This is the story.... of 12 people in 2 vans, picked to run 200 miles and have the most exhausting, fun, sleep deprived, party weekend ever. See what happens when they get out of the vans and start running...
So last year, my friend Jessica told me about this race she was involved in, called a Ragnar Relay. I'm not sure whether I actually ASKED her about it or whether she just told me, because I do recall she asked me if I wanted to run it with her last year. I decided to pass.... but in Dec 2010 she asked me about doing it with her, in April 2011. What the hell, why not? She told me 'I hate running. You love running. If I can do it and want to do it AGAIN, you'll LOVE it.'
Thursday evening: 4/14/11
'The girls' from van 1 are all at a hotel in Ontario, chillin, eating ice cream, planning for the morning. We had good intentions of trying to get to bed early but uh, since I was sitting in the car wash at 5:30 when Stacy was supposed to pick me up, we got started a bit later than expected. Then we were going to pick up Lisa but her husband wasn't home yet... so off to pick up Jessica. Jessica wasn't READY so we figured we'd go back and pick up Lisa first. We made a detour to Jack in the Box because.... we were starving. Runners often have that happen...
I think we got on the road by 8...ish? Shopping trip to SuperTarget to get any missed items etc. I can't sleep very well when I travel, and we all stayed up talking, even after we went to bed, so it must've been after 1:30 by the time we were passed out.
Friday morning: 4/15/11
First alarm going off at 5 am and I was running for the shower, we all had to hurry and get ready so we could meet the guys and have breakfast. Funny true moment - our team name was Road Rage and we were dressing as a roller derby team. Purple vnecks, black booty shorts, fishnets, argyle socks, bandanas. When we walked into the hotel's breakfast area, the looks on the other patrons' faces was PRICELESS. Priceless I tell you! You wanna turn heads? Join a Ragnar team =)
2011 Road Rage ~Lisa Jen Stacy Jessica~
Friday morning: 4/15/11 - HIDE YOUR WIFE, HIDE YOUR KIDS...
On the drive to Huntington Beach with the guys, we discovered our 'theme' for the weekend quite by accident when someone brought up Antoine Dodson and the bed intruder song. Trust me, you hear that ONCE, it's in your head all damn day. It was in ours all.weekend.long. Here is our van -
*hide your kids*
And here are our **HOMEBOYS**
Jason & Wade, Road Rage 2011
We were having a lot of fun goofing off and posing for pictures and decorating our van at the start.... until I realized it was like... 9:52 and I needed to get my booty to the start line! I could hear the announcer talking to people at the start. The thing about a relay of this size is that there are like 500 teams competing, so start times are staggered and began from 6 AM. Our 'sister' roller derby team, CA Rollers, started at 8 AM because their avg pace was slower. Our start was 10 AM, and my guess was there were maybe 25 teams in the same starting slot. I think some of my teammates got some pics of the starting line but I was kind of in the zone by then, getting ready.
My first run was pretty enjoyable, I wasn't too concerned about getting lost because we were running along the beach on a paved trail, and I could always see a few people running ahead. No traffic or lights and no wind! Living in the high desert and training in very windy conditions has taught me to HATE running in wind. I'm not sure what's worse, running into the wind, or running in the rain. Probably running into the wind. Rain doesn't knock you onto your butt and sap all your energy. All in all, it was a beautiful run but the last 10 min or so were very HOT. Before the race began, I wasn't at all sure about STARTING off the relay, but it turns out I got to run before it was totally blazing, and for that I am GRATEFUL. I couldn't get my cardiotrainer app started before I had to take off running, so I didn't have that to help me gauge my distance or time, so when I saw what looked like a heads up for exchange 2, I was excited - curious to see whether I'd stayed on pace, was ahead, or behind. My 10K pace avg I listed was 9:00 miles, hoping to take into account getting lost, changed courses, extended leg mileage, heat, hills, nasty wildlife, accidents... I finished my first 5 mile leg in approx 38 min - 7:45 avg pace, well ahead of my projected. I handed off the slap bracelet to Jason, our awesome runner 2 and chugged a bottle of water after making sure I wasn't going to puke on my husband and daughter who had come to meet me after my leg!
Jason's leg passed by rather quickly BECAUSE as we found out, being all Ragnar virgins EXCEPT Jessica - it takes a real amount of time to get from one exchange to the next! Just imagine for a moment... somewhere along the course are 500 vans! Staggered start times and different speeds and abilities of various runners all complicate things even more. Toss in midday general traffic AND some road construction?! I think we managed to get to the 3rd exchange for Lisa's leg before Jason got there, but we didn't have much time to spare. We had started out wanting to see if we could shadow our runners some as they ran, but it was priority that we were able to get the next runner to the exchange before the previous runner arrived, so we didn't get to see any of Jason's run. Lisa's run was over 5 miles, so we had almost an hour to get Wade to his exchange point - we snuck in a trip to change and take a quick bathroom break. It was seriously HOT and we were beginning to worry about van 2.... at this point I don't think they were yet at exchange 6. Wade made great time during his leg and we got to exchange 5 to wait with Stacy - she had a short leg for her first but it had a horrible monster HILL that we saw dozens of people walking on! So proud of Stacy, she was RUNNING! We cheered her on and hurried to exchange 6 to wait with Jessica and meet up with van 2! After our first round of legs was completed, I am happy to report we were still on pace with our projections!
Drew, Jake, and Loren - three of Road Rage van 2!
Time for some R&R and some dinner - while Jessica ran her 2.7 mile leg, we hung out at the exchange with van 2 and after she handed off the baton to Drew, we took advantage of the chiropractic stretching, protein bar samples, and starbucks coffee. Upon packing up to go head to exchange 12, we decided to hit up Togos for some real dinner:
Friday night and the livin's easy.... well, if you're not runner 1 that is. I remember starting to get antsy and cabin feverish - or maybe it was the whole 6-people-in-a-van thing. Our estimated pace had me running again about 7:15... but I think something happened inbetween during one of the earlier legs of van 2, maybe Drew or Joe's because they were longer or more hilly, because it was 7:15 and Jake was still running. I had to wear my night gear for this leg - anything between 6:45 PM and 6:45 AM was considered night running, and I had to wear a reflective vest, a headlamp, and a flasher somewhere on my back. I clipped my flasher to the back of my headlamp strap - coolio, eh?
here's Jake after the exchange - he must've been thrilled to send me packing lol!
Running at night is fun, different - unlike some people, it doesn't bother me. I can run alone as well as run with people, makes no difference to me. Stacy and I did some night runs together to test our race equipment about a week before the race. My second leg felt fast as well, it got dark during the run so I ran down the flashers ahead of me to get 'kills'... ahh I forgot to talk about THAT! Kills are people we pass running! I think I got 4 kills in my first leg, Jason got 6, Lisa got 6, Wade got 11, Stacy got 9, and Jessica got 5. I think I got 11 in my second leg... PROBLEM though! I was running to my exchange and looking for Jason, and I couldn't FIND HIM! It turns out my van got waylaid at a SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT and they were sitting there forEVER. Thank GOD they were let thru as soon as they discovered it was a Ragnar van, I was yelling 'where's my runner? WHERE'S MY RUNNER?!' and people were staring at me like I was crazy! Jason said that while they were still driving, he saw me looking for him and he made them stop the van and let him out so he could get over there, he was haulin ass, running across the street and yelling for me so I would see him. I'm not sure if I actually made up any time, I ran my second 5.3 mile leg in about 43 min, so 8:06, but in the projections we were still 45 min behind. We piled into the van and decided to try and find or meet up with Jason as he was running, this was his killer 9.3 mile leg that included a 2 mile horse trail he had to sign a waiver for - something about not holding Ragnar responsible for stinging nettles and poison oak and snakes and ... God knows what else =P We found a good spot to catch up with him and got out to wait. It was so cool to see him come running toward us as we cheered and gave him water and sent him on his way for his last mile!
Wade ran Lisa's night leg with her and then his own - we drove past them on our way to the next exchange and honked and yelled - they were WALKING lol. It was pretty close to the middle of the night by this time and it was getting cold and a little breezy. Jessica was dismayed that her second leg had increased to 7 miles and was no support, as well as starting around midnight, depending when Stacy arrived at the exchange, so I decided to run with her. We ran into some of the CA Rollers at the exchange and chatted with them for a second -
- but then suddenly Stacy was in the exchange chute yelling for Jess. I had to pitch Prak's water bottle and take off after her! We had a very good and easy run, a lot of it was downhill grade and it only took us 68 minutes! Not bad considering at the last mile we actually didn't cut thru the field and tacked on an extra .2 of a mile, oops. We passed off to Drew and then headed to the next big exchange to SLEEP for a bit.
A little PSA about sleeping in a van.... who DOES that? I must've dozed a bit ONLY because I remember dimly getting to the exchange and a volunteer telling us - you can only park in here if you plan to sleep OUTSIDE your van. If you want to sleep INSIDE your van, you have to park THERE. I wasn't driving or in the front seat, so I figured whoever was up there would tell me if I had to get up or not, and I nodded off again for a short while. When I woke up, I thought my teammates had gone crazy, Wade was raving about 'wet dog' and laughing at Lisa for having a wool blanket over her head, I heard someone talking about how the van was going to combust, something about no windows being open and they couldn't breathe. This struck me as really really REALLY damn funny and so I was curled up in my seat shaking because I didn't want to laugh out loud and have anybody know I was awake and listening to them. Jessica's seat was leaned back all the way into mine and mine was pretty much leaned into Wade's lap. I remember checking the time because I figured I'd have to run again around 5ish.. or 5:30, and once I was awake, I was thinking about running again.
I was actually glad it was light out when I started, even though I had to wear my night gear still, because my last leg was the one I was most concerned about getting lost. I get lost more than anybody I know, and if things are not well marked, well...
Running when you're sleep deprived is weird too, I was kinda tired, but had the adrenaline thing going on too. Originally my last leg was supposed to be along the coast and the water, but it got changed, it was shortened from 7 to 5.5 (I'm sure the extra I lost was tacked on in Jason's horse trail) and it was more inland. I still got some beautiful views of the water and town, but we ran up by Legoland, and there were some hilly areas there. I was most excited when I saw my van go by, slow, and cheer for me, I made a kill while running downhill seeing my van drive around the corner. The only trouble with this leg was it was all sidewalk and lots of traffic lights. Safety first in the Ragnar, so everybody was supposed to wait for the walk signals and cross only in a cross walk. At one crossing I had whomped on the crossing button and was impatiently waiting for the light to change and this guy behind me starts yelling at me not to cross the street. Oh, DUH, there was ONLY a ragnar sign that said 'cross and then left' which meant to cross the street and THEN turn left, not turn left and then cross at some undetermined point yet up ahead. I got a lot of kills on this run because not only were people walking, they were running the wrong way. When I was probably within a mile of the end, I was waiting at another crosswalk when a girl behind me passed me and ran right out in the street. There was a TRUCK about to turn and it almost ran into her - the guy was signaling and making faces like 'are you CRAZY?!'. I crossed the street after the truck went and the light had changed, caught up with her waiting at the second crosswalk and then passed her immediately for being so dumb. It was SOOO nice to see the exchange coming up and Jason waiting, that meant I was DONE running! My last run I was right on 49-50 min which was my avg pace of 9 minute miles - good considering I ran my first 2 over a minute faster and added an extra 7 mile run at 9:30ish - no sleep, riding around in a van for 2 days - did I fail to mention no sleep? Haha!
No sleep - till Brooklyn! I mean... Coronado Island!
I know that at some point, I decided to change out of my last running outfit and back into my Road Rage outfit, I THINK we were at the cool exchange with the bunny girls. Since there was very little parking, Wade was going to park in this other area and several of our van mates kept telling him not to, I think I told him to do it anyway lol. He was going to, when we saw ONE spot right on the other side of the fence, so he backed into it. While I was in the van, CHANGING, (after I warned everybody btw), Lisa came around and tried to open one door, while Stacy or Jessica opened the other. Granted, you usually can't see into a minivan with one door open but with BOTH? I was hollering and yelling because I had my shorts off and was trying to put my fishnets on again and really didn't think we needed to give the exchange a show. On top of that, one of the 15 passenger vans was trying to get out of its parking spot, and it came about 2 inches from hitting Stacy's van - and I was sitting right by the window lol. I took a lot of pictures of other vans at this exchange, I think that's when I saw this guy:
self explanatory - running sucks
Fave volunteers/exchange
We had a few more legs to get through - during Stacy's last leg we found her and video'd her dumping water on herself and dancing to 'hide your kids hide your wife' and during Jessica's, we found her and cheered as she was running up her monster hill!
Jessica and Jake - our awesome Ragnar veterans - van 1 is now DONE and Jake will be bringing the whole team in with leg 36 at the beach!
Here is us EATING at In N Out!
All the guys mentioned the whole time was In N Out. It was a GREAT post-race celebration meal because really, who could eat that and then still RUN a leg? *shudder*
After dinner we went to check in at the hotel and shower and head to the finish line to wait for van 2 and Jake. I don't think I really rested at all, even though I laid down for a bit. We received some info that said parking was at a premium at the race finish, so they were only letting vans with van numbers in priority, if you had lost your van number you'd get second shot, if you were just a spectator, you might be screwed. My husband and daughter arrived at the hotel while I was showering, so I told them i'd go in the van and just meet them - it sounded like it might take till at least 6 or later for Jake to finish the last leg so we had time - I think it might have been around 4:30 and we were pretty close to the finish area.
Here we are at the end!
I absolutely know I'm nuts because I'm already planning another one, Napa Valley Ragnar Relay 2011 (Sept) here I come =D
