Ragnar Trail - second time

 

A couple weeks ago I got to do my second Ragnar Trail!  Trail is different than a regular Ragnar in several ways.  First of all I've done 4 Ragnar Del Sol plus my first Ragnar was the Wasatch Back in Utah.  In those races there are 12 runners and the race has an early Friday morning start and a Saturday afternoon finish.  No one runs the same three legs as anyone else on their team.  You start in one city and wind through and finish in another city 200 miles later.

With Ragnar Trail there are 8 runners running the same three legs while camping out in the same area.  Everyone at the race runs the same three legs labeled RED, YELLOW, and GREEN and they all started and finished at the same place.

These photos are kind of all over the place but that's kind of how a Ragnar feels.  You're eating, running and sleeping at strange times.

Here's part of the team!  Our team was an Edward Jones work team.  Dan McKay works for Edward Jones and he invited me on.  Besides his cousin, Robert McKay, I didn't know anyone else on the team before race day.  It's aways fun getting to know some new awesome runners.

On the far left is James Weinmann (he's the oldest and fastest in the group and has run several marathons but this was his first Ragnar), then Kim Phair (married to Steve Phair- they both run races all the tines for fun), next is me, then Dan McKay, then Robert McKay, then Bret Seeley a dad who has biological children and an adopted son plus he has a foster girl who is like a daughter.  Really awesome group.

Just missing from the photo the team captain Julie Reid and Steve. Julie is on the left of the below photo.  The only three not working for Edward Jones was Robert, Kim, and me.  We were team "Buy Sell Hold Run" and we ran for 27 hours with a total of about 15.2 miles total each.

^ ^ James ^ ^

Everyone had a least one night run where you provide your own light by headlamps or flashlights.  I had two night runs which isn't a bad thing because it gets pretty hot in the afternoon, like my last run.

^ ^ Dan ^ ^

^ ^ Robert ^ ^

Can you see Four Peaks in the distance?  This was on my last run.

There were food trucks to grab food.  I brought some snacks but bought a pulled pork sandwich for dinner, and this sourdough bowl egg with bacon and sausage for breakfast.

Bret, Kim and Steve had to leave early so just the five of us at the end of the race.  Feels so good to finish. I was the last runner so it feels special to finish the team off in the race.

Ragnar has done this for a few years where you put all your medals together and it writes our a secret message.  "WE ARE REGNARIANS TOGETHER WE CAN...".   I got the top left "...Blaze new trails".  I like that.  If you pull the orange necklace part off you can pull out the metal survival utility tool.  It has a special name Andrew said but I don't remember.  Pretty cool though.

Here's the YELLOW leg I ran first at 7:30pm.  We had a noon start time but being runner 8 I didn't start until after dinner time.  The race said it was 4.5 but my maps said 4.62 and it was a very bumpy trail.  Definitely felt longer than four and a half and I was glad to get it done early.

Here is the GREEN leg, the race had down for 4.2 miles.  I started tracking a bit late.  Started this ru before 4:30 in the morning and I had about a 5 hour sleep before which is pretty good for a Ragnar.  Great pace.  It goes gradually uphill then gradually downhill.  I saw a snake (possibly a rattle snake) around mile 3 a few feet out from the trail but it wasn't interested in me.  Just a nice run and really quiet that third mile before joining up at the end.

Here is the RED leg.  Red and Yellow are the hardest.  Whichever one you ran last and in the heat was the hardest for that person.  Red was definitely it for me.  It is the longest distance (the race said 6.6 miles), my legs were tired, my eating and sleep were off, the first few miles were steep and very rocky, and I started the run at 1:43pm.  It took me and hour and a half.  My goal was under a 14 minute per mile mace average which I got!  I actually forgot to stop tracking after finishing since my team was there and we were done so I didn't better than it says.  Mostly it was just hot and I didn't see very many people on the run since many teams had finished and were headed home.

Now I have run 7 Ragnars!  Feels good to say that, and they won't be my last!

another half marathon

On Saturday Rachel and I ran our own half marathon together!  It was something we wanted to do before the end of the year and feels good to have made it happen.  Summer 2020 we had record heat in July and August so we ran less and did more strength and yoga.  It's not fun running in 90 + degree weather at 5:30 in the morning.  Then in September Rachel and I got into hiking to prepare for hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim.  So amazing!  And also different from running.

After the Grand Canyon our Saturday runs got long.  The Saturday after the Grand Canyon we ran 6 miles, and 6 the next, then 8, then 8, then 10.  By that 10 miles Saturday Rachel's knee was bothering her.  We upped our miles a little too fast so we baked off for a couple weeks.  We ran our 10k Turkey Trot and another 6 miles the next weekend before jumping up to 10 miles a week ago, and then 13.1 last Saturday!

We slowed down the last few miles for Rachel's knee, but still beat her PR (personal record) by a few minutes and kept the overall time 5 miles under an hour and a half.  I would have liked to be under an 11:00 minute per mile pace but feel good.  Still had some juice at the end, it would have been nice to be faster those last miles.

Andrew surprised us by coming on his bike the last half mile to cheer us on!  It was the sweetest thing.  We did our traditional #1 photo after.

It's amazing to be here after having done another half marathon.  Counting them up I did my first one with my cousin Elizabeth Curtis in 2011.  Then in 2016, two babies later, I ran my second half marathon with Dan McKay.  I never blogged about it (I did post on instagram here) but the next year in 2017 I ran my first marathon after training with a bunch of friends.  Training for that I ran many runs a half marathon distance and longer (probably around 5).  That was the year I was the team captain of a ragnar team (best ragnar ever!) and ran a half marathon during one of my ragnar legs and got an extra medal I didn't know about until after the race.  Then a year ago my running buddy, Rachel Willis, signed up for the Gilbert half marathon so I trained with her and did my own half marathon after a long run with Rachel.  

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me.  All in all I've run around 10 half marathon or longer distances.  So proud of myself and look forward to many more similar runs and hikes. 

Happy Thanksgiving

You have to run a turkey trot on Thanksgiving! And if not an official race, than an unofficial turkey trot.  Rachel and I drove to her sister's house in Gilbert to run a 10k for change of scenery and it was a beautiful and slightly chilly run -perfect!

Elliot helped me make the stuffing.

Turkey turned out nice!

Peter did the turkey carving this year.  Really the meat just fell off the bones.

Loved have the elders over this year!

After eating we needed to make room for all the pies!

Lot's of good conversations, and ukulele music too!

 Peter brought his corn hole set which was a big hit!

The Manning's left to be with James' family and the Opie's came for pie.

Andrew and Zara helped out with the Brown's project next door.

And neighbor friends from the other side of our house played out back for a bit.

 We finished the night off with a call to Mom & Dad, a Christmas movie for the kids, and a couple games. It's been a good day.  Happy Thanksgiving.

book review: Eat & Run

It's been a while since I've done a book review but this book was too good not to share.  Eat & Run shares some of Scott Jurek's most challenging ultra marathon races, his journey to running, his journey to healthy eating, and everything in between.  If you don't know already, an ultra marathon is any running race with a distance greater than a marathon (26.2 miles), but are often 50 miles, 100 miles, or more.

Scott mentions that most good marathon runners "hit a wall" during a race, or after it, but ultra runners hit wall after wall after wall and still continue to run.  These walls are often mental.  Scott wanted to challenge his body as far to the edge of physical/emotional limit without going over the edge and won many ultra marathon races.  An astounding fact is that he is Vegan, so he had to find ways to get plenty of protein in his diet without meat and eggs.  Each chapter shares a Vegan recipe he would eat before, during, or after his races.

Scott also mentions a woman who ran the Wasatch Back ultra marathon 8 weeks after having a baby, nursed her baby at every water station, and finished the race with a new women's record.  Crazy!

I don't plan on being an ultra marathon runner, or even become Vegan, but this book fascinated me and inspired me to run harder and realize that what I eat affects my runs.  Over that last several weeks I have had a goal to run a certain number of miles each week.  I started out at 4 miles accumulative by the end of the week and now I'm at 13 miles and use an app called Run Keeper to keep track of my miles/pace.  With a triathlon and turkey trot next month and plans to do a half marathon in February it's great to see progress!

book review: Born to Run

Born to Run is some really good story-telling about some amazing runners.  But wait - it's all true!  Running a marathon still sounds a little crazy to me and I love to run, but running an ultra-marathon (50 miles!, 100 miles! and not dying!!) . . . I don't even know what to say.  The cool thing is after reading this my goal of running a marathon feel so attainable.

 "You don’t stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running."

Born to Run book can be read and enjoyed by any athlete.  It really brings out the inner runner in you.

call me a runner

Half marathon, march 2012

Seeing this picture makes me feel hopeful again.  As of today I officially feel like a runner again!  I've been running with my friend, Nicole, once a week and she really pushes me hard.  She's training for a half marathon in November which is a week before my triathlon and because of her I have been able to increase my weekly miles and pace.  It's been hard but it feels so good!  This morning we ran 6 miles in an hour!  Wasn't a mile hard like last month?  I can't wait to get this body back into race shape again so I can cross a finish line proud of my time and accomplishments.  It's seriously a drug for me.  Have you ever gotten the race drug?

So proud he's mine

I married a guy who is always learning and growing. I love that about him. He's not happy with just settling for the great life he was given, he wants more, and not in a selfish way. I would be worried if Andrew didn't have any long-term or short-term goals. He really makes me want to work harder to be a better person too.

Andrew is not a runner but he made a goal to run, not walk, the 10k Turkey Trot, and do it in under an hour. He's also doing the Warrior Dash in April (wish I was too!). Since he graduates from Colorado State University in May I've been thinking of what would be a good graduation gift to get him. He deserves something great so I decided to gift him with some Vibram Treksport shoes.

I gifted them early because they take a long time to train in order to not damage your feet. Andrew has sensitive feet and his latest pair of running shoes were just not working for him. Vibram shoes have a great reputation so I hoped they would be better for him. If you're wondering how he likes them you can read more at Hunting for the Running High, a blog Andrew just started to document his running experiences. He's been learning about how nice toe socks feel and the difficulties of juggling an active lifestyle with school and work. I love supporting him in his endeavors. Now we both can't wait until he graduates but a lot will happen between now and then, like a baby . . .