ragnar. the first 20hrs...

I was randomly asked if I wanted to run in a 200 mile relay, and without hesitation, I said yes.  The 12man team I joined was a group of Board members of the Children's Abuse Prevention Center.  They were all raising money for the organization which was awesome!  I went in with the mindset of knowing I had 3 legs, all of which I knew I could easily run...4.9, 4, and 11.1.  I didn't take into consideration all the things that would make those miles insanely hard...not eating/sleeping

We got picked up at 3:00AM Friday morning to make it to Huntington in time for the 5:00am start.  They start you based on the average pace of your team, seeing as we got one of the first times we were on the slower side...perfect.

our rock star runner was in the blue long sleeve shirt, he started us off great, we were in 1st after his leg...

 

our van

 I was in van 2, so we had a long rest time in between legs.  We thought it would be fun to dress up for our first runner.  Thanks to Sue, we all had awesome super hero costumes...

 

these flowers were right before my run.  i was trying to find peace.  My first leg was around 1:00pm in Corona, a hot inland city.  The heat index for the day was at 110-gross!  Since my first leg was only 4.9 miles, i figured no worries I don't need van support.  They even came by me twice and I just waved them off, little did I know the heat would creep into my soul and destroy me.  See my pace chart below...Luckily just when i was melting into the sidewalk a team of angels came by and squirted me with a super soaker and woke me up.  Thank You friendly team that i don't remember, you saved my life.

 

Thank you Garmin to show how amazingly horrible i did on my first leg :)

soooo, street lights were my downfall, i hit a long one in the first mile, and a bunch in the last two, as you can see....the one downfall of ragnar, stopping at lights. 

 this was earlier...i just cut myself out of it b/c of course i'm the awk one on the side.  i just figured i needed a picture after my complaining.

i'm weird...

 this may have been the hottest time during the day...this is right before one of our girls took off...little did we know that she would get super dizzy, and dangerously close to a heat stroke.  I jumped out and ran with her for the last mile to make sure she was ok.  Unfortunately according to ragnar rules, if I jumped in for her, I would have to do her other two legs, which would have been too big of a commitment for my lazy self.  She made it out safe and sound, our next runner wasn't so lucky. He had a 10 mile leg, in the 110 heat, we lost our most experienced runner to a heat stroke. :( but on a positive note, I actually saw him this weekend at the PCRF half, and he's back to his super quick pace. anyways...that about sums up our first day....CRAZY!