Ragnar Relay Napa Valley Ultra Recap - Legs 2 and 3 + Some Fun in San Francisco

Okay, now on to my last 2 legs! Since I was a terrible photographer at night (awful photos because of all the reflective gear we have to wear and we are all grumpy and tired; no one wants someone taking photos with bright flashes at 2AM), I will combine the two legs and hopefully it will not turn out to be a super long post. :)

I forgot to post this photo on my last entry. I took it near the end of my 1st leg. It's a photo of a guy and a cat taking an evening stroll. As I ran up next to them, I had to ask him if it was his cat, because that would be super cute. He said he didn't know who's cat it was; they just meet on the path every evening and walk together. EVEN CUTER. 

A guy and his cat friend. 

 Anyway, back to my running adventures in Napa Valley! 

I remember getting in the car and driving to the next checkpoint to meet Brian. This is the only photo I got of my team passing off. No good. So I put them camera away for the night. 

I can't even tell who's passing off to who...

Oh, but there's this gem. I guess I took this while I was about to pass out, which is why I hardly remember taking it...

Ragnar Relay Napa Valley Ultra Recap - Leg 1

This past weekend, I was rewarded with an amazing runcation (running vacation) adventure in Northern California. I got to run on an ultra team in the Ragnar Relay Napa Valley! It was such as amazing experience!!!

This was the first time that I really traveled for a running event. Traveling to Phoenix for races doesn't count, it's too close and in no way a vacation. So, I was especially excited to get on a plane and travel to a part of the world I have never been to before. :) I packed my bags and I packed light!! I was so impressed with myself. I should write a section on How to Pack for A Ragnar. Definitely on my to-do list.

I actually packed light!

I took the day off on Thursday and Friday so I could fly in early to San Francisco. And also, my planes always get delayed so I try to get on early flights so it won't affect me. This flight was only delayed by 30 minutes (so short!) so it definitely wasn't a problem.

Flying into San Francisco.

I must have caught a bug...a RAGNAR bug!

I'm a Ragnatic!!!
I've signed up for 2 more Ragnars!

While it may not sound crazy to you, it definitely does to me.
After my most recent Ragnar in February, I told myself I would never run a Ragnar ever again.
I was in a mood that race weekend and I was feeling extra stressed and homesick for some weird reason.

 It was also my worst Ragnar ever.

I felt slow, sluggish, hungry, and extremely tired. I was in a bad place and I should not have run a Ragnar that weekend. My mistake. :/ (Sorry teammates, I know I was a moody monster!)

So, when I found myself wanting to create an ultra team for the new Ragnar Trail Relay, I surprised myself.  I guess, as endurance athletes, we forgot about the pain and go back to things we told ourselves we would never do again.

I remember when I completed my first marathon, I was in so much pain and I thought it was way too long. I had second thoughts about training for a second one. But you know how things go, give it a few months and those memories of pain and suffering will disappear. :)
I'm hoping my next marathon will be in December.
But back to Ragnar -------> I signed up for TWO Ragnars!

In the span of one month...and they are both ultra teams! I am definitely challenging myself with this...considering my training my not be ready for an ultra. I am taking that problem on a day-to-day basis. You'll definitely hear about it later.

On Sept. 20th, I will be running across Northern California (Napa Valley) with an ultra team comprised of 6 runners/mostly strangers all crammed in a van.


And on Oct. 18th, I will be traversing the McDowell Mountain Region and it's trails in Northern Phoenix with an ultra team comprised of 4 runners.




I am definitely......SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!

And a little nervous.
I may possibly be the slowest runner on my team.
My training may not yet be at ultra level but mentally, I am ready for this.

Training posts to come..........................

Oh! And I also applied to be an Ragnar Ambassador!
*Crossing my fingers!*

Going a little Ragnar crazy over here... ;)

Three Things Thursday

1. Back to marathon training! After the Tinfoilman Triathlon on Sunday, I'm very excited to get back to just running. I loved training for a triathlon, but it's exhausting training for 3 different sports throughout the week. It was a fantastic challenge and I can't wait to do it again. But I'm glad to get back to my roots and just run. Only 4 months until my first marathon! :) :) :)

 

 

2. Ragnar Relay Las Vegas.  Less than a month away. But...I'm having second thoughts. O__O I didn't think I would! I joined a team without knowing anyone on it. It's definitely a great idea if you want to meet fellow runners! However, these folks are not really into running. Or so it seems. They seem to like the idea of running and all the gear that comes along with it. I have tried inviting them to multiple TTR events, but no interest. I feel as if I don't fit with the group. And to feel that way AND to have to spend a lot of money on a Las Vegas hotel, it just may not be worth it. I am still IN. I haven't made a decision to drop out, I'm still thinking about it. I don't want to upset anyone, so if it happens, it better happen quick. Have you ever dropped out of a relay team/running group before and did you feel guilty??

 

 

3. Parent Teacher Conferences. Not my favorite way to spend my evenings. But that's how I've been spending them this past week. "Hanging out" with my students and their parents. Once in a while, I even get blamed for their kids not getting straight A's. Somehow, it's our fault as teachers. Yes. It happens more often than you'd think. But most of the conferences were positive. It's just the being at school for 10 hours each day really starts to get to you. :/ 

 

Hope you're having a great week Runnerds!

Ragnar Relay Del Sol 2011 Recap!

Wow, sorry for that wait! I have been studying my butt off for midterms and now I'm done!!! Spring Break has come and gone, the Wildcats are in the sweet 16, and life is good. :) So I finally got a chance to sit down and do this!

Also, I have been sort of embarrassed by the lack of photos I took for this race. It was so crazy! I wasn't sure what to expect and how to time things and so on and so on. Excuses, excuses. I know. So, I stole a lot of photos from my teammates facebook pages. I hope it's enough for this recap. Also, I did bring my video camera but I didn't really get anything good. I can't really explain why but I guess I was in this weird, sleep deprived, adrenaline fueled state the entire 33 hours. If you've done a Ragnar before, you may understand what I'm saying. If not, you better get out there and do one cause it's definitely an experience you won't ever forget. 

Since I took so long to do this recap, there may be some details I'm missing. But you'll get the general idea...

Alrighty! The recap! Sorry about the photos, facebook has this weird thing now where they won't let you save the photos. I had to screen capture mostly everything!

 I want to start by saying my team was freaking awesome! Most of us were strangers but by the end we became very close! We plan to do this next year, maybe even do Ragnar in Las Vegas in August. We had a blast! It was the perfect group of people. I'm on the right. And yes, it was cold. 

Here I am starting off the race (in the orange shirt and blue hat)! I was runner #1 and I had a blast starting it off! The elevation was not fun however. I needed my inhaler before I even hit the halfway mark. Didn't help I was wearing compression socks and it was uphill! UGH. But it was challenging and fun. :)  

The scenery was beautiful on my first run! Wickenburg may be in the middle of nowhere, but at least it's a pretty place to be. 

The rest of the way was crazy! I'll admit I have to work on my photo taking skills for next year because I missed a lot.
The following photos are a mix between what I took and what I got from my teammates:

Decorating Van 1.

Exchange 3. 

Casey supporting Lori on one of her legs.

Kendra coming into an exchange.

Kevin's Ragnar face. 

Exchange 6!

Sleeping at a high school before Van 1 starts the 2nd set of legs. 

Kevin during one of his legs. 

Kevin and Clancy acting silly. Must be the lack of sleep....or not...

Guy during one of his legs. 

Waiting for Christine to come in. 

Waiting to start my 2nd leg!

Laura getting pumped up for her night run. 

Christine being super reflective. 

Exchange 12!

After my last leg! I came in during the sunrise. It was so pretty! :)

Meeting some biggest losers at an exchange. 

Finally, we made it to the beer garden!! ...I mean, the finish line...

Waiting (in the beer garden of course) for Christine to get closer to the finish line.  

Here she comes!!! Our last runner, Christine, comes running into the finish. So we all join her...

We all run to the finish! 

WE FINISHED!

Place- 265th

Finishing time- 32:57:47

Sorry for the short and sweet recap, but I think I like it that way. Leaves more to the imagination! :)
My goal for next year to have a better plan for capturing photos so that my recap won't be all over the place. Also, it's hard to do a recap when you're sleepy. 

Hope you all enjoyed it! My team plans to do the Del Sol relay again next year. We may even consider the Las Vegas one coming up, but that hasn't been decided yet. I'll have to do another post with the metal, it's pretty sweet. :) 

And, my sister and I ran in the Super Spartan Race in Chandler last Saturday, so you'll get another recap shortly! 

HAPPY RUNNING! 

RAGNAAAAR!

Check out our awesome team shirts!!!

The DMC stands for 2 things: The obvious, of course, the band. And also the Daily Mile Connection. It's where we all met and formed the team. Notice the Daily Mile leaf? :)

I'm super excited for Ragnar! It's going to be a crazy awesome experience and I can't wait to tell you about it!
At 7:30 AM tomorrow, I'll be starting the first leg of the relay! O.O

Wish me luck!!!

Ragnar Woes

Getting a Ragnar team together at the last second can have its downsides. When I first heard about the Ragnar Relay it was from the University of Arizona running club. Before I joined sometime last January (something I never got around to doing actually) they were trying to pull me in with this Ragnar race. I was like “whoa, 202 miles?? You guys are CRAZY” and I brushed it off. Then, sometime in the lull of summer, I checked it out again and I really REALLY wanted to do it. I tried emailing the new captain about joining up but never got a reply (jerk). I’m guessing because they already had their team, or something. Anyway, moral of the story. It’s easier to get a team together when you do it every year. When they first told me about it, I seriously doubt they would have let me run it. I probably would have been a driver. They were just getting me psyched for the next year. Which they TOTALLY did. So when my friend Kevin said he was interested in doing it AND the deadline for early registration was coming up in a week, I was SO IN. We checked on Facebook and DailyMile for any takers and we had our team in week. 

Now, we still have our team, for the most part. There are at least 10 of us who really want to do it. We had 2 people drop out in the last few weeks, one of which wanted their money back. Which in my opinion is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY RUDE. Find someone else to take your spot and pay up and THEN ask for your money back. It’s hard enough on our teammate, who laid down $1000 for us and then waited for our checks. He is still out $90 (we never actually got a 12^th teammate) and now this other guy wants him to be out $180? Crazy. It’s our fault though. We never laid down the rules in the beginning about people who decide to drop out and what not. I guess we got too excited about our team and never even thought for a second someone would drop out. Silly us. 

Things have changed now. We’ve learned. We let everyone know that if someone decides to drop out, they need to find their replacement and either let them use their money or have them pay for it themselves. One of our gals drop out due to family issues and she found her replacement immediately (and she didn’t want her money back, so he was even more willing!). However, she was our 6^th girl. Since we are a co-ed team, we need AT LEAST 6 girls, so it’s fair. And now we need to find another one. 

So, we have two spots open. At least one of the spots is open to a girl (or both!). I hope no one else drops out. We have about 12 weeks until the race in February. Our team is going to a Ragnar 101 info meeting this Monday at Fleet Feet. Maybe they’ll tell us how we can look for more runners. *crossing my fingers*