Ragnar Relay Recap AKA Best Day Ever!

I have tried to write this post for the last few days but I can never figure out where to start. I have so much to say. How do I properly recap 24+ amazing hours?!

I was in van #2 which meant that we got to leave at 9am vs the 6am departure time of van #1. We got to major exchange #6 around 11am. We hit up the bathrooms and listened to a safety speech. Ragnar is big on safety and I appreciate that! A little before noon the first runner (#7) in our van was off and running. Van #2 was full of excitement.

  

I started to get ready for my leg of the race at exchange 9. I quickly realized there were NO bathrooms. Out of all of the exchanges this was the only one without a bathroom. I started freaking out. It was 3pm. I had been eating and drinking all day long and I had to run 6.2 miles. There was no way I could run without using the bathroom. My only option was to pee outdoors. I’m from NYC and I can honestly say I’ve never used the bathroom outdoors! A good friend happened to be at the exchange and her teammates gave me a tutorial on how to pee outdoors. I wanted to cry. Long story short, I am no longer a virgin to peeing outdoors.

  Here I am a few minutes before my leg

Finally after 6 hours of waiting it was my time to run. It was 3:15pm and HOT. The temperature was in the mid 70s and the sun was shining. Ragnar classifies the legs as Easy, Moderate & Very Hard. My first leg was Very Hard. Honestly I thought they were all VERY HARD!

Leg #1 6.2 miles (Very Hard)

• Splits: 9:53, 12:16, 10:55, 10:40, 11:13, 11:17, 10:28
• Total Time: 1:07:40  Pace: 11:02

Elevation of my first leg.

As you can see the climb started after mile 1 and I was already struggling. I was hot! I stopped to walk every few minutes up the hills. I didn't want to walk and felt crappy for doing it. I brought my hand held water bottle along but the water was so warm I couldn't drink it. Thankfully my team stopped and gave me a bottle of water. I poured the water all over my head and refilled my water bottle. A few miles later I was hot again and I asked another team for a bottle of water and they gave it to me with no problem! I was really struggling the heat got to me big time but I kept pushing along. I ended up passing 3 people!

 

Leg #2 3.2 miles (Easy)

• Splits: 9:51, lost signal shortly after mile 1
• Total time: 32:00 Pace: 10:00

Elevation of my 2nd leg

My 2nd leg started at 1am. The name of the road I was running on was Bear Mountain Highway. Needless to say I was so scared! It was pitch black and I was running on the white line on the side of the road. There weren't many cars on the road but when they came I had to stop and jump in the grass. Although this leg was classified as easy it was NOT easy. I felt like I was constantly going up. I made sure to really take the down hills fast. I ran my heart out mainly because I thought I was going to get eaten by a bear or wolf. There aren't any pictures of this leg since it was PITCH BLACK!

Leg # 4.5 miles (Moderate)

• Splits: 10:20, 10:10, 10:22, 11:01, 10:55
• Total time: 48:55 Pace: 10:32 

Elevation of my 3rd leg

After 2 hours of sleep (on a bed!!!) it was finally time to run my final leg. There was a bunch of confusion at this exchange because our runner (and several others) got lost. I started my last leg at 9:40am. Surprisingly I felt good. I thought my legs were going to be stiff but they weren't! I felt strong and promised myself I would run this entire leg. I ran up all the hills (slowly). I took all the down hills hard. At one point I was running through a main street dodging people and strollers – it was awesome. I hopped onto a trail around mile 3. Some of the trail was covered with trees and some wasn't. I was feeling great in the shade but once the sun started beating down on me I felt my energy draining. Mile 4 was difficult. Lack of sleep must have caught up with me. I slowed my pace and just pushed. I was so excited when I realized I was at 4.4 miles because I knew the end was near. Uhhhh NOPE. My leg actually ended up being 4.65 miles and the last 1/4 mile went up 100 feet! Thankfully there were runners everywhere and they cheered me on because I had nothing left.

Words cant accurately express how I felt when I was finished. I was feeling so many emotions; relief, pride, exhaustion, happiness! I truly had the time of my life. I will probably dedicate a separate post about my feelings.

OFFICIAL RESULTS for TEAM B.A.D.

• Total time: 26:01:38
• Overall Place: 37/199
• Mixed Category: 14/95

We kicked some serious ass!