I had always wanted to do the Ragnar Relay and this year was my chance. I was really excited to get going. I told myself that I would not race but just go out there and enjoy the scenery and pretty much jog it out...Well my competitive nature took over and I'd say I pushed myself pretty hard each of the three legs I had to do.
The day started out going to Kelly's house (one of the team member in Van 2). We packed out Van and decorated and were off to meet Van 1 at our check point. We had a lot of time to spare so stopped off at Subway.
Finally after waiting for a while we arrived at our checkpoint. Our first runner (runner 7) Kim was the first one to start. The rest of the legs in the day/evening time went great. My first leg was 5.2 miles with two pretty big hills and the heat! The heat really did all of us in. Kim had the biggest hill in her leg. I did my first leg at a 732pace. After the first legs was over we handed off to Van 1 and were off to Michael's house for dinner at 1100pm and a short nap before Van 1 got done and it was our turn to do our night runs (the second legs).
It was around 1am when Michael woke us up from our nap. It seemed like I had just shut my eyes, but it was time to go again. It was around 3am when our first runner, Kim, started. My second leg was 5.5 miles. It was amazing running in the dark. It was a very crazy experience because not only could you not see anything ahead because it was dark when I was running it was foggy so I could really see nothing. At times there would be a runner ahead and I could see their night vest but that was it. My leg also took me into a valley where the temperature dropped quiet a bit. The run up was pretty tough but then after that there was only a mile left and it actually felt pretty good. I did my second leg at a 7:30 pace (even faster then the first leg). I was surprised because I was going on one hour of sleep...Hmmm maybe sleep is over rated! I also ran a part of Gabe's leg with him (3miles total which was actually not too bad). When we finished up the second leg it was tough because it was that in between time around 6am where it was hard to sleep and we were going to be running starting around 10am. We ended up going to Starbucks and filling up on coffee and some bagels before our final legs.
Finally it was time for us to run our last legs. Mine was my longest leg 6miles. I was a bit worried because it was the last leg so at this point I'm really feeling a bit run down and it wasn't what I'd call a short run. My last leg had a lot of downhills which was nice but I was really feeling it in my quads because of all the deceleration when going down. To my surprise the weather was cool and I actually ran my fastest pace on my last leg, a 7:00 pace for 6 miles. I'd have to say that I think the reason I ran so well was because I ended up running with a guy who joined me at about mile 3 and asked if he could run with me. I think he definitely pushed me!
I was so happy when we were all finished. We all ran in to the finish line together with our last runner.
Summary: Awesome experience! I would really like doing Van 1 or the Ultra Team of 6 next year. Van 1 has more miles and the Ultra Team is just crazy! I am really glad I got to do the Ragnar and I'm surprised how I did with such little sleep...Makes me wonder...We averaged a 8:35 pace between both Van 1 and Van 2. Total mile ran with Gabe's extra 3 mile leg 19.6 (I can do more!).
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