and reception to finish with us!
(full team)
i had a blast, i can’t believe it’s over, and i wish i could run the socal race in april. if i could only run one race a year, this would be it. hands down. ragnar is a very well put together race and is a ton of fun.
