If I blog it, does that mean it's over?

I don't even know what to say. This was - no exaggeration - the MOST FUN EVER. Princess was fun. Disneyland was fun. Tink was Stupid Fun. THIS was like ALL of that fun, maintained, for 48 hours.

This is going to be the longest recap you can imagine, so I'm breaking it into a few parts. Part 1 - vans, getting ready, kicking our first runner off. Also, at the end of each, I'm making some notes regarding suggestions, stuff that worked, stuff that didn't, stuff to remember, etc. For you, sure, but also for me. You know. For next time. (Napa what?)

Packing - I managed to pack everything I needed for myself in a backpack. 3 running outfits, packed individually in a gallon ziploc bag, toiletries in a separate ziploc bag, reflective/night gear in another ziploc bag.

Van supplies - we organized each van to host their own supplies. I provided a generic packing list of items that could be community van items (ibuprofen, muscle rub, first aid kit, water, baby wipes, etc), and everyone kind of signed up for what they wanted to bring, and added their own items to the list. It worked pretty well, I think, and each van had a checklist of required items (reflective gear), so everyone was well prepared.

So. I guess start at Thursday evening, picking up two GIANT vans. 

 

We decorated with all the window paint we could find, packed up as much as we could, headed out to dinner at Veggie Grill, and then home, to sleep, since we had the earliest start time in the universe (5:45am) (foreshadowing!).
 

I know. It's really hard to even imagine how early this is, but then Becka and I remembered it's about 36 minutes later than we got up for Princess Half. Madness. Disney and Ragnar, we must love you.

Left at 3:42 to pick up Madison, and then met the rest of our vanmates to head down to the start line.

If you've ever run a Ragnar before, perhaps this is normal. But it was CHAOS, even at the earliest time ever. I'm guessing we didn't really help, since we were REALLY, REALLY hyped, and probably only half-way listening to directions. Oops.

Collected our orange flags (more on these later), attended the safety briefing, picked up our race packets - these contained our shirts, timing chip (for the first and last runner), slap bracelet (foreshadowing), bibs - and.... wandered aimlessly finding coffee, eating pastries, shopping. We probably could have used our time a bit more wisely, and, you know.... gotten our runner ready, maybe? Around 5:42, it occurs to us that Shannon doesn't have bibs, they were in the van, and we don't have her slap bracelet, it wasn't in our packet... No need to panic. We start at our leisure. 6am start, no worries!

Shannon is THE CUTEST EVER.

********************************************************************************** Notes

Packing:
The ziplocs were GENIUS. I'm not taking credit for this, it's everywhere on the internet machine, anywhere people discuss relay packing. But it's brilliant. Do it.

I forgot to pack an extra set of clothes for AFTER. Because I was in van 1, we finished first, so we had down time after our last runner handed off to van 2. Note: bring ONE extra outfit.

If you're planning on dressing in some sort of theme (we had a vague Nerd theme), save it for your last leg if you're in van 2, or your finish line outfit if you're in van 1.

We brought WAY MORE FOOD than we ever could have eaten. As you'll see later in the recaps, there's just not that much down time, and for ME, fueling was kind of an issue. We definitely went overboard on the consumables.

Organization:
If you can, pack up your van the night before. We didn't do this Thursday night, and ended up throwing almost everything in the back of the van, then spent a bunch of time at our first major exchange reorganizing. That was time that could have been better spent having fun.

 Get your runners ready before you play around. It's no fun to have a stressed out runner cutting things too close. I promise the coffee will be there when she takes off.


Part 2, HERE