In my MRTT group a gal posted that her friend was on the Ragnar Relay team and needed an extra body for the weekend since a teammate broke her foot in the Rochester half. Crazy, right? Well I've always wanted to do a Ragnar race but don't have friends that are crazy in that way. So here it is a Wednesday night and I leave on Friday afternoon to hop into a van or 2 with 11 complete strangers.
My mom didn't want me going all alone and leaving my car in some small town when I met up with the vans for the event so she went with me and was able to catch me at a few of my relay leg exchanges. She's the best.
I first meet up with the van of people I will be riding with at about 11:30 at night in a Super 8 parking lot in Ticonderoga. This after my mom and I arrived around 9:30 and I still needed to eat dinner. After that we tried to sleep in her car but by the time we got our selves set up we snoozed for like 30 minutes.
I hoped in the van with strangers, my mom tried to sleep in the parking lot some more. We met up with van 1 (I am in van 2 at this time and the last leg of the van). It is a very relaxed but fun environment at the "big" exchange. I start hearing about people making kills on their runs and must have looked shocked so my van mate explains that when you pass a person at Ragnar it's called a kill. Kind of like in volleyball they have kills and digs. It's just part of the vocab at Ragnar. Also, the mile to go signs are lies. LIES! It always feels like way longer than a mile whether it be in the van or actually running.
I don't run until about 4 in the morning for my leg and we drive from exchange point to exchange point in the van and waiting around for our teammates. I am having a great time but am really pushing exhaustion. I've been up since 6am and worked at school before meeting up with the van. They've all gotten at least a few hours of sleep. Well, I run my first leg in the pitch black of night and hand off my slap bracelet. Even though I had 4 head lamps, reflective vest and 2 blinking arm bands I hate running in the dark. At this point they have me grab all my stuff and join van 1... which means no sleep for me since I was in van 2 and it is their turn for sleep. A gal in van 1 was injured and they need me to take on some of her legs since I am a strong runner.
I've now been up for 24 hours but with the sun coming up am catching a second wind and don't seem as tired. I do back to back legs and think I am done for the relay until the finish---they've also changed the legs I was supposed to do which means my mom no longer has directions to my exchange points since I only printed out my info. I call in to let her know and she, being the most amazing person I know, finds a way to get where I will be without me knowing.
It was an absolutely stunning morning with temps in the lower 50's and the leaves at about peak.
I got to run a major section of a "very hard" leg on a packed dirt road that was very hilly. I was allowed to have van support but my van never stopped to see if I wanted water or to cheer for me. Um, when I was in van 2 we stopped every mile or 2 and parked til the runner came by and moved along to the next mile down the road. I was extremely thirsty at this point and wanted to cry or ask another van for water. At least I had brought a 7 oz bottle with me but that did little to help me over 8 miles of hills.
I ate about 8 orange gum drop slices in an attempt for energy and to detract from the fact that I was so thirsty. I managed to get 15 kills in my back to back legs so I guess I was feeling better than most. As usual, my mood changed when I saw the sun hitting the trees just right and realized, "wow, this is stunning and I get to enjoy it."
I get to my exchange point and my mom was there with chocolate milk. I was so happy to see her. She also gave me her coca cola. My van came through with a bottle of water for me as well. Supposedly all done with my running we have one more girl to run for our van and we get to "rest" until it is time for us to finish as a team. So thankful they changed it around or I'd have to get back in van 2 and be the final leg runner.
They go and "tag" other vans in parking lots. All the vans use chalk paint to decorate as well and it is really quite fun to see all the different team names and crazy. They divided up the magnets the vans were tagged with later but I didn't end up with any since I didn't stick around much after the finish. I needed to get home so we could go to Buffalo for a birthday celebration on Sunday. (Chaos, that was my weekend).
Only the best support crew! My mom, totally amazing in every way.
I told the van how I was so thirsty so they should stop for the next girl every 2 miles to offer her water since she wasn't carrying any. At least I had a little something. The girl was thankful to have water. I also pointed out that our van had stopped in poison ivy as they were all about to hop out and cheer. They moved the van further up the road. I might be sleep deprived but I still have common sense.
We called ahead to van #2 and they weren't at the exchange point yet. They would be about 20 minutes. I was all for keeping the relay moving so I started putting on my running shoes and voluntarily hoped out of the van and picked up the next leg since it was easy and they could meet at the next exchange for the slap bracelet. At the exchange she was so very confused since I had given her the bracelet and I said the other gals would explain and took off.
My mom, not even knowing that I would be running an extra leg (it was all of 2 minutes that we determined I was running and that was too bad for the other van) showed up at my exchange point. I already said she is the best and that just proves it.
I finished that quick little leg and then we drove up to Lake Placid where I snagged a shower and a 40 minute nap after being awake for over 36 hours. We got to cross the finish line together and then I headed home with my mom. Yes, I quite quickly zonked out in the car, but not until after she insisted on stuffing me full of some food--- we settled on pizza at a local Lake Placid joint.
What I ran:
Leg 24--Easy 2.7 in the dark with 3 kills
Leg 28--Easy 2.8--with 3 kills
Leg29--Very Hard 7.8--with 12 kills
Leg 31--Easy 2.4--with 5 kills
Total Miles: 16.5 and not spread out like most of the other relay people legs were.
Did I have fun? Absolutely
would it be more fun with people you know--um, YES!
would I do this again? -- yes, with the right people and now that I have a better idea of how this whole thing works I want to put together and ultra team (group of 6 instead of 12) runners. Yup, I am crazy cause it takes a whole lot of crazy to get in a van with complete strangers in middle of the night and go running.
No comments:
Post a Comment