I am standing at the top of the stairs, a laundry basket full of stinky, sweaty, still slightly damp clothes to carry down for immediate washing in my arms, and I have to turn around to go backwards because it hurts less to get down that way. I've been Ragnared! And it was awesome!
The Ragnar is a long distance relay race with teams of 12, six in each van, each running 3 legs of varying distances ranging from 9 to 21 total miles. The Ragnar race series originated in Utah, but now has many locations across the country. This year was not only Ragnar's first ever Colorado race, but it was also my first ever Ragnar/relay, 188 miles stretching across the beautiful Colorado Rockies from Breckenridge to Vail to Snowmass/Aspen. It's very high altitude, our highest leg topped 10,000 feet above sea level, and gives you a feast for your eyes with its incredible mountain top scenery!
I know people who say they are addicted to marathoning, and while marathons don't sound all that fun to me, I do like my half marathons from time to time, but don't feel "addicted" to running them. But I can see relay races like this one being something I could really get hooked on! I love that you are running the Ragnar with friends, but, because everyone runs different legs, everyone can really run their own race.
Our team, The Angry Nerds, was formed by the sister-in-law (Torie) of a friend of mine (Tina) here in Colorado. Tina's husband, Brandon, is our ward's Young Men President, so we work together pretty often. They invited me to be part of the team back in the early spring, while I was training for my Seattle R&R Half. It sounded like a fun team, and I have a couple of friends who have done the Utah Wasatch Back Ragnar and had heard good things about the relay format, so I figured I'd just keep training after the half and go for it. I am so glad they invited me! Our van would be made up of six of us pals from Colorado, and the other van would be Tina's family/family friends, coming in from other parts of Colorado and California.
For the months leading up to the race, it seemed that our team was the team that wasn't meant to be. We had an early drop-out, which meant we had to find a new runner; then there were a few problematic injuries, including IT band problems that can flare up and are hard to treat; we found out two weeks before the race that one of our van 1 runners had a nursing lab for school she couldn't miss the Friday morning of the race, so she wasn't sure she could run anymore and if she wasn't going to run her sister also did not want to run, so to make sure she'd make her van's start time we had to switch vans and take on completely different running legs, yipes!; and finally, at the last minute, one of our van 1 runners, a friend from the ward, Mike, forgot to get the time off work for the Friday legs and couldn't make it. Stress!!!! It was a huge problem. But my sister-in-law, Alea, who was going to be visiting us in Colorado during the week of the Ragnar, came to our team's rescue and agreed to run, even though she hadn't been training (although she is a runner and was working out) and worried about the altitude difference (she's from Seattle).
So it was, amazingly, that we found ourselves at go time with a full team and ready to run. I was SO happy to be running with Al, one of my best gal pals. Honestly, while it would have still been a total blast, it wouldn't have been NEARLY as awesome if she hadn't been there. Love that girl.
We arrived in Breckenridge on Thursday night after 11pm for a brief sleep in a friend's timeshare in order to be up, out, checked-in, safety briefed, and ready for Tina's 7:30am start. Tina was our runner 1, Alea #2, Brandon #3, Dustin #4, Chad (my friend Adri's hubby) #5, and I took the sixth spot in our van. Chad had one Ragnar under his belt and Dustin had run two, but the rest of us were rookies, and for Tina this was the first race she had ever run; she had not even done a 5k! Hard core! Including the running speed, skill and experience of the folks in our second van, we were definitely in it for the fun, not the finish time! Which really took a lot of the stress away.
Tina started us off strong, for a beginner runner she was fast and kept a nice steady pace. We were all so impressed! Alea amazed us with the pace she kept, and really had no problem with the altitude at all. The girl's got some strong lungs! The boys ran extremely well, but all felt a little nasty at the end of their runs, the worst being Brandon, who was having some major IT band flare-up problems and could barely walk. We were a little worried he wouldn't be able to finish his other two legs, but he had some time to rest and ice, so we just had to wait and see.
My first leg was 7.5 miles...up a mountain. I was nerded up and ready to go! I was so thankful for the cool weather that had rolled in for the weekend! I had an 800 foot elevation gain in 5 miles, running from Frisco to Copper Mountain Resort. I always say that I don't mind hills, they don't intimidate me, but MAN! It was just up, and up and then more up. Every time I'd see a bend in the path I'd think, "Maybe there is a flat bit just around the bend," but there never was! I had studied the course map and I could see the steeply climbing freeway on the other side of the greenbelt, so I knew there wasn't going to be any flat bit, but I still always hoped! :) It didn't level out until there was about 2 miles left, and, really, it was still climbing, it just
felt level compared to what I had just done! I have to say it was the
hardest run I've ever done, but I did it, passing 5 people along the way, completing our van's 6 starting runs, and danced my way to the finish line in my predicted time of 1 hour, 2 minutes. It was awesome being the 6th runner because I got to run into the major exchanges, where there are more people because the vans are switching, and therefore, a lot more cheering. My friend Diana, who was in her team's van 2 and waiting to start, was even there cheering for me with her dad, Roger, who is in our ward and is always a great running support. I felt a little emotional as people cheered me on and I passed the snap bracelet "baton" to Tina's sister Allison, runner 1 for van 2.
Our van had totally rocked it! We were 25 minutes ahead of our projected pace time! I couldn't believe it was before 11am when we finished. It felt like we had been up all day long already. We had a nice lunch at a pizza place, and then drove to a high school about 30 minutes away for some rest before van 2 finished their first legs and passed the snap bracelet back to us for our second legs...the night legs. We dozed in the car and in the grassy verges next to the school while the students finished up classes and then came out to practice soccer and lacrosse with sleeping people all over the place. So funny! Al and I chatted and joked in between little snoozes, taking over the back seat of the car with our splay of running necessities.
When dusk fell it was our turn again, so we gathered together with van 2 and waited for the slap bracelet to arrive. While we waited at exchange 12, Torie taught us the Angry Nerds Chant:
We are the Nerds (clap, clap)
The Angry Nerds (clap, clap)
We use big words (clap, clap)
We eat cheese curds (clap, clap)
Repeat with just one clap then shout, "Gorgonzola!" and do a herkie and a pike.
Those happen to be cheer moves that only Torie could do with any finesse and that few of us could do at all by the end of the race!
The night legs. This was the part of the race that creeped me out the most. It was pretty freaky to think of running alone at night, and I had my longest run, 8.8 miles, to do in the dark. From the maps I thought I'd be running on forest trails, which scared me even more. Adam jokingly said he was going to call and ask Chad to run with me, but Chad had his own legs to run, so I had to buck up. Chad did help me though by giving me a nice folding knife to keep in my running belt. Not that I am secretly a ninja with stellar knife skillz or would even know what to do with it if I needed it, but it really did help to know it was there!
Once again, everyone in our van was amazing on our night runs. You wouldn't know Alea hadn't been training or that she lived at sea level. She was fast! Tina ended up switching legs with Brandon, which wasn't technically by-the-rules, but we weren't in it to win it, so no one was really paying attention to what we did. Plus, we weren't switching to improve our time, we just wanted Brandon to have a shorter, flatter leg that had van support (his original leg did not, so if he had needed to drop out we couldn't have picked him up easily). However, he was so determined, he powered through the pain and finished the leg at a pace that would put some of our van 2 runners to shame. It was fantastic. And Tina had no problem adding a couple of hilly miles to the run she originally thought she was going to do. I don't think we can call her a beginning runner anymore! Dustin and Chad still felt kind of yucky, but you wouldn't know it by how they ran. They performed really well! They kept telling us, "Sorry if it takes me longer to get to the exchange than projected," but then they ran speedily, seemingly with no problem.
My leg started at 10:55pm. Almost as soon as I started running I didn't feel scared anymore, and discovered that, while I was on a trail system, it wasn't in the woods; it was more like an urban trail that followed the main highway and ran beside neighborhoods, then along big open stretches of the middle of nowhere, and by some tiny airfields and mining facilities. I ran from Eagle to Gypsum, CO. Runners were pretty spread out by my leg; I had one runner about 1/4 mile ahead of me and one about 1/4 mile behind almost the entire time. Yes, I did keep checking to make sure they were there still, especially when I saw that I had to run through a creepy tunnel that went under the road.
While I was charging up the one significant hill of the course, focused on hauling to the top, I had a guy pass me, and it seemed like he came out of nowhere! He was going fast and all of a sudden he was right there beside me. I totally jumped out of my skin and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!" Then we had a good laugh and off he flew. Other than that brief terrifying moment, it was my favorite leg of the race. It was a perfect quiet and peaceful night, few cars were on the road, the course was pretty level, and once I got moving the air was cool but not too cold. The rural sky was bursting with stars, with a gorgeous and gigantic harvest half-moon poking up over the horizon just about halfway into my run. I loved it. Oh, sure, it was totally tough; I had already run a hard 7.5 miles, but it was amazing too, to realize what my body could do when I've worked hard to prepare it. I had to give myself little pep talks, but I had the determination to do it and do it well, and I did. Even if I was walking around like a drunken sailor for a bit at the end. I was a happy drunken sailor! The hard legs were done and I finished in one hour, ten minutes.
Here is what was bad about being the 6th runner. By the time I was finished we were all SO ready to get to the next major exchange so we could get as much sleep as possible that I didn't stretch like I should have. I totally regretted it, but we all jumped in the van after only a couple of minutes of stretching and headed off to Glenwood Springs to take a quick shower in the locker rooms, have a bite to eat provided as a fundraiser by the school's percussion ensemble, and get as much sleep as possible in our sleeping bags spread out across the floor of the bright gymnasium. Van 2 had short legs, so we didn't have a lot of time. I think I developed a temporary bit of narcolepsy on the drive to Glenwood. It felt like every time I blinked I found I had fallen asleep for a few minutes, drool included! Hilarious! At least I knew I'd have no problem falling asleep wherever I laid my pillow at our much-too-short stop.
The shower felt awesome, it was SO worth giving up a few extra minutes of sleep for it! Then Al and I had the percussion line's watery minestrone, but I was so hungry for something other than cinnamon-raisin bagels, Stinger waffles and plain-flavored Gu that it could have been dirty-sock-soup and it still would have been the best soup I ever had! We snuggled down into our sleeping bags and tried to sleep, which I did with ease, but Alea had a bit harder of a time falling asleep. I think I got 2
not-consecutive hours of shuteye (thanks to the guy sleeping nearby whose alarm went off for 10 minutes at
3:00am when I gave him a little shake of the shoulder and pointed to his alarm) before we had to get up at 4:15am to have Tina ready at the exchange.
Van 2 was struggling a bit, so we ended up waiting more than 30 minutes in the freezing night for Jennifer to get there. And it WAS freezing. A cold front had come in the day we started the race, which really was a blessing for us while running, but between runs we were cold a lot of the time. I didn't pack well for the cold, which was just stupid of me. Tina and Dustin were the only two in our van with jackets. Duh! How long have I lived in Colorado???! Even on hot days here we can have freezing nights, especially at the higher altitudes, and our days were cool, so the nights were downright frigid. I had a long-sleeve running shirt, but I had worn it during my night run and it was sweaty and still damp, which would have just been cold. So Alea lent me a light long-sleeved tee that she wasn't using, and I pulled out my sleeping bag and wrapped myself up in it, and then wrapped Tina, who had left her jacket in the car thinking the wait wouldn't be so long, up in it with me because we were so cold!!
As we were driving to the next exchange, we followed Tina's 6.3 mile final leg route. It was a KILLER. It was all uphill like my first run had been. All along the way, as we stopped here and there to cheer Tina on, we were able to witness the amazing pace she was keeping on the monster hill. She barely walked and totally powered herself up it! Al was up next with another amazing run. During all three of her runs we were all so impressed at how incredible she did without a single problem with the altitude at all. She had the most beautifully scenic run by far. She had a pretty steady climb too, but it was on a nice dirt road at the top of a pass, the sun rising over the mountain tops, cows mooing their hellos, she was totally in her element and smiling all the way.
I swapped with Brandon for this, our 3rd and final set of van exchanges. As runner 6 I was supposed to do a flat 3.0, but Brandon's 4.4 as runner 3 was taking us down all that up that Tina and Alea had just run, almost 1000 feet of altitude lost in just 3 miles, before leveling out into the city of Carbondale. Steep!! Not so great on the knees! I don't like downhills like that, but I knew Brandon wouldn't be able to do it at all with his injured knee, so we traded our runs. I just tried to stay loose and let my body take the hill fast to keep my knees safe. It was hard to open up my stride with my tight muscles, oh how I regretted the lack of stretching after the night run! But it was a beautiful morning and a beautiful location, add to that the joy of such a short run and the prospect of finishing my third and final run and I was propelled onward. I finished the 4.4 fast, in 32 minutes. Twenty point seven miles later, longer than I have ever run in such a short period of time, and with some pretty tough runs included, I was DONE!!! It felt amazing! Wow. My muscles were sore and tight, I hurt just about everywhere, I could have laid down on the concrete in the parking lot and fallen asleep and my old friend, the foot strain, was giving me a bit of a limp, but I couldn't have felt better.
Dustin had a very short 2.1, so we had to get in the van to meet him quickly, which meant no stretching again. Ug. He was done in a snap. Chad, unfortunately, had his longest run of the three as his last, and he was still feeling pretty bad. One of his knees was giving him a problem and his belly was a little distressed. He had gone kind of quiet shortly after his first run and we missed his spazzy cheerfulness ("Ragnar!") that had pepped us up so much on the first round of legs and I felt badly for him. He had a little burst of energy early on in our final set of legs, but I could tell he was worried about his long run ahead and how he would do. When we met Chad to cheer him on about 2 miles into his 6.7, Dustin gave Chad his knee brace (knees were a problem for our guys!), and later Chad said that if he hadn't put the brace on, he didn't know if he would have been able to finish. Phew! Brandon finished our van off, determinedly making his way on his painful knee 3.0 miles into Basalt, CO.
We were done! We were all so relieved, none more so than the suffering guys! Here is the best part though: even with all the pain, injury, tummy troubles and worry, everyone finished strong; no one quit or gave up, everyone did their part; everyone continued to support one another and cheer each other on; everyone was flexible and went with the flow; we all continued to laugh and have a good time in our van, trying to make light of the problems; we were still having a great time!
We finished just after 10am and drove to Snowmass/Aspen to await van 2 so we could all cross the finish line together. It had been less than 27 hours, just barely over one day, since we started running. But it felt like a week! We ate at Venga Venga at the top of the Snowmass gondola, but my stomach had shrunk so much and had just kind of turned itself off, that after just a few bites of my gigantic stack of delicious, not cinnamon-raisin-bagel nachos, I was done. Tina, Alea and I could have shared just one of the three plates of nachos we ordered! We ended up giving one of our plates to another friendly team that had arrived after us.
The wait at Snowmass was long! I think van 2 was getting pretty tired. Even with injuries, our van was keeping pretty close to our anticipated finish times, but van 2 was way behind. We walked around the finish line area, and then laid down in the grass and took a nice, restful nap in the shadow of the massage tents, and even got a few massages ourselves when people who had signed up didn't show up. Lucky us! I originally had been kind of grossed out by the prospect of mass group massages, but in the wake of 20 plus miles of running, my muscle discomfort overcame my germaphobia!
Van 2 showed up around 2:30pm, saying that they had exchanged Jennifer, our final runner, at 1:30 and she was hoping to finish in 2 hours. She must have scrapped that plan early on! The final leg was 8.2 miles with a lot of hill climbing. Did I say a lot? Cuz there was a lot. It was the hardest leg of the race. I think Jennifer decided she was just going to walk, and maybe even stop a lot to update her facebook status, because it took her an average of 19 minutes per mile to finish. We were all so ready to go home, so it was a hard wait, but Jennifer finally pulled in just before 4:15pm. A few of our runners took the gondola to the top of the hill to make the final descent to the finish line with her. The rest of us walked/limped/stumbled a short way up the hill to meet Jennifer and the others with about 50 yards to the finish line so we could all jog the last little bit with her, The Angry Nerds crossing the finish line together 33 hours after starting!
I have indeed been Ragnared. I am sore and achy and walking a bit like a robot. My dumb foot strain needs some R and R. But I am so happy and feel so great. I want more! I am excited for the next time I get to do a relay--once I can move like a normal person again, that is! I love the feeling of accomplishing something hard and stretching my limits. And I love that I got to do this, not only with some amazing people and great friends, but also with my sister-in-law and dear friend, Alea. I am a Ragnarian!
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| Ready to go! Driving up to Breckenridge in "our" backseat |
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| "Sleep?" is right! |
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| Van 1 at the safety briefing |
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| The snap bracelet...that got sweatier and sweatier! |
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| Tina with her running turn directions, written out and taped up so they wouldn't get wet |
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| Ready set go! Chad, Tina, Brandon, Dustin, me and Alea at the starting line a.k.a. Murd the Nerd, Tina is Neata, Bran"done", Eat My Dust Dustin, Colleen(ie) the Mean(ie), and, a special name I have for Alea now, Altitudea. |
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| Sunrise in Breckenridge |
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| And they are off...up a huge hill! |
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| The team costumes and van decor are a fun part of the experience |
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| Al's first leg...cramming some last minute turn directions! |
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| Go Team Angry Nerds!!! |
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| Like the brows? Oh yeah. We can thank Dustin for those! |
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| Alea about to receive the slap bracelet from Tina for our first exchange of the race! Doesn't she look ready to go?! :) |
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| Off she goes! A smile on her face! |
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| Ultra Ragnar teams are made up of 3 to 6 people, rather than the 12, who run the whole dang thing themselves! Yipes! |
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| Go Al! Altitude? What altitude? |
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| Fall was arriving in the mountains! Gorgeous! |
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| Brandon is good to go! |
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| Handing off to Dustin! |
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| Slappin' a high five to one of the team members of Safety First, one of our favorite teams. |
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| Oh my gosh, Chad. Gettin' into the nerd spirit! |
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| Setting a mean pace...look at that grin! |
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| The middle seat between Alea and me. Home to all our Ragnar necessities! |
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| Frisco |
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| Embracing the inner nerd. Love the backdrop! LOL!!!! |
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| It's not hard to nerd-out when my inner nerd is ALWAYS trying to get out! I was so ready to run. It was hard waiting for my turn, my nerves were almost shot! |
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| It was only just after 9am, but our 5:15 wake up call was beginning to show! |
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| 2/3 of the way up my mountain...my team waiting at the one place they could meet me and the one and only non-exchange water station I encountered (if there is van support, there aren't water stations). Thanks guys! |
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| Did I just run up a mountain? Oh yes I did! |
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| Coming into exchange 6 at Copper Mountain Resort. One leg down, two to go! |
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| This one was for Zac so he could see one of his favorite ski runs without all the snow! |
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| Lunch. Mmmm. |
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| Rest anywhere you can. |
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| Piggies killed are the people we passed, bird killas were when we were passed. |
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| Exchange 12! Time to do it all over again. Our team captain, Torie, is the one striking the most excellent pose. :) |
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| Alea, all ready for her night run! |
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| The night run gear |
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| My secret weapon! |
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| Done with our second set of runs! Hallelujah! Trying to catch some Z's in the gym. Notice the lights were not off. I'm in the blue bag on the right. |
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| Tina and I at exchange 24, heading into our final legs. Tina and Alea had to wear the night gear for two of their runs because their final legs were so dang early in the morning. |
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| Final leg...GO! |
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| Sunrise and cows |
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| Glorious! |
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| Nerdolicious at my last exchange, waiting for... |
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| Alea!!! |
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| Every leg had this sign. It was a sweet mercy to see every single time! |
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| Angry Nerds waiting for Brandon at exchange 30. |
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| And with a SLAP! we were done! |
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| Time to eat! Tableside homemade guac! Deeeeeelish. |
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| The mountain of nachos |
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| Dustin, Brandon and Tina in the gondola |
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| Me, Alea and Chad...ready to rest by the finish line. Chad's face says it all. |
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| Jennifer finally arrives and we head down to the finish line as a team! |
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| Team Angry Nerds DONE! L to R--Front: April, Jennifer, Allison, Alea, Me, Tina and Torie; Back: Chad, Joe, Shaun, Brandon and Dustin |
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| L to R: Brandon, Shaun, Tina, Joe, Allison, Dustin, Torie, Alea, Me, Chad, Jennifer, April |
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| So glad to do this together! |
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| Homage to Napoleon D. and Riptide Rush, the only Gatorade flavor worth drinking! |
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| :) |
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| We drove home over the tops of the mountains. A long 4-hour drive that Alea and I split in half, although we did miss our backseat paradise! |
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| The views were gorgeous, when you got over the terror of the sheer drops and crazy-curvy one-lane roads. |
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| I missed having Adam with me and the strength he gives me when I feel weak and the encouragement I get from him when I am at the brink. There were times I would have loved to have crumpled into his arms and just been held for awhile. Maybe even cried a bit. But he was supporting me from home by taking great care of our boys, plus Alea's two, with his mom's help. On top of taking care of the babes, he made Alea and I these fantastic race bib/finisher's medal displays to use for all our big runs. Aren't they great?! Love my guy. So much. |
