The Ragnar Experience

If you haven't run a relay then it is definitely worth trying.  All levels of runners can participate and it can be so much fun!  Saying that, I have seen teams that fall apart, bitching, moaning and attitudes that I don't understand.   So if you tend to enjoy meeting people, having fun and pushing yourself then you will LOVE this!

The team captain (not always the best job) puts together 12 people, including themselves that together can run a less then 11 minute/mile average.  There are two vans and for the entire race someone from each team is running.  

This was my fourth Ragnar Relay and I was pretty exciting to run in Napa.  I had ran here before when Matt and I were on vacation last year and I loved it.  Plus the race started in San Francisco and went across the Golden Gate bridge and that is breathtaking! 

Once we got into San Francisco and got the van parked, all the runners that were in town met for dinner.  Sean and Charene didn't know anyone and it was a great way to do introductions. 

We stayed at the Travelodge on Lombard overnight and started the race early in the am.  Van 2 joined Van 1 to see them off and see David work the crowd.  It was awesome!

 Steve played his accordion and sang a Ragnar song.  All of David's entourage wore pink wigs and sang along.  It was pretty great.

Check out this You Tube video that Ragnar put on their website of Steve singing and playing the accordion at the start line.

They also passed out these water bottles.

Steve was a great support and did some driving and all around organizing.

He was hilarious too!

START!

Coylette was our first runner and this was her first Ragnar.  The runners are sent out in waves by time.  We were the 730am wave.  

After she took off, we decorated a little, then Van 1 took off to the next exchange.  

Our van took a little longer, but we had a few hours before we had to be to exchange 6, where we would start our runner.

From there it was a chaos of runners.  Each runner ran three legs and we just kept going and going.  When we could we would get water for the runner or just drive by cheering.  

Van one at check in.

VAN 1 (thank you Charene for the pics!  Good job!)  They aren't in any order, but you get the idea, we do a lot of running and having fun

 Coylette

 Pass off Liz to Charene

 Anne and Sean shenanigans

 Anne to Sean handoff

 Sheanine making it look easy!

 We are the 12 deadly zins.  Boom.

 Over the bridge

 Sean passed to Jen J.  

VAN ONE!  The end.

VAN 2

I was there.  It was fun.  In no particular order - ish.

Nicole to Jen

 Ashley and Jen waiting for Nicole to pass off

 David to Jen J

It was usually Jen to David but on the last leg Jen J was having some GI issues, which is always a surprise to runners (not.) and David took her leg so she could "recover".

 My hand off to Nicole.  Look at that form!  I love this picture.  It's really hard to get a good hand off pic but JenQ did a great job.  

 Jen J to Ashley on the last leg.

Night time get up.  Safety first plus a little bling.  Head light, butt light and approved running night vest required!

Check out those socks.  Bam!

 Nicole coming in for an exchange to JenQ

 Jen Q is off!

Between our second and third leg we hung out in the parking lot waiting for Van 1 and napping.  Jen J, Jen Q and I of course wandered around trying to get into trouble.  The young gals slept in the van.  

The gold sparkly visor was a gift from David and Steve!  I love it! It says, BAM - I am your leader!

WORD

I was teased about my constant posting to social media.  I'm a social media whore.  I posted this in honor of JenJ and I posted it on ALL the social media I had my hands on.

Duck lips and all.  

Speaking of shameless hussy.  Be careful what you ask me to do.

More shenanigans.  Another picture of the guy that Jen wanted a picture of.  I did one up.  I asked for a picture WITH him and he was very gracious.  He was my race boyfriend, Ethan.  I broke up with him on the last leg for being so aloof and not staying in touch.  (teehee)

Unfortunately I didn't get a full Van 1 pic, but I did grab one at Trader Joe's later.

Two buck chuck!

FINISH LINE:

We ran a couple of hours later then projected time.  Heat has done that to my team twice.  I ran the hottest and longest leg and I understand that you can't keep the pace up in those conditions.  We kept in touch with Van 1 and they patiently waiting for us while sipping a little champagne and watching Sean spoon his Gold Medal.  He loves his gold medal.  The Gold Medal was a special medal given to the runners that finished SoCal and Napa.  Jen Q, Sean, Ashley and I all received one.

Chilling while waiting for the last runner.

 Yoga for stretching

Wondering if I'll be able to stand up now that I've sat.

Waiting for Jen at the finish.

JenQ running in!   yeah!!

 The finish line party!

Running in to the song, "Brick House".  It was awesome, we were dancing.

The team and the fans

The Team

Nom nom nom.  Love our double medals!!

Thank you to everyone on the team and everyone that helped our team.  All that work that seemed to take hours was totally worth it.  The experience was another success in running.  What great people I was surrounded by and I enjoyed it all!!  OK,  maybe not the hot part where I thought I was going to die, but the rest was AWESOME!!

Blog on.............

New Friends, Lots of fun

OR:   What a cast of characters.

The team started like this:

I had ran a couple (3) Ragnars and I realized that if I ran Napa I got this cool gold medal. 

I had a couple of friends that I had ran with that wanted to whore up for the gold medal too! 

 Jen - A year ago when I was signed up to run Las Vegas Jen was saying how she could never do it.  I dared her to try.  She did, she owned it and now this is her third Ragnar minus 60 lbs.  Now she is just a running machine.

 

Ashley ran the Las Vegas and SoCal with Jen and I and joined us both.  For the Las Vegas race she ran just 3 months after having a baby.  

All three of us worked at the intensive care unit together and have a blast running.  









Of course the three of us don't make a team and we started throwing out the invites.  A runner that I met at a half marathon earlier joined us.  

Jen J. is also an ICU nurse and this was her third Ragnar since JUNE!  

We had a few runners say they will go and some backed out.  I had a friend that wanted to run and gave me the emails of about 7 runners.  I send out the "reality"! email that lays out the cost and the plans.  Out of those seven 3 gals committed and we had the start of Van 1.

 Liz, Sheanine and Coylette.  I met Coylette once before the race and the other girls through email.  I was super impressed!  Coylette is new to running, Liz is working on it and Sheanine is a rock star that has 1 year old twins and just ran a marathon.  I bow to you!
Liz recruited a runner she met once and bravely Anne joined us.

The rest of the crew I found on the Ragnar website or Ragnar Facebook site.  They didn't know anyone and still took a chance and thank god, because our team was awesome!!  I didn't get to know anyone in Van 1 very well because basically we never see them.  Who knows, maybe we'll do another race.  I consider them all wonderful people and friends!

I love this picture of Sean.  GQ model.  Runner.  Comes from Seattle and was at the race for the Gold Medal.  

Charene's first Ragnar.  She came prepared with sparkles and boa and was really a sweetheart.  She took awesome pictures too.

 David brought a little sparkle and a big personality to the race!  He also brought a big car load of vans/support group and entourage.  They were awesome!  His partner Steve did wonders for Van 2.  He did some driving, some sandwich getting and lots of phone calls.  He was the bomb diggity!

Not to mention everyone did a great job running.  All legs were ran by the assigned runner and done well!  

 In the beginning.......

Blog on.........