Life has a funny way of interrupting the fun things that we do. Since my last post I have spent a great deal of time preparing for a board meeting for the company I work for. It is difficult to prepare for these types of things when the economy is the way it is. Saturday was the big day for the meeting and I am pleased to say that it went pretty well and although things could be better everyone was generally happy with where we are at...see all that worrying for nothing.
The Ragnar relays, a 201.5 mile 12 person relay race in AZ, was my first big event of the year. It took place on the 27th and 28th and I was on a team organized by some old friends from my Dirt Devil days. I had not seen these people for the better part of ten years so I was thrilled at the opportunity to spend some time with them and catch up on things. I worked at Dirt Devil in the mid nineties through 2000 and the people I was doing this race with were in the select few that made this job bearable. I also had not done a running relay before and the thought of the new experience was really intriguing/exciting.
I flew out to AZ on Weds night before the race and my friend, John M., was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and allow me to stay at his and Kathy's place. Their house is incredible, it is like it is right out of a magazine with the backyard being unbelievable with beautiful landscaping, a pool and fruit trees loaded with grapefruit, oranges and lemons. They also had recently adopted two dogs and one of them, named Lucy, was psycho...it made me feel right at home as I have a couple of those types of dogs myself.
On Thursday, John showed me a great little route by a canal and I did a quick thirty minute shake out run to test the legs out...everything was feeling A OK so I showered up, helped John pick up the vans that we would be using for the race and then generally relaxed until everyone started to show up to start our journey up to Prescott where the race would start. The team, for the most part, met at John and Kathy's house where I was staying. We had a good mix of volleyball players, neighbors and friends and in meeting everyone I was sure we were going to have a great time....I was not wrong.
We all loaded into the vans for the trip up and after a quick stop for a bite to eat, a couple of beers and to pick up our last teammate we set off for the 2 hour drive up to the start. Kathy, who was the main organizer, had reserved two rooms close to the start so we had a comfy place to rest up for the start which for us was 8am on Friday. For the race we were split into two vans of six runners each and we knew prior to the event which van we would be in and which legs of the race we would be running. For sleeping arrangements van 1 which I was in and which would be starting out the race stayed together so that if van 2 didn't want to get up and go to the 8am start they didn't have to. Van 2 technically didn't have to be ready to go until around 1pm which was around our target time to finish the first six legs of the race. I think we were all happy that van 2 was at the start cheering us on even though they didn't have to.
The start of the race was cold and sunny. Our first runner even wore gloves...that seemed funny to someone who was coming from minus three temps the day before but I guess when the blood thins there is nothing you can do.
Jon, who was our first runner, set the tone early for us. He started out in the middle of the pack and when we passed him in the van on the route he had moved up a little but when he came flying into the transition for the first to second leg he was third overall. Way to go!! Bobbie was our second runner and her leg included a monster climb which she knocked out of the park. She established herself right away as one tough cookie which was good because she had more climbing to do as the race went on. Bobbie handed off to Greg who had by a long shot the toughest leg of the race. The climb that he did went on and on and on. Someone in the van commented that you know its a tough climb when the van has to downshift to make it up...I am sure Greg would agree. Greg was the model of consistency on not only this leg but throughout the entire race. He always ran strong, smiled when you cheered him on and responded with either a thumbs up or hang loose sign to let you know things were OK. Kathy was next and entertained us as she chased down a woman in full out fireman garb through her leg. She eventually got her but not before she set the tone for the rest of the race by asking for chap stick during the run. For the rest of the race some of her teammates took to asking for various items during their legs...like toasters or remote controls etc...The end of Kathy's leg had a screaming downhill finish that Kathy ran so hard she literally ran right past Rose as she waited for the hand off. Rose, our fifth runner who had been worried about her training set off on her first run, new water bottle in hand, and continued our morning of solid performances with an outstanding run. I think she may have been sand bagging on the "I haven't been training front". I took over from Rose to run our final leg of our first of three sets. I had a six miler that started out with 2.3 miles on a dirt road. Prior to the race starting I had said I wouldn't mind running some of this on the dirt...what an idiotic thing to say. When those vans pass you and kick up the dust..not fun. Anyway, I finished the dirt section turned onto the road and basically ran 4.5 miles downhill into the wind. The two basically balanced each other out, but it would have been nice to enjoy a little faster pace on the downhill. I handed off to Nate the first runner from Van 2 and we now get a break for a little while.
Kathy had also reserved a hotel room out on the course which was absolutely genius. After we turned things over to van 2 we headed to the hotel room to shower and change, we then grabbed a bite to eat, at Denny's of all places, and went back the the room to try and catch some sleep. Probably a good time to mention that pretty much everyone snores and snores loud. There is only a few exceptions to this and I believe those people will be armed with squirt guns and ear plugs next year. Anywho, we try and get some sleep and then we get the call from van 2. First, they are ahead of schedule and 2nd we have lost one of our fastest runners. Jan, who drove in from San Diego with his wife Marianne, also on the team, was five minutes into his first leg when he heard something snap in his calf. He was unable to put any weight onto his foot and was out for the rest of the race. I wasn't there when it happened but my understanding is that when it happened Chris, who had just finished his first leg, jumped out of the van and picked right up where Jan left off. Efforts like that always impress me. So any way rest time over, time to load up and get to transition twelve where we take over the baton (or wristband in this case) again.
We actually ended up being at the hand off about an hour early and passed the time seeing some of the local sights and even took our picture with a giant rooster and saw some really cool old farm equipment.
It was now dusk when Marianne, van 2's last runner, came in so lights and vests were required until 6:30am the next morning. Jon took the hand off and headed out to what will be referred to as the obstacle course. Again, i wasn't there but Jon's leg was run in the soft desert sand and had things in the way like ditches, logs, barbwire and oh yeah you couldn't really tell where you were going. The result of this leg is Jon runs and extra .6 miles trying to find his way through the desert and he pulls a calf muscle when he mis-steps on a ditch....2nd runner down. The rest of the night was mostly uneventful with John M. pacing the runners, except for Kathy who I paced, on a bike to make sure they were safe. The only things of significance were during Kathys leg when she crushed some of our competition with an impressive pass early into the leg, during Rose's leg we had to pick her up and drive her .75 miles through some construction and during my leg when I ran into transition and Nate wasn't there for the hand off. Minor issue as he heard me calling his name and showed up within seconds to take the baton and go.
We are now done for the night and have split up somewhat because we know some of our runners would need to run for Jan, as well as themselves, and we shuttled them back to the hotel for some rest. Everyone who was still with the van now headed back for a shower and some snore filled sleep while van 2 slugged it out through the night. Our third John, John S. who was in van 2, had agreed to take Jan's second leg and knocked out I think around twelve straight miles in the middle of the night and once again we get the call that its time to get up, they are ahead of schedule and only have one more runner until they hand back off to us. We get up, grab some coffee and head to transition 24.
I volunteered to take our Jon, van 1's injured runner, next leg so I was first up when van 2 handed back off to us. I had 8.7 to go and with the exception of some nasty wind and hills it was uneventful and I finished it up pretty strong and not worried at all that I had one more 6.4 mile leg to go after a relatively short rest period. This would prove to be a false high later. I handed off to Bobbie who once again drew the short straw and won herself a monster climb. The highlight of her run was when she passed a guy, she had been chasing for awhile, about 200yds before transition...like I said one tough cookie!!!
Since this was our final set to run sometime during Greg's leg Jon and John decided to crack open the cooler for some refreshments. When Greg finished his final leg he also decided it would be a great idea to start the re hydration process and that's when we noticed something horrifying...we were low on beer. Not to worry as we quickly came up with a plan that had John drop us at the next transition and run to the store for more. Luckily when he took off I grabbed my water bottles because this is where we had our only logistical problem. While John was gone Kathy finished her leg and handed off to Rose and she left for her last leg which was around 3.5 miles. So she is out on the course. I am next and I need to get to the next transition before she does. She had been out there for around 12 minutes when I started to get nervous that John wasn't going to make it back ontime. I had my bottles so I wasn't worried about that but I did have a cotton shirt on and it was getting hot and I needed a ride. We solved both of these issues by hooking up with friends of Kathy and John's that were also doing the race. They loaned me a shirt and gave me a lift up to the next transition...problem solved. A very dehydrated looking Rose , again ripping off a really solid run, finished up her run and handed off the wrist band and off I go for my final 6.4 miles. Things started out really well. Within a mile John was there and had my hat for me and took the sunglasses that I started in (I cannot run in glasses) and offered me a cold wet cloth which I declined. I already knew I was in trouble at that point. This was a hilly leg and it was now 83 degrees hotter than the temps I was in two days ago and I was paying the price. I made it through 4.5 miles without walking and finally hit a big enough climb where I stopped running and walked to the top. I was able to run the downhills but pretty much any incline in the last 2 miles slowed me to a walk...that was a bummer. I finally chugged my way into transition 30 handed off to Nate and Van 2 assumed responsibility for bringing us home the final six legs (with some help from Bobbie and Kathy on Jan's final leg).
The final six legs for me were great. I rode in the van, drank beer, ate cheeseburgers, took pictures, drank more beer and enjoyed watching all the teams finish out there race. The highlight of this portion was a visit from Nacho Libre played by our own John S. This was hilarious as he ran his entire last leg, much to the delight of the spectators, in costume....what a great guy.
The finish was awesome with Marianne coming in strong and ending our race. We came in just under 32 hours and finished 143rd out of 240 teams.
After the finish we gathered for free beer and the swapping of war stories from the last 32 hours.
I have been on teams before but I must say that my 11 teammates made up the best team I have ever been on. For not really knowing each other we came together very quickly and established ourselves as a force out on the road.
I can't wait until next year.
That's all for now.
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