#RagnarSoCal with #TeamNuun

When I talked The H into letting me run Goofy Challenge AND Eugene Marathon, I had to trade out some other events - namely, Ragnar SoCal.

The course runs directly outside my office window.....

heeeey, Santa Ana River Trail...

Plus, 1/3 of #VanAwesome from last year is busy growing tiny new humans, so I was resigned to staring longingly outside my office all day, wishing I were wearing a sweaty slap bracelet and not sleeping for 24 hours.

So when Sarah OUaL asked if I was interested in running with #TeamNuun, it took me approximately .47 seconds to tell her ABSOLUTELY I WILL.

(I'm ignoring the parts in the 3 weeks following me joining the team, where I almost dropped out when I realized I was BY FAR the slowest runner, when I wasn't having fun training, and when I thought my right quad might just amputate itself if I didn't cut some shit out).

I lived in denial for a few weeks, and procrastinated so much, that I was packing at 9:30 am on Friday morning, while van 1 was getting their safety briefing and at the start line.

This year, I was runner 9, and in van 2 (last year, I was runner 3, in van 1), so it was like a whole new race for me.

Megan, our fearless Nuun leader and van 2 driver, got us to exchange 6 in record time, and we breezed through the paperwork, waivers, safety briefing (one for each van!), packet pick up. While our first runner got ready to pound out 8 miles in the hot, hot inland sun, we met up with van 1 for the first time, and got a present from Sheila!

The other van 2 runners had already decorated the van for our adventure.




Runner 7 off, and van 2 on duty.

Man. Like last year, it was HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT. I think the heat index was 101? So not ideal, but... it's Ragnar, and it all moves so fast, so you barely even get to register the heat (ha).

Leg 9, my first.....

This was an ugly, ugly slog up that hill, and down a long stretch of unshaded road. I have never been so psyched to see red lights during a run, ever.

After our van finished our 6 legs, we headed for a quick dinner at Applebees, and then on to the next major exchange, #18 at the Lawrence Welk Resort.

We had a couple hours of downtime here while Van 1 worked their legs, before we headed out again (I think around 1am?).

My second leg, leg 21, was an easy 4 miler, mostly downhill. It was cold and glorious and everything should be run downhill in the cool dark air. (seriously, I want to find that exact race course).



Safety first! Not even Ragnar Ambassador's can forego safety gear.

San Marcos at 3am. In case you ever wondered what it looked like.

Van 2 finished up around 5:30am, and we headed out to find some breakfast.

After breakfast and a delicious coffee break, we headed out to exchange 30, right in Torrey Pines. I was SUPER excited to hit this exchange, because I've never been to Torrey Pines.

And then we ended up here.

Vandemonium

Off the freeway in a broken van. Womp, womp.

Luckily, a friend of our first runner lives locally, and was able to pick her up and take her to the exchange so we could keep running. Van 1 rescued us shortly after, and the van rental company sent down a new van to get us through the remaining legs.

My last leg, leg 33, was an easy down/flat for 4 miles, then a killer death hill at the end.

Our last runner handoff......
And we headed down to the finish area to meet Van 1 and run Megan in as a team.

 

 

I had a blast, Ragnar is just the funnest event in all the land. Everyone is fun, and friendly, and I can't wait to do it again. The entire course was well organized, and well marked. Ragnar does a stellar job at the logistics, which seems overwhelming to me in an event THIS enormous.

A HUGE thank you to Nuun for letting me on the team, and for their great support this weekend keeping us all hydrated in that hot SoCal sun!

Three Things Thursday

1. My friend Pam is organizing a Tribute Run for Boston on Monday, April 22nd at 6pm in Long Beach.

#BostonStrongOC #BostonStrongLB

Run will start at the parking lot between Ocean & Bayshore. Unforunately, I have a kid commitment that evening, so I'll be doing my run separately (but if anyone in Irvine/OC wants to meet up Tuesday, let me know).


2. Hey, do you know what today is??? IT'S THE DAY BEFORE RAGNAR SOCAL!

So, I wasn't originally going to run Ragnar SoCal this year - I did Goofy weekend, and I'm doing Eugene and San Francisco in June, and I felt kind of crummy with all the travel and The H and kids being left home, so I felt like something had to be cut.

But then an opportunity popped up to run with Nuun, and since I LOVE Nuun, I happily took it!

I'll be in van 2, runner 9, and can't wait to run, sleep (ha), eat, repeat tomorrow. Whee!

You can follow along on the twitter machine with #teamnuun and #ragnarsocal.

And, you can use code "RagnarSoCal" for 20% off one Nuun order before May 31st.

3. Search terms that somehow led people to this place in the past few weeks:

• "peed in the parking lot marathon" {wasn't me, but remember last year, there was a team during Ragnar that did!}
• "baking soda and honey for hair" {true story, I once went 6 months with no shampoo, using baking soda and honey instead, and it was great. Running killed it, though, and now I use shampoo.}
• "disney marathon roller coaster" {most fun EVER}
• "philosophy about working out" {sweat more = eat more}
• "why my foot hurts" {don't know, but sorry to hear}

Ragnar SoCal Recap - Part The End

Exchange 18 was at the Lawrence Welk Resort somewhere. Honestly, this is where things are a little fuzzy - the exchange had bonfires, food, etc, and looked like a ton of fun, but it was sinking in that we'd been running for a jullion years, and our break was only going to be Van 2's super fast 22 miles.

That's not a ton of time.

We decided to stick our first and second runners, Shannon and Becka, in the back to get some rest while we drove to Exchange 24. Sandy drove, I navigated, and I think everyone else slept peacefully. I think Sandy and I got a few minutes of rest, then it was time to start all over again. Got Shannon up and out of the van to get ready for her leg.

Shannon came back, and we sent Becka off. Pretty sure Shannon said it was The Best Run Ever Ever Ever. or something. Fuzzy brain. I got a text that Ragnar was extending night hours, due to heavy fog, so I would have to keep my vest and headlamp on. Boo.

Theeeeeennnnn, I dragged myself out of the warm van, got in the line for the port-o-potties. I was worried. It was around 6am, and I hadn't eaten anything except In n' Out Friday morning, the protein box from Starbucks Friday evening. I had been working on a bagel for most of Becka's run, but honestly? I thought FOR SURE I was going to puke on the run. It was guaranteed.

Then runners started coming back in saying they got lost, needed maps, signs moved, and I freaked the hell out. I knew Becka would be there soon, but I NEEDED the map, the end. So I left the exchange area to grab it.

Turns out, I didn't need it, but.... better safe than sorry?

Becka made it back before I got back to the exchange - another seamless transition.

So this run? I really, really was worried. Like I said, I felt gross. I knew I was going to puke. There was no question.

But then I ran, and it was foggy, and cool, and glorious, and.... I didn't puke. Hooray!

The first two miles were rolling hills, through Encinitas. The rest was flat through downtown, and along the ocean. If I were less foggy headed at this point, I would have brought my phone, so I could show you the pretty route I snagged.... But it looked like this.

Thanks, Google Maps

I know, right?

Anyway, it was beautiful, perfect conditions, and the best of my 3 runs. Not the fastest, but totally the best. 5.4 miles, 53:27, 0 vomit.

Back at the exchange, apparently I missed a very dramatic proposal - there were rose petals everywhere, and I thought it was weird, but I suppose in the correct context, it makes sense. Julie stole my bib....

 .....and ran. Then handed off to Sandy...

Sandy handed over to Madison, and we headed over to Exchange 30 for our last exchange with Van 2!

The LMFAO team was THE BEST.

 

We killed some time handing out Smarties and Nerds, and finally realized that people thought we were... the Strangers with Candy team. Oops.


Madison KILLED her last leg running the evil Torrey Pines hill, and I think racked up 17 kills?? I can't remember, but that girl is a machine.

Later, Ashley!

Handed off to Van 2, and we were.... done.

We wandered around the exchange a bit, being dumb.

 

Debated about what comes next (answer: Food, Target, Showers, Clean). And then did it.

Spent a bit of time trying to track down Van 2 so we knew when to meet up at the finish line, stopped at Lululemon in La Jolla (sorry, Sandy), and went to claim our beers.

Elisabeth came sprinting in (seriously, sprinting), and we ran through the finish line together, Team #SMCOL.

And I wish I had some more pictures, but I don't (yet, official pictures haven't been released), so here's one of Van 1.

 

This last leg sounds like remarkably less fun than the others, but that's 100% because I have super vague memories of what actually happened.

I do remember that we had fun, the entire time. There was zero conflict. We laughed a LOT. I would not have changed one single person in our van. We got super lucky.

It totally helps that we're all awesome.

 

So... yeah. That's that.

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NOTES

Eat. It's important.

Be prepared for The Addiction. Relaying is FUN. #2 is vaguely in the works.

Ragnar SoCal Recap - Part 3 (exchange, Legs 13-18)

Part 1
Part 2

So, every point where a runner hands off to another runner is an exchange. There are the normal exchanges, where you hand off to a runner in your van, and then there are the major exchanges, where you hand over to your next van (at least, for the regular teams - ultras work a little differently) - these are really the only points during Ragnar that we saw our Van 2 runners.

Exchange 6 was our first major exchange. It was super, super crowded, compared to what we had been experiencing. Because we started SO early, there were not many vans on the course or at the exchanges yet. There were a LOT of vans at Exchange 6...

We met up with Van 2, and told them a little bit about the experience so far - Elisabeth was in their van, and ran Ragnar last year, and was a Ragnar ambassador this year, so they were in pretty good hands.
Madison handed off to Ashley....

And Van 2 was off!

I'll be honest - Ashley said she was running without water, and I about died - it really freaked me out. It was already super duper hot, and she was facing an 8.8 mile leg in the heat. It seemed really, really risky. But she powered through, with the support of her van mates.

We headed over to pick up our box of donuts (HOLY DELICIOUS)

...stopped at In n' Out for lunch, and straight to Lake Elsinore to wait for Van 2.

I kind of feel like Exchange 12 requires its very own post, but I'll sum this up as quickly as I can (edit - holy crap it was still long. Sorry). We went to the grocery store. We made friends with Cash 2 Gold guy...

We guzzled iced coffee. We pretended we were going to see Titanic (apparently the giddiness started kicking in here. or the heat delirium?). We bought friends in the shade with popsicles.

All sporting our Run Pretty Far J'adore tanks - these were PHENOMENAL. Super light, super comfortable. LOVE them

We met a friendly volunteer who was nice, but pretty bummed that we weren't the Skinny Runner team.

We found more iced coffee, and I was SUPER EXCITED to find they had caramel brulee....

...then I was really sad because the coffee was not good. boo. I compressed in my ProCompression socks...

despite the heat index being 115*

We were the friendliest, funnest team there (I am not even biased), and handed out Nuun to everyone we saw...

We practiced good personal grooming habits

We had SO much fun at this exchange, meeting other teams, and getting to hang out together - most of us were internet strangers, or had met briefly, this was the first time we spent any time together.

Good thing we are all awesome and had a great time.

Van 2 showed up around 4:30, and we headed over to the exchange to watch for Elisabeth (I also ran into my friend Jordan's girlfriend at this exchange - random, and something that I really loved about the experience!).

Elisabeth breezed in looking STRONG, and we sent Shannon off to run 10 miles on the surface of the sun.

You guys. It was really, really hot. We headed down the road a little bit to a Rite Aid, and bought some ice pops to hand out again - it was SO HOT, and there was no Ragnar support on this leg - it was all van support.

The only time we really hung out with Van 2!

We handed out ice pops to anyone that wanted one, and had a bottle of ice cold water ready for Shannon.

Drove down the street a bit more, handed out some more ice water to random runners, and... played Color Guard.

So these orange flags - you are supposed to carry them every time you cross a road on the course, if you are not the active runner. We carry in style, I guess.

After Shannon ran by, we drove to grab something to eat, and then to Exchange 13 to get Becka ready. On the way there, we realized the signage was lacking - there was no sign to turn and we were paranoid that Shannon was going to miss it. Sandy dropped Becka and me off at the exchange, then headed back to the corner about a mile out to make sure Shannon was directed the right way.

There was some chaos, we forgot some of Becka's things in the van, Sandy had to come back, but we got everything worked out, and another seamless exchange...

Things are a little fuzzy, but I THINK I managed to show up at this exchange on time?? Not sure.
Becka made it in, and I took off around 10 (??) for leg 15 - 8.3 miles.

This run? It sucked. It sucked a LOT. It was dark. It was on these weird roads that had no space - two lanes, no shoulder. There were stretches where there was NO one around, and I was honestly not sure I was even on course. A lot of it was on some random dirt (trail?), that was HARD to run on. For some whack reason, I totally couldn't catch my breath - it was as if I was running with Becka in Colorado again with no oxygen (really??). It sucked. For reals. 8.3 mi, 1:30:26 (lame). We ran through old town Temecula here, and that was pretty rad - a random bunch of people running through the area, random Temecula'ns at bars cheering us on... that was fun. But all the rest of it can suck it.

Never so excited to stop running ever

Handed off to Julie, and bummed around picking up food for Becka and navigating to the next exchange. Julie handed off to Sandy, who destroyed a ridiculous downhill 6 miles.

We got a little ridiculous here, and I think... I'm pretty sure.... we met Sandy at the exchange, by telling her that we were picking up Maiden Bic Bands to bring her back to our Kingdom? I know. #Real.

OH! Also, I think this is also where the Arctic Zero team peed in the parking lot, when there was an actual, for REAL bathroom at this exchange. Lame.

After we sent Madison off, we headed to the next major exchange, Exchange 18, to hand it back over to Van 2....

**********************************************************************************

NOTES

Make friends with the other teams! We wandered Exchange 12 handing out Nerds and Smarties (because we're nerds, get it?), ice pops, Nuun, and just generally being friendly. We had a ton of fun.

Van 2 wrote their directions on their hands, and I wished I had done that for leg 15. I also wished I had brought my phone so I could double check my map if I needed to - I for REAL thought I was lost a few times.

Don't underestimate the importance of your headlamp. That shit was DARK, and even with the lamp, there were sections where we were directed to a trail, but I couldn't find it.

Eat when you can, and be smart about it. When we stopped for food during Becka's leg, I think everyone else picked up Subway, but I didn't want anything heavy - I knew I was going to run soon. I ended up with a protein box from Starbucks, and it was a good choice for me. At least, I didn't puke. So there's that.

Plan on finding locations to support your runner, especially if it's hot. One thing Van 2 did a LOT more of, was cheering on their runner - we did some, but I think we could have found time to do this more. Personally, I don't mind NOT being cheered on, I like the solitude, but it's fun, and something I'd change next time.

Don't stop hydrating just because it's dark out. Once the sun went down, and things cooled off, I wasn't hydrating as well as I had been, and I think that contributed to my overall shitty run.

Ragnar SoCal Recap - part 2 (Legs 1-6)

Part 1 here

So, Shannon (the super blurry one on the far right in the white skirt...) took off at 6am, the start time we decided fit our schedule better.

We meandered back to our van, taking some pictures along the way of our fantastic volunteer, Josh.

We were in a little bit of a panic about a week out because we needed to recruit volunteers (each team needs 3 volunteers, or you can buy volunteers for $120 each), and Josh swooped in and helped save the day. Thanks, Josh! Pam's husband, his son, and her daughter also jumped in at the verrrrrry last second. THANK YOU, to all 6 of our volunteers!!

Most of the course was marked like this. Later in the race, the course markers were less accurate, but I think through no fault of Ragnar.... just "modified" by delirious runners or drunk locals....

Shannon's leg was along the Santa Ana River trail (home of the infamous 6.7 mile 10K), so we headed up to a spot along the course to wait for her, load up on ice, and grab some breakfast.

And this was our first lesson in Ragnar exchanges. 5 miles goes way faster than you anticipate, when you have to drive through side streets to get to the exchange. We headed straight to exchange 1, but Shannon beat us there, and was waiting for Becka. Oops. Rookie mistake!

Becka took off for her 5 miles on the trail.... the tiny speck at the end in BRIGHT PINK!

And we headed out to exchange 2 for my turn on leg 3!

My first leg was straight shot up the Santa Ana River trail - slight incline (I think like 100' elevation gain over the 5.6 miles). Honestly, it was not the best run ever - it always takes me awhile to warm up, it was getting warm, blah. But whatever. It was RAGNAR!

Leg 3: 5.6 miles, 54:13, 9:40 pace.

Blazing hot sun, 9 am.

Handed off to Julie for leg 4...

Even my back is sweaty. That's cute.

Headed up to the next exchange, and this was - for me - when it started getting REALLY fun. We saw other vans out and about doing the same thing...

And that's when it hits - this is GIANT.

Arrived at exchange 5 and got Sandy ready for some running...

Because we're nerds. Get it?
Julie handed off to Sandy, and Sandy gave us perhaps the best picture I've ever seen...

I KNOW.

Sandy's leg, leg 5, was only 2 miles, but pretty much went up a giant hill most of the way. But Sandy's an amazing runner, and killed it.

Sandy handed off to Madison for leg 6...

And we headed out to our first major exchange, to hand the reigns over to Van 2. Van 2 was SUPER DUPER pumped to start running.

Part 3 HERE
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NOTES

There is not nearly as much time as you think between legs. Navigating city streets is a challenge - there's traffic (this was all taking place during rush hour in Orange County, in giant vans none of us were seasoned pros at driving) (unless you're Shannon, who is an expert at driving anything), and getting in and out of the exchanges takes time, especially as more teams arrive. 45 minutes seems like plenty of time to drive 5 miles down the street, but factor in time to get out of the exchange, get to the exchange, park, get the next runner ready, etc... and you gotta hustle.

It was already getting HOT when we started running, and we were meeting our runners at the handoffs with cold water - this was the BEST THING EVER. I loved that it was a group effort getting runners ready, making sure they had what they needed, and taking care of them when they got in.

Have a GPS or phone with mapping capabilities to map your next exchange point. Ragnar provided a Ragmag with detailed directions, but a map on your phone or GPS is way better.

Before Ragnar, Sarah gave me a spreadsheet (that I think she got from Chacha?) that let you enter the pace information for the last runner, and provided you with an eta for your next runner - Ragnar has a pace calculator as well, but it's not adjustable on the fly. This worked BRILLIANTLY for the first 2/3 of the race. After that, we just kind of got delirious and it stopped being used.

Take note of when your runner leaves, and try to ask if they have an estimated pace, so you can try to calculate how much time you have. Next time, I'll probably bring a notebook to note these things in. It would have been better than trying to guess, especially as we got later into the race.

Also helpful? Noting what your runner is wearing. Wearing the most obnoxious colors you can, obviously, is what I suggest.

Ragnar uses a slap bracelet as their "baton" - you have to take it off and hand it to the next runner before they can leave. It took me 2 exchanges to get this part down, i don't know why it befuddled me, but it did. The trick is - brace yourself, this is ground breaking - take it off when you're running up to the exchange, so you're ready to slap it on your next runner. I know, you're welcome.

When you're running in, make sure your bib is visible - they station a volunteer close to the exchange point, and they will radio over the runner number. Then, a volunteer at the exchange will announce the team number, so you know to be ready.