Ragnar
Relay: Miami to Key West Jan 6-7,
2012
From the Ragnar website: “Ragnar is the overnight running relay
race that makes testing your limits a team sport. A team is made up of 6-12
individuals; each individual runs 3 legs. The legs of the race vary in
difficulty and distance, from 3-8 miles, allowing elite and novice runners to
run together. Over 2 days and 1 night, teams run across 200 miles of the
country’s most scenic terrain. Pair that with crazy costumes, inside jokes, a great
finish line party and unforgettable stories. Some call it a slumber party
without sleep, pillows or deodorant. We call it Ragnar.”
I was thrilled that Hubby and I were asked to join the
Ragnar Relay team that one of Hubby’s boot camp friends put together. Our team was a mixed team: 6 men and 6 women. About half of our team had done at
least one other Ragnar in the past.
This was Hubby and my first.
Our team captain was super-organized from the
beginning. He organized us all
through Google documents that we were asked to update throughout our training
time. He held multiple team
meetings including one meeting where the group watched “Hood to Coast” which
gave those that weren’t part of the Ragnar Nation yet a good idea of what the
relay would be like. Our captain’s
organization skills were so key to us completing the race in a healthy, strong
manner and winning a third place award to boot!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Hubs and I arrived in Miami in the late afternoon. We travelled with two other members of
our team. Two members of our team
(including our fearless leader) arrived in Miami in the early morning. They secured the white vans that would
become our living quarters for the next couple of days. They also shopped for the items we
would need to complete the race including food, drinks, pillows, and
coolers. In addition, the dynamic
duo picked up some food for the team to carb load on for dinner that
night. From the airport, we
travelled to the hotel. Our team
got two suites. The runners assigned
to van #1 stayed in one room and the runners from van #2 stayed in the
other. The team prepared dinner,
as well as, made sandwiches and prepared snacks for the race. I headed to bed around 9:30pm because I
was so tired from not sleeping well the night before. I guess I had been too excited and nervous about the race; I
didn’t get to train for the race as I had hoped to due to some nasty shin
splints. Thankfully, I was able to
get a great night sleep at the hotel.
Friday, January 6, 2012 – Saturday, January 7, 2012 (Because
the days just blended together)
Van #1 left the hotel much earlier than us. Van #1 included runners #1-6. There are 36 legs of the Relay; each
runner runs 3 legs. Unless, you’re
part of an Ultra Team; Ultra Teams are comprised of 6 runners who each run 6
legs of the relay. Our team’s
assigned start time was 9am.
(Teams were assigned start times between 7am and 4pm) Our van, Van #2, therefore would be
starting from checkpoint #6 sometime around 1pm. We did need to get to the checkpoint a couple of hours early
in order to pick up our paperwork, complete our safety check (this required
showing that we had all of our required night running gear), and listen to a
brief presentation regarding safety and rules. We packed our two coolers: one with drinks (water, Gatorade, and Muscle Milk) and the
other with food (sandwiches we prepared the night before, fruit,
vegetables). We also had assorted
food items that next time we decided we would purchase a plastic container or
basket to assist in keeping them together: protein bars, Pringles (can you say ‘salt fix needed’?),
Gummy Bears!, nuts, and extra drinks.
Additional, much needed items packed into the van included our backpacks
(we were each allowed to bring one backpack – backpack included an outfit for
each leg, toiletries, night running equipment), cowbells, glass markers to
decorate the van, pillows, snuggies, phone chargers, and glow sticks. After the van was packed, we decorated
the van with our glass markers.
Luckily, we had a runner with artistic abilities J . There were some teams that had outrageously decorated vans
and crazy costumes. We loved
checking these out! Some vans even
had magnets made up with their team logos and would ‘tag’ other team vans in
parking lots. Some did their
tagging with their glass markers.
To be continued………
No comments:
Post a Comment