Ragnar Northwest Passage

I just realized I haven't posted anything in awhile, and I ran a Ragnar . . .

I guess I don't know how to describe my Ragnar experience.  It was easier than I expected, but I didn't have a lot of expectations.  Or didn't know what to expect.  I was pretty frustrated before with my team and the captain, who I felt was terrible at communication.  And any time I'd ask a question to the group I'd get a vague answer or a "read the race Bible" answer, which started to just make me mad.  However, once we were all there and in the van, I was okay and, for the most part, enjoyed myself. 

I was really lucky because the captain and his wife (my coworker) had a camper van that had a top that popped up into a bed.  Plus, one of my team members' parents live in Bellingham, so during our first break we went to their house and hung out for 4 hours or so.  I took a nap in a shady spot in their backyard, it was nice. 

We started at 6am near the Canadian border.  I was runner 3, so my first run started about 7:45am and was 8.3 miles.  The team I was with was from a gym and they had so many people sign up for it that they made 2 teams,  So even though I didn't know anyone, other than my one coworker, I ended up running with a young girl from the other team.  She was only 17, and was much slower than me, but it was kinda a nice start.  It was a pretty hilly 8 miles, so running with her saved me physically for later.  I did "ditch" her at the halfway point though. 

The exchange

 My second run happened about 10 hours later and was through (sorta) Mount Vernon (where I live) for 6.6 miles.  It was on a back road that I've run on before for a long run, so I knew what to expect and it was flat.  This run I was thinking would be a piece of cake.  I've run on that road before, and it was flat, so I didn't even think twice about it.  However, it was a lot harder than I expected.  I think it was mostly because it was such a long run after a long run (my longest run in the last year is only 9 miles), and it was pretty warm. 

 When we got to the exchange for the 5th runner there was a farmer's stand that also sold ice cream.  As we were pulling in I saw someone with a giant mint chocolate chip ice cream cone and I knew immediately that I had to have that in my life.  It was the best (and worst) thing I ate for the trip.

 It was the worst because it made my stomach not happy for the rest of the evening.  But it was delicious. 

We spent the night in Oak Harbor at the high school there.  Most people slept in sleeping bags in the gym of the high school, but because we had a cool van, we were able to sleep in the van.  I had to use the bathroom and was out almost before the van stopped, by the time I got back everyone else was leaving with toothbrushes. At that point I didn't care, I grabbed my blanket, headphones and a little pillow I brought, climbed up into the popped up top bed, curled into a ball and fell asleep.  I think I slept the best of everyone in my van (4 hours).  If you ever do a Ragnar, I HIGHLY recommend having head phones or earplugs.  I think that helped tremendously.

My last run was in Oak Harbor for 3.1 miles.  I will say, it was my hardest.  It started at about 545am and was mostly uphill.  Plus, I just wanted to be done, so pushed myself to be faster.  (It wasn't my fastest, but I was tired.) 

After my van finished running we had to wait around for the second van to finish.  We made our way to Langley (where the finish line was), found someplace to eat and then just hung out for a while.  My Dad, Chris, and Maddox all met us at the finish line and we waited. 

This is my coworker, but I really was trying to get the van.  

The take away?  Marathons are harder.  I was always scared to do Ragnar because I thought it would be so hard.  It was difficult, I did 18 miles in 22 hours with a total of maybe 8 hours of sleep (over 2 nights).  However, I think I got more sleep than most and that was only because of the van I was in.  In a typical van, there's no way I would have been able to curl up and sleep in it.  I would have been on a hard wood floor with hundreds of other (smelly) runners. 

Oh, and on the Ragnar web page, my picture from my post Ragnar run came up because I tagged #ragnarnwp.  😊  (I'm on the bottom left.)