RAGNAR 2013- The One Van Plan

With Ethan having recently turned 8 I've been either pregnant or nursing for the last 9 years.  It's been lots of gaining and losing weight and not a whole lot of true exercise in between.  Don't get me wrong- being a mom is a pretty active job and the weight has basically come off each time.  But Isla has been my best and longest nurser and I was getting a little antsy to lose the weight since it never comes off until I stop nursing.  So when some of our law school friends asked if I'd join their RAGNAR team, I was just a little bit brave and agreed to do it.  In truth I probably should have started with a 5K or something but oh well, I just went with it.  It helped that my Visiting Teacher is their mom and she's an amazing runner- (just ran the Boston Marathon for the 3rd time) and she put together a plan to follow.  I started the end of March and worked up from needing to walk after just 4 minutes to running 7 miles straight.  I'm still not fast but at least I'm a steady runner.  It also helped that Taylor's sister randomly also decided to run RAGNAR, with a different team though, so she was my running partner the last few weeks.  

Bright and early we all piled into our van and drove up to Logan to start the race.  Normally for RAGNAR your team has 12 runners and each person has 3 legs to do over the course of 1 1/2 days and 198 miles.  Usually the teams break into groups of 6 and drive in 2 vans.  But our group was a little crazy and decided that it wasn't as much fun if we weren't all together.  So all 12 of us crammed into a 15 passenger van for a big adventure.

Running.

 Waiting for our turn.

Counting our kills.  At first when I heard about this I was a little disgusted.  When you pass someone, you call it a kill.  And you get to tally each one on the side of your van.  I was only mostly bothered because I knew I'd be getting passed a lot but it turned out to be really fun.  And our team had some amazing runners on it so we passed A LOT of people and having all 12 people in 1 van to mark made it look even more impressive.  A whole 7 of those tally marks are mine!

 That's our van number.  RAGNAR is ridiculously popular out here and there were over 2000 teams that ran the race.  Thankfully we started on the less busy day so it wasn't so much chaos.

 It was a little crazy to pile in and out of our very cramped van but I think our friends were right.  It was SO much fun to be with everyone!  The group was mostly made up of friends and siblings of our two GW friends and they were hilarious.

 Look at those fabulous runners: one about to go on a mission, 2 over 55, 2 sisters, and 1 who was in such good shape that she got called the night before the race at 10pm and agreed to come run anyways.

 Sadly I didn't lose a single pound during my training or race.  Not a single pound.  For 3 months.  But I was nursing up until the last 2 weeks.  It was a little disappointing but I'd still do it all again.  I just feel a little self conscious posting pictures of me in tight running clothes next to these fit guys.

 It really was a beautiful countryside to run through.  Mostly you stay off the main roads and can just enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery.

 Our team was really supportive and we'd drop off our next runner and see them off and then drive ahead a mile or so and all pile out to cheer them on... soccer tunnels... doing the wave... leaving packages of cookies (inside joke).  It was so much fun and felt like being back in high school.

 Okay so some of the stops were to give our runners water.

 And then it was back into the van.

 And then back out to run.  My first leg was 4.7 miles and pretty flat and at 2 in the afternoon.  The next was 3.6 miles and straight up and down over a pass gaining over 650 feet in elevation.  I was grateful it was 10pm so it was cooler and darker.  The stars were just amazing with no street lights or houses around.  My last leg was 4.1 miles and pretty flat again.  It was 8 in the morning so it was still mostly cool but the sun was up.  On my first leg I tried to go to fast and had to occasionally stop and walk for a minute.  Thankfully with my training schedule, I'd learned how to stop and breath for a minute and then start back up again.  So it was fine.  On my second leg, climbing a mountain basically, I did a lot of speed walking.  And my last leg I was proud of myself for not walking once.  I wasn't fast but I stayed the course.  And I made it.  I ran RAGNAR!

We finished in 29 hours and 15 minutes.  It was exhausting.  It was exhilarating.  It was amazing.  And I survived.   And I'd do it again if they asked!  And my medal was pretty cool for about 1 hour- until Miles dropped it and it broke :(.  Oh well.  I was so excited for 1 1/2 days away from my kids, hanging out with adults, and to accomplish this goal.  In the end.  The moments I really remember- besides the hilarious ones with our team, are the quiet tender moments while I was running that made me think of my kids.  During my first leg I ran through a neighborhood and at one of the driveways, 2 little boys were sitting in lawn chairs with a hose.  They soaked me nicely (it felt so good at 2 in the afternoon) and I couldn't stop smiling thinking how much my 3 little boys would love to spend an afternoon soaking random running strangers.  It was moments like that that made me miss my littles.  It was nice to be away and I'm glad I did it, but it was nice to come home too- and nice to lay around for 2 days and be pampered by Taylor.