200 miles+12 girls+2 vans= Great Time? or Greatest Time?!

I wanted to write about this while it was fresh in my mind, but it's been 2 weeks now!! Sheesh. I just have to say that Ragnar was the bomb.org!! There really aren't perfect words to describe everything that the experience is. It was exhilerating, hilarious, exhausting, nerve-wracking, challenging, adventurous, exciting, and fun fun fun!! We had such a great team of 12 girls and we all had a blast together! Our Ragnar went from Huntington Beach and ended in San Diego. I was in a van with 6 of my bestest girlfriends and we had a blast! Seriously, it would have been impossible not to have a good time. This is going to be long, but I'm going to give a slight play by play (Reader's Digest version, hopefully)...for me, mostly, and my memories :)

Thursday night we all headed out to CA at different times to check into the hotel, get prepped, and get some rest before we had to start running it out in the morning. Sarah was flying in from Seattle and her flight got delayed, then canceled, and finally rerouted. Kind of a bust that they rerouted her from John Wayne (which would have been quick, close, and not so crowded) and sent her to LAX, which was the most anxiety-ridden nightmare of an airport pick up I've ever had to make. Oh, so the adventure began! We got her though, and she even had her bag, which we weren't sure was going to make it bc she checked it on the original delayed flight, so we were one big happy running family! We finally got back to the hotel around 10:30, had a quick meeting with both vans, and went to bed. Clearly we were all too wound up to get some real sleep, and Van 1 had to get up at 4:30...so we got a couple of hours.

Friday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, headed to Huntington Beach, and got all checked in. Just as we were finishing we took a quick group pic and then we heard "Runner One, please make your way to the Start line." Wha?? That's me!! As the girls were undressing me, pinning me, and slapping safety gear on me I realized I hadn't eaten yet, I drank a little, and I didn't have Nano! Yipes! Welp, off I went, with a huge headlamp that kept slipping down my face, oversized construction vest, and a red flasher on my bum (which fell off about 20 feet into the run and shattered, so I had to go back, pick up the pieces, and reassemble as I ran. The girls actually weren't able to meet up with me along the course to give me Nano, but I was actually really ok with it. I honestly couldn't have started the race any better - along the coast, empty beach, sun rising on the ocean...ahhhh...peace. It totally fueled me and I had a great first run. I came bounding in and handed off to Nicole. I won't bore you with all the hand off details of each runner, but poor Nicole got shafted for the first 2 legs...she was so fast that we missed getting Joni to her on time and she had to wait. Way to go, team!

After we all finished our first set of legs, we met up with Van 2 at the first major exchange and it was awesome to see how pumped they were! There was so much energy! So, we passed the baton (slap bracelet) and headed to the next major exchange to wait for them. We grabbed a bite to eat at Subway, we all cured our headaches, and then we waited on sleeping bags under a tree at Lake Elsinore for the other half of our team. It was a lovely day and we had fun lounging around for a while. We switched it up and started our night runs. Nicole ran through some horse trail that she had to sign a waiver for in case of rattlesnakes, bees, potholes, and dangerous creatures. According to every runner we saw come out of there, it was pretty intense. Poor Megan got really sick after her second leg and threw up for the rest of the night. We finally ended our second round and headed to Carlsbad to wait for Van 2 to finish running through the night. We slept in sleeping bags on a golf course and it was cold and wet, but we CRASHED! I slept for a hard 3 hours and it felt amazing! As I was waiting groggy and fuzzy-eyed at the port o potty's, I saw my friends Danny and Alisha who were running on another team and it was so exciting!

I started leg 3 a little better than the others. I still didn't have Nano, bc somehow he lost all of his charge in my purse before we even started the race. Boo urns. And we never recharged him, so he was nestled in my purse...or so I thought. I think I lost him somewhere in Carlsbad bc I remember having him in my jacket pocket and thinking I needed to put him in my purse since I wasn't going to be using him. Then he wasn't in my pocket later and I didn't panic bc I was pretty sure he was in my purse. Sad day. We had some good times together (montage of us running into the sunset). Anyway, leg 3 started a little rough. I turned the wrong way the first time I crossed the street and the helper guy kindly corrected me - my other left...apparently. The first 2ish miles were all downhill, but for some reason I couldn't get out of old man shuffle mode. I think I started at my wall. Anyway, I went downhill, curved up a couple of hills, and then came up to an amazing view of rose fields to my left with the ocean about 6 miles in the background. It was beautiful!! Remember how my first leg charged me? That's what happened here too. From that point on I found my energy (and it helped that I was singing along to Britney) and finished my leg strong. I couldn't have been happier!

Our team did a great job and finally finished after Nicole ran up a 7 mile beast of a hill that I think actually made us all shed tears for her, Joni finished her first official race by accomplishing Ragnar, Megan ran her last leg after throwing up all night and ran it in the dead heat (so proud of her!), Joni finished her first official race by accomplishing Ragnar, Katie ran it all like a champ, and Heather brought us in at the end where we then had a fun little photo shoot by the beach. We headed to Coronado to wait for the rest of our team at the finish line and grabbed some tasty mexican food at Miguel's. It was sooooo good! What better way to finish off such a grueling race, than with queso and a big frothy diet coke?? Poor Megan was still sick and throwing up, so she missed part of the celebration dinner. After we ate we sat on Silver Strand beach and napped and waited for the rest of our team. The Finish Line party was a blast and Missy and I got some dance moves in before we ended the whole thing. It was also really nice to use a flushing toilet

after 2 days straight of port o potty's. Yum. Van 2 finally met up with us and Francie ran us in across the Finish line around 8:00. I think our official time was somewhere around 38 hours, but we didn't care. We were just so happy to finish. It was such a fun and amazing experience and I can't wait to do another one!! (ummm...more pics to come. I'm having technical difficulties!)