Ragnar Relay Recap - Part 1

Holy cow. I can not believe Ragnar is over. I also didn't expect it to be quite so amazing. Sure, I knew I would have fun and I would be happy I did it, but the entire experience was incredible. When I finally got to sleep in a real bed, I woke up every few hours thinking I was sleeping through one of my legs of the race.

For those of you that don't know what the Ragnar Relay Series is, it's a 12 person, 2 van (or 6 person, 1 van, if you're on an ultra team) point to point relay covering a distance of approximately 200 miles. The course is divided up into 36 segments and each runner runs three of those. Ragnar Del Sol is in Arizona running from Wickenburg to Tempe.

(from left to right, top to bottom)
Stacie, Karla, Jenn, Me, Bety, Lara, Tara, Nicole, Megan, Jenna
Not pictured are Chris and Megan- they joined us later.

On Thursday night, we met at Jenn's house to decorate and pack our vans and go over last minute details. Our runner assignments were shuffled around a final time and I ended up in van 1 as runner 2, so I was no longer running the leg with 13.5 miles. And thank GOD for that, because, honestly, it was a lot of pressure to have that leg. I know I could have done it, but I was able to enjoy my time more not having that hanging over my head. I ended up as runner 2...even though my shirt says 9.

Awesome shirt, right?

Love.

Our team name was Run To The Desert? We Thought You Said Dessert! Or Team Dessert for short. Originally, our team was made up entirely of bloggers, hence my blog name on my shirt.

We decorated our van, which was a souped up mini van rental with only 400 miles on it. I'm sure the rental place would be thrilled to see what we did to it.

Lara painting van 2

By this point it was already close to 10 and we had to leave for Wickenburg at 3:00am to be at the team check in by 4:30. We split up between Lara's and Jenn's houses to get some sleep.

Our two vans were reunited the next morning and off to Wickenburg we went!

There it is! The start line.

The starts are staggered through out Friday beginning at 5:00am and lasting until the afternoon. Our start was at 5:30, so we had to check in at 4:30. Everyone in the van is required to have a safety vest and each van has to have a few head lamps and runner lights, so there was a safety check before we were given our numbers. We were Team 260 and we all had the same number.



It's weird not to see corrals at the start.

After getting our numbers and safety flags, we were shuffled to an area to go over the safety rules. Safety is taken very seriously by the Ragnar peeps. A couple of years ago, a guy was hit by a car and died during Ragnar Del Sol, so they aren't joking around when it comes to safety.

It was really cold at 5:00am in Wickenburg. Like really, really cold.

Megan, Karla, Melissa, Jenn, Lara, Me, Nicole
Tara, Bety, Stacie and Jenna
(Chris was meeting us at the first van exchange)

Pretty soon, we were being called to the start. Our first runner, Nicole, was ready to go!

Nicole is rocking the safety gear!

We all lined up to see Nicole off. Here's a brief clip of the start. Not quite like a Run Disney event, is it?

 



 

 

Annnnnd, I even make a cameo at the end...okay, I suppose I would be considered an extra. But that is where stardom is made, folks.

 

Does anyone want my autograph?

 

Nicole was off for her 8 mile first leg. We jumped in the van and and headed out to offer runner support and then to the first runner exchange. Next up is ME!

 

Here is the runner chart:

 

 

Stay tuned, there's more!