Welcome to Part II of my Ragnar Recap! You can read my initial quick recap here and Part I here.
Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh yes, that's right, I had just finished my second leg during our first van rotation....
After the rotation we headed to the next major exchange about 30 miles away. The temperature had really plummeted! I'm talking 38 degrees! Woah nelly! I changed into long pants and a pull over, but still had to wrap a blanket fully around me when we waddled over to the soup stand at the next major exchange. At this point it was nearing 10 pm and a lot of vans were parked, clearly trying to get some shut eye before the had to get on the road again. After we got soup we hurried back to the car and tried to take a nap. Talk about sleeping in uncomfortable positions! I think I got about 35 minutes before it was time to walk over to the actual exchange point and wait for van #1. Original estimates put them to arrive around 11:30 pm, but they didn't actually show up until after midnight.
While we were waiting for Sloan from van #1 to run in, we saw another runner from another van come in, only to realize that his exchange van hadn't arrived yet! Later on I heard another story about a team whose van #2 went to the wrong major exchange, about 40 minutes driving time away from the correct exchange. So, while van #1 should have been hitting the hay, they had to start running van #2's legs. Super lame! Luckily our team didn't have (hardly) any issues with getting lost.
Originally the only nighttime leg I was going to run was leg #21: 5.1 miles Moderate. At some point in my sleepy delirium in the van I told Sally that I would pace her during her leg #20, 7.7 miles Very Hard, if she paced me for my 5.1 right after. Brilliant idea Kristin! Because even though 26.8 miles is technically an ultra, let's just seal the deal and make it 34.5. Ready, set, run!
Since it was cold as all heck out there I threw on crops and some arm warmers, hoping that channeling Kara Goucher would make me speed through the 12.8 consecutive miles at 1 am. Get through it I did. With anything resembling speed? Not a chance. The first leg was pleasant enough, you know, other than it being the middle of the night, freezing, and in strange back country with no light. Hey, remember how most of the Amish don't use electricity? Guess what happend at night? No lights!
Sally and I kept the pace slow and chatted the whole time. If I had been completely alone I totally would have been freaking out. The real challenge came when we reached my leg. Remember this guy from my preview post the other day?
Should Ragnar decide to survey its runners about their inaugural PA course I will definitely be putting in a petition to change the difficulty rating of this leg from "Moderate" to "Are you eff-ing kidding me!?" It's a good thing it was dark out, because had I actually been able to see more than 5 feet in front of me and actually recognize the magnitude of this mountain hill, I would have just about died.
Sally and I alternated walking and running. Our legs were totally wiped. I'd already run 20 miles and was feeling it all over. This was a "no support" leg, meaning our van could not cross the road to offer support. Not one to break the rules, Mike started chucking bananas across the road to me (and almost hit another runner!) as we passed as I was completely out of fuel at that point.
Finally, we reached the tippy top and tried to coast downhill to the exchange. Once we arrived I prompty passed out from exhaustion for about 2 hours. In the meantime, our van made the next major exchange with van #1 and we headed to the last major exchange at a local high school to await our next running time.
Alas, I was hoping to do this in all in two posts, but at the risk of boring you all to death with 30 pages of writing I'm going to take a breather. Stay tuned for the THRILLING conclusion of my Ragnar Recap that will include blood, sweat, and tears (Okay, not blood, but sweat and tears for sure)!
To be continued....
Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh yes, that's right, I had just finished my second leg during our first van rotation....
After the rotation we headed to the next major exchange about 30 miles away. The temperature had really plummeted! I'm talking 38 degrees! Woah nelly! I changed into long pants and a pull over, but still had to wrap a blanket fully around me when we waddled over to the soup stand at the next major exchange. At this point it was nearing 10 pm and a lot of vans were parked, clearly trying to get some shut eye before the had to get on the road again. After we got soup we hurried back to the car and tried to take a nap. Talk about sleeping in uncomfortable positions! I think I got about 35 minutes before it was time to walk over to the actual exchange point and wait for van #1. Original estimates put them to arrive around 11:30 pm, but they didn't actually show up until after midnight.
While we were waiting for Sloan from van #1 to run in, we saw another runner from another van come in, only to realize that his exchange van hadn't arrived yet! Later on I heard another story about a team whose van #2 went to the wrong major exchange, about 40 minutes driving time away from the correct exchange. So, while van #1 should have been hitting the hay, they had to start running van #2's legs. Super lame! Luckily our team didn't have (hardly) any issues with getting lost.
Originally the only nighttime leg I was going to run was leg #21: 5.1 miles Moderate. At some point in my sleepy delirium in the van I told Sally that I would pace her during her leg #20, 7.7 miles Very Hard, if she paced me for my 5.1 right after. Brilliant idea Kristin! Because even though 26.8 miles is technically an ultra, let's just seal the deal and make it 34.5. Ready, set, run!
 |
| Can you tell how pumped we are? |
Since it was cold as all heck out there I threw on crops and some arm warmers, hoping that channeling Kara Goucher would make me speed through the 12.8 consecutive miles at 1 am. Get through it I did. With anything resembling speed? Not a chance. The first leg was pleasant enough, you know, other than it being the middle of the night, freezing, and in strange back country with no light. Hey, remember how most of the Amish don't use electricity? Guess what happend at night? No lights!
 |
| We are sleepy, slow, nighttime ninjas |
 |
| I nicknamed him "El Jefe" |
Sally and I alternated walking and running. Our legs were totally wiped. I'd already run 20 miles and was feeling it all over. This was a "no support" leg, meaning our van could not cross the road to offer support. Not one to break the rules, Mike started chucking bananas across the road to me (and almost hit another runner!) as we passed as I was completely out of fuel at that point.
 |
| Passing the baton to Betsy |
Alas, I was hoping to do this in all in two posts, but at the risk of boring you all to death with 30 pages of writing I'm going to take a breather. Stay tuned for the THRILLING conclusion of my Ragnar Recap that will include blood, sweat, and tears (Okay, not blood, but sweat and tears for sure)!
To be continued....
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