Ragnar Report, Part Three

Well, here's the wrap up to my Ragnar adventure:

When I finished my middle of the night/early morning nightmare hill run, my team was itching to go. Everybody was exhausted by then. Though it was probably only an hour or so until sunrise, for most of us it felt like we had finally finished a very long day and it was bedtime at last. The next major exchange was supposed to have indoor sleeping, so we loaded up and headed off to Fountain Hills High School. I was sitting in the front passenger seat-- it was my job to be the "safety officer" while I tried to stretch out my legs. Basically, the job of the front passenger is to be awake at all times and make sure we don't do anything stupid. That was tough though. I figured I would be OK-- I had just finished a run so I was sweaty and a bit adrenalized, plus I was ravenously hungry. But all of those things put together couldn't keep me alert. Even though I tried to hold a conversation with our driver (to help him stay awake too!), I kept dozing off and startling back as my head hit the window. It was a long drive. (I bet it was even longer for Erin's fiance, since he was driving!)

When we reached the high school, most of the team headed directly for the gym to crash. I detoured to the bathroom to at least change my sweaty clothes for my last set of dry ones before I climbed into my sleeping bag. When I headed back into the gym I ran into someone from the team who told me everyone was laid out directly across from the door. The gym was pitch black but in the light from the open door I recognized Lexi's mom. I asked her in a whisper where my sister was and she gestured to the side. Blearily I unrolled my sleeping bag next to the insensible figure I assumed was Amy. Then I stretched out and plugged in the ipod-- and a miracle occurred. I fell asleep!!!!

When I woke up I was totally disoriented. Light was flooding the gym through the high windows and I was staring at a girl who for some reason did not look like my sister. It took me awhile to figure this out though. She was sitting up and brushing her hair near the head of my sleeping bag, and rather belatedly it occurred to me that Amy is not Asian.

What the heck?

Looking to my side I realized that other people had come in while I was sleeping and I had been asleep barely an inch from a guy who was a complete stranger. Kind of freaky. When I sat up I figured out that I must have rolled over in my sleep, which had gotten me all turned around. I looked back to the sleeping woman at my other side and realized that the form wrapped in the sleeping bag was much too long to be Amy either.


At this point I got kind of panicky. Where was my team???

I was frantically looking around and didn't recognize anybody. Granted most people were hidden in sleeping bags, many with their head covered (to block out the sun) but even still, no one looked familiar. It was a little scary and definitely disorienting.

When I pulled out my phone I realized that I had been asleep for only two hours. But I was too awake at this point to be able to go back to sleep (at least on that hard of a floor). I started to pack up my stuff, figuring I would go dump my stuff in the car (Karen was sleeping in it this time) and get some breakfast. While I was packing, the figure next to me woke up and to my great relief I realized I'd been sleeping next to Lexi. At least one member of my team was here! I reassured her that she could go back to sleep for a couple hours and then lugged all my stuff out of the gym.

In the parking lot I could not find the car anywhere. The disorientation returned with a vengeance. In desperation I texted Amy, but fortunately, just as I got her answer, I saw the car pulling into a parking spot. Half the team had made an early morning Starbucks run. Perhaps I should have been disappointed to miss out, but I was just relieved that I wasn't going crazy!

My breakfast was a gigantic pancake and a grilled cheese sandwich cooked by some pleasant FH high school kids who were fundraising. I was so famished by that point I don't know if any cheese sandwich has ever tasted so good. But after we had eaten, most of the team sat around on the curb bored to tears. We had a couple of hours to go until Van #1 was probably going to arrive for the hand-off and nothing to do. More sleep would have been sensible, but for most of us it was just not going to happen.

Ragnar Lesson #9: Bring a card game or some other small game. Something that can entertain a group if you end up having to wait a couple hours and the hula hoop contest is not your cup of tea.

Since this exchange was essentially the finish line for everyone's first van and the start of the last segment for the second van, many of the teams were in their full on costumes now. Captain Underpants was present again, of course. Some of the getups were very entertaining-- I liked the disco group, and there were people in cute cardboard legos. But then we spotted a group of girls from a team named the Muffin Tops. They had cute little matching T-shirts and everything.

BUT WE WERE NOT AMUSED.

At least Erin, Amy, Lexi, and I didn't find it entertaining. See, every girl standing and waiting was extremely thin. No sign of a real muffin top. In fact, as we watched, they helped one the girls (presumably the next runner) fit a tube of some kind around her waist under her T-shirt so she could have a fake muffin top.

Not cool to the women standing nearby who really had muffin tops. (Karen found it funny, but she's still a super thin college student who has never given birth.) Granted, I think it wouldn't have bothered me normally, but when you've run ten miles and had only two hours of sleep, your sense of humor is a mite strained.

Oh well. We didn't have to be offended for long. They were soon off. Eventually our turn came too and we sent Karen off on a horrific uphill run that made mine from the night before look like a walk in the park. Straight up, baby. Good thing Karen is an in-shape youngun! Erin's run came after and apparently it nearly did her in. We were clearly running out of steam.

Pretty soon something became very obvious. A group of people can only keep in good humor for so long on little sleep. Around this time we started to have some whining and complaining. I strove quite valiantly to keep my tone and my words and my attitude positive, and I have to give my sister some serious props for never saying a word when she got annoyed! But it was clear the race was starting to wear some nerves thin.

Ragnar Lesson #10: Towards the end you may be tempted to get negative, whiny or sarcastic. Do your best to keep all that grumpiness inside. It's tough, I know, but it's either that or risk having someone tell you to "shut the hell up," which is not exactly good for team morale.

(I'm not saying we had that happen. But it was probably on the tips of some tongues, I'm sure.)


The morning wore on into the afternoon, and I watched teammate after teammate finish their final run. At this point I just wanted it OVER. And I of course was the very last person to run. Just before Lexi finished her six mile stretch, Karen told me, "No pressure, but really, finish as soon as you can, OK?"

Right, no pressure! Only you know the whole team is impatiently waiting for you to get in!

My last run would actually have been quite a pleasant one if I had been fresh. I ran down a nicely landscaped trail for most of it before reaching Tempe Town Lake. I got to run around the edge of the lake, which was at least interesting to look at. Also, it turned out to be a lifesaver because near the boat launch there were bathrooms I was able to quickly duck into. (My bladder was not going to wait again.) Not long after that though I reached the worst part of my run. Now picture this-- you're hungry, exhausted, and your legs are jelly. You've just finished about 3 miles of your third run in less than 24 hours. And now you find yourself faced with two flights of stairs.

Yes, stairs. I couldn't run up them. I had to pull myself up using the handrail. But when I got to the top I ran like I had coyotes on my tail. I kept thinking of my team waiting for me and of being able to get some Rubio's (which was supposed to be at the finish line). My path took me on the Mill Avenue bridge across the lake and then down to the Arts Center where they had the finish line set up. I cannot tell you what a relief it was to reach the end and be joined by my teammates! We ran as a group (minus Camie, who was too sick to come back to the finish line) for the last 100 feet or so.

And then it was over!!!


Mere words will not suffice at this point so I will share some finish line pictures:

Either the Ragnar people got the distance of my last leg wrong, or I ran the fastest I've ever run in my life. Apparently, I finished that 4.7 miles in 42 minutes, which is less than a 9:00 minute/mile pace. Holy moly!!

Our team time for the whole race was 33:13:07. (Yes, that's 33 HOURS). We came in 276 out of 325 teams, but quite frankly, any team who finishes the Ragnar deserves some serious kudos. Plus we came in only 1 min 30 seconds longer than those fake muffin tops. Let's hear it for Real Muffin Top Women!