Ragnar SoCal Part 1

What an experience!!!

Ragnar SoCal is in the books and I am sad to be home already. Chad and I hit the road on Thursday to drive down to Huntington Beach and meet the team at the start line hotel. I actually slept pretty well the night before we headed to SoCal which was great. 

All morning I was stressing out over timing for our drive down. Chad likes to pack for things last minute and I am one who plans and packs in advance. It has been known to drive me a little crazy but in Chad's defense he hasn't forgotten anything yet! 

We left the house on time and despite my anxiety got to the hotel with time to spare. Additionally Thomas's plane had been delayed so we got to the hotel early enough for a quick nap while waiting for the team (I like my sleep!). 

I meet everyone out in the parking lot and the initial awkwardness quickly faded. Every single one of my teammates is awesome! They are some of the funniest, kindest and most encouraging people I have ever meet!

We all headed out for an early dinner and then onto Party City for decorations for the van. We wound up finding not just van decorations but people decorations as well!

There had been some discussion of wearing tutus but prior to that night I was not planning on wearing on myself. Even after my last minute tutu purchase I wasn't sure how many legs I would wear it during or if I would just wear it for the finish line (spoiler alert- I wore it for all 3 legs and the finish line!). 

Our team decided to do a team sweatshirt instead of shirts (thank you Martha for that idea!) and one of the teammates gifted them to all of us! Next as a quick stop at the grocery store for water and van food. Chad said it was hilarious at watching all the red sweatshirts running around the store.

We went back to the hotel and I was in bed by 9:30 following a quick shower and bath to help me relax. I fell asleep quickly but at 10:15 I was woken up by loud people yelling to each other in the hallway. Our hotel had many teams staying in it but we had a 5:00am start time where as many other teams started later. I was annoyed but finally fell back asleep by 11:30. 

Van 1 (Thomas, Katie, John, Caitlin, myself and Paige) hit the start line at 4:00 am for check in and safety briefing. It was chilly waiting for the start time to roll around but soon van 2 showed up to help see Thomas off! 

Thomas started us off with a bang! He is super speedy! Katie, John and Caitlin did great on their legs as well. As a team we made it a goal of supporting our teams and other teams on the course. Thomas's leg was out of sight and down on a running path near the beach so unfortunately we couldn't get to him but we stopped to cheer on the rest of our team.

Waiting for my leg I was nervous. I had knots in my stomach and a lump in my throat I couldn't swallow! I have gotten nervous before my runs before, particularly long runs and certain races but I had never had an entire team waiting to see how I did! John and Katie as our captains had made sure we all knew that the main goal was to have fun though so I kept thinking about that. 

Caitlin handed off to me in the Angels Stadium parking lot and I was off on Leg 5 of Ragnar SoCal! I started off way too fast and when I looked down at my Garmin I saw a sub 9. Opps too fast! Luckily I was able to slow it down to a sustainable pace. 

The team stopped to cheer me on along the course and took my abortive running picture to date!

The neighborhood we ran through was The City of Orange. Super cute area with Craftsman style homes. They were all really fun to look at as I ran by and helped the 6.44 mils go by quickly. It was a pretty day and I was feeling great!

The only annoying part of the run was all the stoplights! Normally I have my Garmin set up to auto-pause at stops but considering this was a race and our overall time was counted I turned off that feature and watched my pace get slower and slower as I waited at the lights. I was amazed to watch people actually running red lights across busy intersections!?! Absolutely blow away! Little groups of us would pile up at stop lights and then spread out once the light turned green. At one stoplight a guy even took a group selfie, I wish I had thought to have him send it to me! 

I got into the exchange and handed off the slap brackets to Paige who was runner 6. Ragnar uses a slap bracelet as its baton. I was a little worried it would bug me but I really didn't notice it. Our team also wore a blue mustache slap bracelet to honor Mark, he got a hell of a run in this weekend! 

My mile splits were:

10:58

10:59

10:30

10:32

11:03

12:44 (stoplight-paloza!!!)

And 4:23 for the .44 mile 

I was floating on cloud nine after that run! I had run my nerves out and was feeling great. We headed out on the road to stop and support Paige (who stopped and helped a hurt runner herself) and then onto the first major exchange where we would hang off the bracelets to van 2 and get to take a break for a while.

The major exchange was huge! It was great to see van 2 and watch Paige hand off to Dean. More and more teams were on the road by this time but we were lucky to get in and out of the exchange when we did because there was lots of construction around the exchange and traffic was just getting worse.

Next up was a break for us while van 2 ran. We had an awesome lunch at a place recommended by one of Katie's readers, thank you Michelle!, and sat for a while at the restaurant and talked. The more everyone talked the more I liked them and this theme continued all weekend!

Next we headed to the beach! The next major exchange where we would hit the road again was right on the beach in Dana Point, beautiful!

I was able to get about an hour of sleep while a group of us napped in the van. Paige brought a hammock (I will get one for next Ragnar) and napped in that while Katie explored and climbed stairs (crazy girl ;). 

I had a cup of coffee at the exchange after we got up and started looking for Colleen to come in. Amazingly enought if was my first coffee of the day and already late afternoon! 

Colleen came FLYING into the exchange with the biggest grin and pumping her fists in the air. She had flown through her miles and handed off to Thomas and off we were on our second legs!