Ok so in all of my life, I never thought I would

1) enjoy running trails,
2) enjoy running 200 miles with 11 friends,
3) connect with and actually meet some of the awesome people I have met through running groups online,
4) reconnect with some of the people I haven’t seen in a long time
5) I didn’t realize how much The Stick Marathon Stick would come in handy…. ever. BEST. INVESTMENT. EVER.

I don’t think I can stress enough how awesome this experience of running ragnar was. After Leah’s first leg, we met up with some of van 2 and watched as Sheena began her first leg. Steep incline, dusty ass dirt road. As we passed Sheena, and temps were high, we asked if she needed anything. We hooked her up with some water and then called van 2. They had missed her at some point and were going to drop off the next runner and backtrack. Needless to say, I am the only runner who got lost during Ragnar DC and that was during my first leg through Rocky Gap State Park forest at the butt crack of dawn in complete darkness (WOOO!!!). Anywho, as far as I could tell, Cedric beasted the second hardest leg on the course and Leanne, Shana, Allison and Andrew managed their legs absolutely wonderfully! Allow me to recap with some of their pictures:

 

Meanwhile, van 1 was parked at the school, aka: exchange point 12. I nervous peed and goofed off while eagerly awaiting the start of my next leg. Andrew arrived as it was getting dark (or was dark?) and we made the exchange and I was off and down the street out of the small town we stopped in and on a semi-fast paced road. It wasn’t 68 but it was definitely a place where cars were rollin through with approx speed of 50 mph. No fun, running on a road with no shoulder, where cars are going that fast. Add to it, the rape barns and corn fields where it looked like children of the corn were gonna roll out and take me and I hauled my happy ass along up and over hills and to our van. All of the runners that passed me were really supportive and I tried to provide the same support when I passed people (even if that was rare… me passing people hehe). It took me 52 mins to run the 4.9 miles (per my garmin) for my second leg. With my foot giving me very little to no trouble at the time, I was surprised at the rate at which I was able to wrap up that leg. For me, that is pretty speedy… especially as of late with a gimp foot (YAY!). 

As I crested the last hill of my leg (thanks ragnar, for putting a hill at the end of a pitch dark almost 5 mile run!), I was “talking” or shouting to myself (might have been profanities) and asking where Kyle was. Then I hear my brother shout, “Hey, she’s coming!” and I was like, SWEET they must be up ahead! So I ran up and gave Kyle the slap bracelet and then proceeded onward to the van. The night time legs were creepy and interesting all at the same time and we ran to/from/by a lot of fields, churches and cemeteries. The night runs for van 1 were awesome. We got very little sleep and then were up for the third round of legs for everyone! Everyone’s third legs were not terrible in van 1, except Leah’s whose was 8.6 miles or so… in the heat. It wasnt terribly fun, but like her other teammates, she motored and got us into Chevy Chase quickly!

I would continue to write about each of the legs, but to be honest, I can see this post/series continuing far past the “beaten a dead horse” thing, so lemme wrap this up with a few things. 

1) I never could have done this without the entire team. Thank you to all 11 runners and (no offense) more importantly our three volunteers, Sarah, Lauren and Cliff.
2) The entire race was awesome! The experience was great and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
3) My foot is stable and unstable all at once.
4) I am in LOVE with trail running!
5) I can’t believe we haven’t signed up for our next Ragnar, BUT we are in the planning stages 🙂

See yall on the flip side. (yea, I said it. the flip side)