RAGNARly

I wish I had pictures, but I left that to someone else and I haven't gotten them yet. I know he did a great job though. They will be putting together a slide show/video soon. Thursday night, Van #1 headed to Prescott together. We stayed in a hotel since we needed to check in around 6:30 am. No one slept that well, but that is to be expected. We woke to a nippy 28 degrees. The hotel had a great hot breakfast and while loading in the van, we notice two vans with big "the Biggest Loser" decals on them. We took some pictures, but never did figure out who was there running. They start you off in 20 minute intervals depending on your projected finish time. About 20 runners at a time. Glade was the first runner so he got the freezing cold, early morning run. After Glade, Julie went, then Jake, then Janice, then me and then Charlotte. Van #2, holding runners Jay, Dave, Janelle, Brett, Jerel and then Kristine came up early Friday morning. They didn't start till about 1 pm.

The first run seemed to be the hardest for everyone. I think the altitude was a little hard to deal with. Glade had a fairly small run in the beginning, but it totally wiped him. Poor Jake, he had a run that looked like this: straight up a mountain and then back down, it was killer. But....

Jake totally rocked it and finished ten minutes earlier than projected. The unfortunate part was when we weren't there in time to deliver the next runner. He had to sit and wait for us while all the people he passed went on ahead of him. We are very sorry, Jake! My first run was 5.5 miles with both up and down. I felt absolutely horrible when I finished. I started out really strong and just couldn't keep it up. My legs felt like bricks and I couldn't get my breathing to even out. I was very discouraged. Then I looked at my iPod which tracks my runs and it said my average pace was 10.26 min/per mile. That's actually pretty good! I had even run my fasted mile ever at 9.28.

After we all finished running and turned it over to van 2, we went to check in to our next hotel in Wickenburg to get some showers and rest. We stopped for lunch at Denny's and then got an hour or so of sleep. It was then about time to start getting ready for our next runs. My run started about 9:30 pm and was 7.5 miles. It was supposed to be mostly downhill, but I think they transposed the graph cuz it was mostly up hill. Killer. I ran the first 4 miles straight and then had to take some walking breaks every now and then. Because it was dark, we had to wear reflective vests and headlamps. I still have a sore spot on my forehead from the light. Although it was a tough run, I felt the best after that run than any of my runs. Everyone seemed to think the second was the best, even those that were running at 2 am. My average pace for that run was just around 11 minute miles, which is pretty average. After we finished, we went back to the hotel, showered again and got about 3 hours of sleep.

During the night, a runner was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street and was hurt really badly. They had to shut down 6 of the legs and head everyone around a different course. We were only cut short 2 legs, but it made for a panic of who was running when and where now. We all scrambled out of bed and headed to the meeting place to figure everything out. Van 2's last two runners took our first two legs so that left Glade and Julie without a third leg. No one was too happy about not getting all their runs in, so Julie ran part of Jake's run with him and Glade took my third leg (a serious uphill). One of Van 2's runners had to get home for a baptism so I ran his last leg. It was kind of a scramble but it all worked.

By the third leg, we were all hobbling along barely able to walk. Running again was not sounding that great, but we all wanted to finish it. I was really happy to have had Glade run mine because the hill was much steeper than the graph showed. We had cheeze it's and soda for breakfast and mostly just had a great time being slap happy sleep deprived funny from this point on. We eventually caught back up with van 2 who had not yet slept. By the time it was my turn again, it was the second to last run. I was totally pumped and feeling great. By great, I mean I could walk without a limp and a grimace on my face. I started out feeling so great! The course was very confusing which as frustrating and actually a little dangerous the way they had us cross a 5 lane street not in a crosswalk or anything. By the time I got to mile 2, I was spent. I desperately wanted water, but had none, I was sweating like crazy and just felt awful. I would walk and try to convince myself that it was only a mile and a half left to go, get moving! I would run for probably less than a minute and have to walk again. My face felt like it was on fire and sweat was burning my eyes. It was terrible. I finally got to the end and came to the exchange in tears. 3.67 stupid miles and I crashed. I walked straight to the van to get water and didn't talk to a single person. I kept trying to control my tears but wasn't very successful. Of course, everyone gave me the "you did great!" speech but I knew it wasn't true, I sucked. The only redeeming thing about this run was that when I got home and checked my runs on my iPod, my first two miles of that last run were 9.5 minute miles. No wonder I couldn't run anymore, I don't run that fast! We drove to the finish line to wait for Kristine so we could all come across the finish together and that was nice. Most of us couldn't keep up with her even for the last 50 ft. She was sprinting and we were all worbling behind her trying to get our legs to work, what a sight. We got our medals and gave our hugs and then some of us went to get dinner. It was nice to sit and talk with everyone about all our different experiences. It wasn't so nice to have to stand up from the chair.

We got home, showered, said brief hellos to our children and headed to bed! I couldn't even begin to go into all the jokes and stories and fun little things that we all shared as a team. The whole trip we talked about what we will do differently next year. Yes, there will be a next year with a bit more knowledge and a little more training. For now, it's recovery time!