* The elevation depicted on the maps were deceptive in how steep and long those inclines were* Randy Jr's "holy crap" look on his face after hitting his first round of hills
* Some stunning scenery around Lake Mead, red rock formations, and gorges
* Yeah, the desert is hot. So why was I running through it?
* 2 large cases of bottled water and 3 large cases of Gatorade is still not enough
* I was comfortably under my pace time on my first two legs, but over on my last
* The "One Mile to Go" sign either gave me the energy to run faster or reason to despair
* Buffets and gambling were the last things I wanted to do in Vegas while doing Ragnar
* My favorite run was my night run (leg 22). Slight incline, straight, cool breeze, clear skies, all the stars were visible. I made 18 kills (people I ran past) and no one killed me.
* Apparently, I passed my sister's team without knowing it on my night run. They had a 2.5 hour head start
*Ev (my sis) texted "You can't catch me. I'm the gingerbread man" after I unknowingly passed Meredith on her team. I told Brian (my teammate, her husband) still thinking they were ahead. Brian put on his game face and did his best run of the relay. I think Brian and Ev are a little bit competitive.
* Brian barreling into exchange 24 and everyone getting out the the way
* Randy Sr. running with bloody knees after tripping over rocks in the dark
* After seeing Neal off at exchange 24, driving down the road and seeing a line of red blinking runners lights head into the mountains. Surreal.
* Driving through leg 26 feeling bad for what Lance Brandow (in van 1) was about to run. I call that leg the "widowmaker" or the "great equalizer"
* Getting to exchange 30 seeing only six other team vans, but no runners or Ragnar crew. Brian compared it to a post-apocalyptic scene where we were the only survivors
* Everyone snoozes, but I stay awake so not to miss any news on our situation
* No phone reception for a good deal of the race. Mike Sailer came into exchange 6 without us aware due to the lack of phone/text availability
* Bobby sleeping on top of his Sub-Urban at exchange 30
* Ragnar finally comes to exchange 30. I hear Bobby on the roof of the car say to the Ragnar guy "Can you get me a pillow?". Stunned Ragnar guys says "Did you just ask me for a pillow?"
*Ragnar finally tells us where the detour was (a quarter mile away). It's a dirt patch. We try to sleep in the car. Freezing.
* I get a grand total of 45min of shut eye in about 38 hours
* Boy Scouts provide breakfast. My pancakes froze on the way from the skillet to my plate
* We all suffered on our last legs* My inadequate training was exposed in the last mile of my last leg
* My legs itched like crazy after stumbling through tumbleweed in the middle of the night
* I had to stop and walk a short spell close to the end of my last leg due to rapid heart rate and double vision and feeling faint. I was obviously dehydrated, malnourished, and sleep deprived. How do you train for that?
* Cold Gatorade at exchange 35 was heavenly. So nice.
* So relieved when I saw our van 1 at the finishers area. So proud of them.
* Still thought it was our van 1 that passed Ev's team in the night
* Really cool finishers' medals
* Wishing the two team vans have more time to hang out together.
* Shoelace Ninjas Ragnar Las Vegas 2011: 188 miles, 31hours, 40minutes, 1 second
*Grateful I have been blessed with the ability and opportunity to take part in such an event. Wish my family could have been there. Next year...
1 comment:
I had so many of the same feelings. Van 1 was in awe of Van 2 doing the last 6 legs. The heat was brutal. We were really proud of all of you and wondered how you all managed to run in that heat.
I think we had a great team, and everyone did their part whether they had trained or not.
On a side note: I think Ragnar should have had the correct times printed for the Sweet Happenings at Exchange 27 in the RagMag. It was open for indoor sleeping instead of making you go to the dirt pit. That was not cool.
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