Rebecca's Really Really Ridiculously Long Recount of Ragnar 2011

This is copied from my personal blog for your reading pleasure. Enjoy! -


Oh Ragnar. How I love you! This year's Ragnar was my third and it was so. much. fun. If you care to read about previous years, here are the links. If you care to read about this year, get cozy because it got really long. :) It's all here for my own memory's sake so feel free to skip the boring parts. But of course none of it is boring because it's Ragnar!

SoCal Ragnar 2009 - I ran on a team made up of 12 women who I didn't know at all. We won first place in our division in the inaugural SoCal Ragnar. Pretty cool, but definitely not as fun as running with David and our friends.

SoCal Ragnar 2010 - I was the team captain for Running from Responsibility's first year. I loved the entire experience from the planning to the finish. David ran with me and I fell in love with him all over again! And we had such a blast with some great friends. This year will always have my heart.

SoCal Ragnar 2011

My training (or lack thereof)
I had been looking forward to Ragnar all year, but once again, my knee was a worry. On a training run on March 5, after an injury-free-so-far running season, I felt that familiar twinge in my knee. I stopped running immediately. Agoura was only 3 weeks away so I decided to not run again until then and hope my knee would be ok. About one mile into the race I felt a twinge. I ran slowly for another half mile or so while I debated with myself. I finally decided to drop out of the race to save my knee for Ragnar. Ragnar is my favorite and I wanted to give myself every chance to finish it without problems. I went to my MAT guy four times, traded my spot for the shortest total distance in Van 2 making me Runner 11 and held my breath. I showed up for Ragnar under-trained (I hadn't run in six weeks besides my attempt at Agoura) but with hope (and David's faith) that our family's sincere prayers and fasting would bring a miracle. Not to give away the end at the beginning, but I did finish all three of my legs without knee pain. A miracle. I wasn't fast, but I did it and that's all I wanted. I am so grateful.

My team
Ragnar 2011 has been in the works since about the moment we crossed the finish in 2010. This year I gladly stepped down as team captain. James, who was practically my co-captain last year, took over and did an amazing job! I admit it was kind of nice to not worry so much about the details and just show up. Returning from last year and in Van 2 we had David (Runner 7), Wade (Runner 8), Amy (Runner 9), me (Runner 11), James (Runner 12) and Mike (driver). Also in Van 2 we had Ragnar newbie AnneMarie (Runner 10) replacing Danielle, James' other daughter who ran with us last year. Van 1 runners and new to SoCal Ragnar were (in Runner # order) Nikki, John, Trevor, Tom, Michael, and Laura with Chad behind the wheel and Tiffany as van assistant. This year we rented 15 passenger vans so we had room for dedicated drivers and tag-alongs. :)

Van 2 2011 - Wade, David, Rebecca, James, Mike, Amy, AnneMarie - at some crazy hour of the night, ready to start our 2nd legs.


My 12.5-ish miles
I felt so much anxiety/anticipation waiting to start my leg in Corona. Waiting for AnneMarie almost gave me a heart attack. I shouldn't have been quite so excited because my first run was horrible. It was for sure the hardest 5.5 miles of my life. When AnneMarie slapped that bracelet on my wrist at 3:08pm it was 92*. I was worried this whole time about my knee when I guess I should have been more worried about the weather. For the first little bit I was ok - I kept a slow and steady pace - but eventually the heat just killed me. The first time I stopped running at about the one mile mark I won The Soggy Shorts Award. I share this award with AnneMarie who had earned it during her leg just before mine. He he! From there I started taking more and more walk breaks and ended up walking most of the last four+ miles. I couldn't run. I had NOTHING. My awesome team met me about every half mile to cheer me on and David gave me water or beans or whatever I asked for. I tried drinking some Coke at one point, hoping the caffeine would give me super powers. All it did was make my mouth taste nasty. :) Thank you Amy for the cutie orange after that mistake. In my exhausted state of mind I started wishing for some kind of accident resulting in a broken leg to put me out of my misery. At about four miles I made the decision to call it good and have a teammate run the last mile and a half or so for me. I planned to ask the next person who passed me to please let my team know that I needed Mike to put on his running shoes because I was done! When someone did pass me though, I didn't have enough energy to give her the message. When I saw David again I almost lost it. He just pushed me along and didn't let me suggest stopping. He knew I would regret it forever if I didn't finish, even if I had to do it walking. My team was so great. They cheered me on as I slowly shuffled my way to the exchange. My leg was supposed to be 6 miles, but happily it ended up being only 5.5. Hallelujah! I literally cried when James took off and I collapsed into David's arms. That was hard. But I did it. Barely, but I did it.

My second leg at 2:22am on Saturday felt so great compared to my first. I had been able to sleep a little at Tom's cousin's house so I had some energy back. The weather was cool and the night was clear and quiet. I ran without a watch or music - just me in the middle of I had no idea where (San Marcos). I only had 2.1 miles to run on a flat course so I just enjoyed it. I ran the whole time, feeling so grateful for the cool temperature and no knee pain!

I started my third run at 1:31pm on Saturday in Chula Vista. James had told me he would take over for me if my knee failed and he'd just run to the end. I was happy to have him ready just in case, but I really hoped to make it. It was pretty hot, but not nearly as hot as during my first run. I was near the ocean so I had a nice breeze most of the time. My team checked on me a few times, but I was often on trails where they couldn't follow me. At two miles to go David asked me if they were ok to go to the exchange. I remember saying something hard core like, "I got this," then confidently ran (and occasionally walked) to the end. I was able to run most of the time which felt great. I felt redeemed after such a terrible first run. I was so happy to see James at the exchange! I did it! I finished! I hugged him and cheered him off to run the last leg. Hooray! My final 5 miles earned me another team award - The I'm Just Going to Do This Award.

When I wasn't running
An event like Ragnar is the perfect excuse to literally run from responsibility. If the 15 of us had taken off to party in Vegas for two days, surely we would be viewed as irresponsible. I don't think spouses and friends and parents would be as willing to hold down the fort back home in that case. But since we were running, which is "good" for us, and contributing to a worthy cause at the same time (well, and to the millionaires behind Ragnar), we were in fact supported and possibly even admired by our loved ones. It's guilt free irresponsibility! Sure, we all have to put in our hours on the road, but it's worth it for the crazy fun hours in between. It's an experience like no other. It's hours and hours together with great friends all working toward a common goal. And all functioning on little sleep which makes for some fun/funny/uninhibited moments and conversations.

It was sometime during the night that I first qualified for my third team award - The Most Entertaining Psychiatric Break-downs Award. Apparently I do not function well on little sleep. :) Just like last year I lost touch with reality by midnight and found pretty much everything to be absolutely hilarious. My giggles turned to uncontrollable laughter which turned to tears and then a strange sadness and sick feeling in my stomach. This phenomenon has happened to me several dozen times over the years since I was pregnant with Matthew. At least a half of those events occurred during these last two Ragnars. It's weird. It's not just tears but an actual feeling of sadness. Diagnosis? Thanks to Wade for nominating me for this award and for capturing one of my break-downs on camera.

Here's a sample of the moments I found so hilarious:

At a major exchange in the middle of the night, Mike plowed his way through a coned off area of a parking lot, hitting a cone in the process. He said, "Don't worry, Greding Precision Striping will replace that one." I guess you have to know that was the name of David's previous business. And it's still not very funny, but I lost it at 3:30 in the morning.

Later on, during David's last leg, we watched him turn a corner with a couple other runners. One guy started going the wrong way and David called for him to go the right way. Apparently the guy didn't believe him because he ran back to look at the sign he had missed. While this was happening, Mike narrated David's instructions. Something like, "I'll go this way and you go that way. Meet me back here in five minutes." See it's not even funny, but I was dying!!

By the way, David ran 25.2 miles of our 200+. He started off with a 7.3 miler, followed by an 8.2 and finished things off with a nice, easy 9.7 miler. Here he is looking pretty hot (and pretty hot) after his last run. I'm proud he's mine! I think he's amazing.


The End
The parking situation at the beach was a crazy nightmare. We had to leave Mike to deal with the parking and get to the finish line so we wouldn't miss James running in. Thankfully he parked and met us in time to run to the finish as a full team.

Our victorious run to the finish on the beach!


Running from Responsibility 2011!! James, Nikki, Tiffany, Rebecca, David, Amy, Laura, Chad, Trevor, John, AnneMarie, Tom, Mike, Michael and Wade. Aren't our shirts so great?! Our shirts were sponsored by Dole! Not our team, just our shirts. :)


I can't tell you how much I love this picture. It's one of my absolute favorites of David and me together of all time.


We didn't stick around for long after the finish. We were tired and ready to shower at home! I haven't really mentioned Mike's driving talent yet, but let me tell you, that man has serious skills. And he proved his skills on the Coronado Island bridge as we traveled home. A cop car nearly caused a massive accident by making a sudden U-turn across every lane of traffic. It was ridiculous. Thanks to Mike and his awesome driving, we all lived to be really annoyed about it. :)

We stopped at Chipoltle for dinner (yum) then headed home. So bittersweet to be done. I seriously love Ragnar. I was high on Ragnar for days and days. Still am a little. It's all we talked about for awhile there. We'll just have to hold onto the memories until next year!



The Timeline (thanks to James' iPhone app)

Friday, April 15
7:30am Van 1 starts in Huntington Beach, Van 2 leaves Moorpark
11:13am Van 2 starts in Anaheim,
5:36pm Van 1 starts in Lake Elsinore. Van 2 rests at Tom's cousin Sarah's house. Shower and sleep and a mini-box of Cheerios. I need to remember to bring Cheerios next year.
11:21pm Van 2 starts in Fallbrook
Saturday, April 16
3:33am Van 1 starts in Carlsbad. Van 2 sleeps at Amy's sister Carol's house. That shower felt so great! We had plenty of floor space to spread out and get some sleep. And she provided us with breakfast! Thank you Carol!
8:46am Van 2 starts in La Jolla. I was super grumpy at this hour of the day. Due to a little miscommunication, Van 1 woke us up an hour earlier than we wanted. Sleep is precious. But really, is there much difference between 2 hours of sleep and 3 hours of sleep? It took me until we got to the next exchange to get over it. Sorry for any angry vibes, Van 1!
3:31pm Finish on Coronado Island

Official total running time - 33hours 3minutes 28seconds