From California With Love: May 2012

Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the most fun section of the ragnar experience…the middle of the night runs. But you didn’t miss much since it was pitch black, except for some reflective vests, head and butt lamps. We weren’t the stylish people around, but we were safe, and that’s all that matters!

2:00am, (or something like that…) I took off on my 3.8 mile leg. It was a beautifully clear evening, the stars were AMAZING as we ran through neighborhoods, and down little town streets. I was so at peace, and so happy b/c I was cruising at a low 8min pace. THEN the fast teams had started catching up to us, so I’m getting passed (killed in ragnar terms) by 1,2,3,4,5 guys. WHAT? I had to check my watch like 35 times, they had to have been going low 7’s, oh well, one day I will be as fast as them…until then, I’ll be happy with my 8:20ish pace.

Pace. Well as for pace, I am not very consistent, as you can see from my chart below. Seriously? I need to get a hold of myself and get this in check.

I wasn't listening to any music, apparently this is just the rhythm of my heart.

SPASTASTIC

Yay 2 runs down, one more to go! After our van rocked all our legs we had to wait for the other van (who overslept) to get to the exchange. We could have been nice and run their first leg for them, but decided we didn’t mind waiting, and we will just take a little rest. After the first van came to our rescue, headed in search of food at 4:00am. Denny’s it is! I had a nice big strawberry waffle. YUM! Then after that we headed to the final exchange where a few of us decided to head out in the mist and find a grassy noll. And out we went for 2 hours.

I was woken up to the sound of port-o-pottie doors slamming. Oh the sweet sounds of RAGNAR.

By this point we were down near UCSD, getting ready for all our final legs, we were exhausted, kind of hungry and ready for a shower. Anyways the first two guys rocked it, then I take off. Sorry Scott, I appreciated you hard run on the leg before but I needed to get in the zone and find a bathroom. Luckily there was one not too far up. Score!

i surprisingly never hit a wall. Although the last 2 miles where on a very crowded boardwalk, where by the end of it i was exhausted from dodging people. when this sign came up, I was thrilled.

I’m not sure how I did it, but I did, 11.1 miles on very little sleep, and very little food. But it was great. I lucked out with a pretty run along the water, through Ocean Beach and down around the marina. I had one main climb about 4-5 miles in, where I just walked part of the hill b/c it was too steep and my running wasn’t much faster. When I made it to the top, I made up for the walking by cruising downhill.

ELEVATION. not much of it. thank goodness. except for when i got shot up into outer space in that last little blip. not sure what the heck happened there...

lights and a hill

After my leg, my van mates were kind enough to let me wipe up a bit and change out of my nasty clothes. then we headed off into the fog to find mr. roger. There was way too much traffic, so superhero scott jumped up out ran a through and with our ragnar safety flag and got us moving.