The Aftermath of Ragnar

Note: I wrote this on 10/27/10 but it took me a bit to receive then figure out how to include the pictures I wanted.  I'm slowly figuring this blogging thing out!

Well, I am alive and here is my report on participating in the Las Vegas 2010 Ragnar Relay:  It was miserable, it was torturous, it was… AWESOME!

I can barely keep my eyes open as I sit here and contentedly eat my Ben & Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream (totally deserve it).  I am shifting my ice packs from front to back on both knees.  I am exhausted, utterly exhausted….

Okay, that’s as far as I got in writing this entry on Saturday night before sleep overwhelmed me.  I am now picking up again on Wednesday night.  I got hit hard Sunday with the chest cold I’d been fighting off leading up to this event and have had to take a few down days.  It’s good, though, because I have some distance from the actual event and can report on how my perspective has changed over a few days.  So here’s what I think now:  It was miserable, it was torturous, it was… AWESOME!

Definitely "psycho".  At the starting line at 6:15 am.



 Yeah, I still pretty much feel the same.  Although some things I expected to be bad or unpleasant met expectations; overall, it was much better than I anticipated.  First and foremost I was on THE best team I could’ve come across. (Yo! American Psychos!)  Since I was a last-minute replacement, I was just thrown into a big unknown situation but luckily hit the jackpot big-time with how incredibly awesome my teammates were.  They were fun, motivating, easy-going and just plain nice people to be around.



The whole gang "American Psychos" at the finish line.



Our whole team really stepped it up and we got ourselves about 2 hours ahead of our expected pace and kept it rockin’ the whole time, even in spite of some mishaps along the way.  My own performance was a bit of a mixed bag and I will report in more detail soon when I get some better pictures from my teammate. 

So what did we do out there? The 12 of us ran a total of 195 miles around and into Las Vegas over the course of about 33 hours.  We started at 6:15 am on Friday morning and one of the 12 of us was always running for the next two days.  We each had 3 legs to run throughout the course.  My own legs were 8.8, 4.3 and 6.9 miles for a total of about 20 miles.  When we weren’t running we were zipping around the course in our killer Suburban to cheer on our performing teammate while trying to stay fueled on bagels and energy bars, pottying in biffies and keeping ourselves prepared to jump out ready to rock our next leg of the relay - all on zero sleep!  Yeah, now that’s my idea of a good time…if I were in hell.



Me in hell.  Actually, in a Suburban trying to get some sleep at about 2 am.

Of course the physicality of the race is just one part of it.  This event takes some serious mental tuffness.  This type of racing format is a cruel thing to inflict upon yourself because you’re pushing yourself hard to run some pretty decent distances not just one time, but three.  I think that the fact that you get rest and down-time in between your legs is actually what makes it so tough.  In doing this relay, I’ve decided I need to experience two other challenges that, up until now, didn’t hold much appeal for my lazy self:  a marathon and a mini-triathlon.  The marathon because I’m now convinced that running a really long distance is better to do all at once without those annoying breaks in between.  And the triathlon because I’m also now convinced that if you’re going to do some sort of relay thing it’s better to do three different activities in order to switch it up. 



Beauties surrounded by beauty.



During the event, if you’d asked me, I’d have said I never needed to do another Ragnar Relay again in my life.  Don’t get me wrong; there was definitely exhilarating moments sprinkled throughout.  Just the fun camaraderie of being a part of a team with the same goal in mind made it an unforgettable experience.  Then there’s the spectacularness of being out in some absolutely gorgeous surroundings, running at times and places you’d never expected to be before; being mostly by yourself and really reaching down deep to tap into that inner strength and determination that, really, every one of us truly has when it comes down to it.



I think that’s why I needed to do this:  to remind myself that, sure, it stinks to have to do hard things.  But we do them and we find that we can enjoy and even exult in the experience of rising to the challenge.



Good times.  Good times.  I can’t believe I did it…and I’m sure glad I did.







What Am I Thinking?!?

Note:  I actually wrote this post on 10/17/10 before doing the Ragnar event.  I just didn’t get around to posting it until now.  My post-event report will be coming very soon!

Why?  Why?  Why did I commit to running leg #2 of the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay with only 2 week’s notice?  Ragnar Relay is a 24-hour 195 mile relay race made up of teams of 12 people.  Everyone on the team runs 3 legs anywhere from 3-10 miles long.  As runner #2 my legs happen to be 8.8 miles (under the classification “very hard” – great), 4.3 miles (easy – whew!) and 3 miles (easy – love it!).

Okay, I’ve run plenty of 5K fun runs.  I don’t consider myself a distance runner at all.  I was a hurdler and high jumper in my track days.  3.1 miles is a challenge for me but is fun and do-able, which is why I like 5Ks.  I have done one 10K in my life back in college.  I ran it casually with some friends and think I even walked a ways while going up the steepest hill.  Several months ago K and I ran a 4 mile obstacle course fun run and had a blast!  It was a tad unorganized but we think we got 2^nd in our division; I was brutally edged out at the last moments while crawling through the mud pit.  (Note to self:  add more mud-pit crawling training to workouts).  Then we biked through most of the summer or did our circuit workouts at home, which did include some shorter running intervals but I certainly hadn’t done any long runs recently.  So why would I think I could handle jumping into an extreme road race that totals a running distance of over 5 times what I’m accustomed to?!?

I’m nutty.  I’m crazy.  K certainly thinks I am and has told me so several times.  What has added insult to injury, literally, is an actual injury.  Since I committed to run this, I’ve gone on two longer runs of about 6 miles.  In regards to my fitness and fatigue levels, I felt pretty darn good.  But both times around the two mile mark this stabbing pain started behind my right knee and persisted  and intensified for the rest of the run.  Ugh.  I have never dealt with this before.  I suspect some tendonitis or maybe a bit of a strain.  I know I need new running shoes and I also know that I increased my mileage way too quickly and suddenly.  But I still think that if I had tried doing this same thing even a few years ago, I wouldn’t be dealing with this issue.  So I’m blaming the majority of the problem on age.  I’m getting old and my body ain’t the same.

How it happened is that I received an email from a friend who was trying to find some one to fill in for an injured team member that had to pull out at the last minute.  I initially dismissed the email but I found I couldn’t get it out of my head.  I’d heard of those extreme road relay races and was intrigued by the notion but my interest hadn’t extended further than that.

I don’t know why the pull to jump into the race was so strong.  I think a big thing is that I wanted to kinda test myself and see if I was up for challenging myself like I never have before.  And also to see if my fitness routines have been doing me any good.  I’m pretty happy right now with my weight and body composition and feel that I’m quite “in-shape”.  I love the idea of just being able to jump into any adventurous situation and enjoy it because I’m trying to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle. 

I am excited to do this and feel I’m up to the challenge … if it weren’t for my darn knee.  Oh well; overcoming difficulties is what life is all about, right?  Plus it provides me with a handy excuse in case I totally suck.

Ummm… I’ll keep you posted.  I might be dead next week but if I’m not, I shall return and report.