Ragnar Great River 2017

Ragnar Relay – Great River
8/18/2017 – 8/19/2017


Medtronic Nuerotic Soles, Bib #3
24:50:43 (Avg. Pace – 7:28 min/mile)
3rd Place Overall
1st Place Corporate Team


What a fun, fun race.  The team that I got the privilege to run with this year was full of outstanding people.  I think the reason I am still smiling almost a week later is because of the time spent during this relay not running.  My van was so supportive and encouraging, there was never any pressure or feeling that you HAD to perform well – I would say it was the definition of what it feels like to be on a well led and well functioning team; wanting to succeed for everyone around you more than for yourself. 


Leg #1
4:49 pm; 5.94 miles, 46:28 (Avg. Pace – 7:50 min/mile)


We piled into van around 1pm and departed from Rice Creek. 

On the road, pre-stinky selves

I heard our bib number and saw Doug and started getting even more antsy.  Doug handed off the wristband and I took off.  I realized within the first few minutes I should probably slow down, I was cookin at a sub 7 minute pace and that is not sustainable for me.  I easily passed a runner within the first mile and just couldn’t stop smiling.  Guy B. was in his pickup and he cheered me on as I went by and reminded me to watch my pace… very good advice.  

Guy, being an AWESOME cheerleader

I was in great spirits, and then the hill came.  About halfway up the hill, I saw our van and what an amazing sight that was.  I had been half power walking/half going through the motions to get my booty up that incline. 

Sucking air up the hill, pretending to run when I saw my van

 A little water and some words of encouragement (and a speedy Ragnerd flying passed me) fueled my fire and I powered up that hill.  Towards the top of the hill, a high schooler wearing American flag shorts caught up to me.  He gave me something to chase and we were doing 6:30s down the hill.  With about 2 miles to go, he started to tire and we played leap frog for a little while – I would pass him for a few feet, he would pass me.  With a mile to go, he started to slow way down and told me to have a good rest of the race.  I told him that wasn’t acceptable and that we have a mile left and he needed to keep up with me.  That got him going, and I had my rabbit to chase the last mile.  We came around a turn and could see the exchange.  I handed off to Emmanuel and wanted to cry from excitement that my knee hadn’t hurt a bit the whole leg!

We hopped in the van and headed off to support Emmanuel while I baby wiped some of the stench off.  


Some memorable parts of leg #1:

• The amazing sunset and supporting Amaza (she CRUSHED her run), the colors were so pretty!
• Getting blinded by Steve G.’s headlamp and using it to make shadow animals
• Losing Tim – we saw him but were so caught up in making sure the runners didn’t trip over the voids in the road that we didn’t even realize we were talking to him
• Spotted Cow at the little restaurant after the Major Exchange – nom nom

Shadow animals!

Leg #2
12:57 am; 5.62 miles, 41:36 (Avg. Pace – 7:24 min/mile)


Sleeping in a van is not easy. After we ate some food and got some gas, we headed to the school to try and get some sleep.  They changed the exchange point from the previous years from the high school to the elementary school, so by the time we figured out where to go, we didn’t have too much time for getting cleaned up.  We skipped the showers and decided to try to get some sleep in the high school parking lot.  


I curled up on the floor between the seats and tried to rest my eyes.  Boy did it smell bad.  When I got up to get stretched out, I realized I had been using my running shoes as a pillow and the garbage can was on the seat next to me (I may have been trying to cuddle with it).  


We got up and drove over to the elementary school and used real bathrooms.  We waited til we heard our bib number called.  Doug handed off to me, he was looking like he might have been hurting a little bit.  I took off, it was really awesome running in the pitch dark, wee hours of the morning.  There was one runner ahead of me that I could see but kept losing him with the rolling hills.  I got to a red light and was bummed because I had to wait for some traffic.  I didn’t see the runner that had been in front of me so got a little worried I had missed a turn.  I ran straight, hoping I would see something, and sure enough – there he was!  This leg was tough.  It had a few rolling hills at the start, but then a very steep downhill – my knee wasn’t super happy about that.  Also, for being in the morning, it was a little thick out and I got pretty hot and thirsty quickly.  


Memorable parts of leg #2:

• That darn Ragnerd catching up to me and chatting as if he wasn’t running hard!
• Passing the girl with the skirt made out of bells – man was that fulfulling
• Fire drill with Doug and Allen – van #1 thought they had lost Doug so we had to go back and get Allen to take him to his hand off, but then they found Doug so we dropped him right back off – it was quite funny 🙂
• Watching Steve G finish his 10+ mile leg and pass 30+ people!

Leg #3
8:58 am; 4.88 miles, 38:29 (Avg. Pace – 7:53 min/mile)


We got to the high school and grabbed out stuff to shower and take a little snooze.  That shower was AMAZING.  I laid on the gym floor for about 20 minutes and then got up to go hang out in the van.  I ate some random snacks and got ready for my next leg.  I retaped up my knee and popped some vitamin I and helped a guy in a van next to me get his tape to stick on his knee (luckily I brought a whole roll of tape)  Doug ended up hurting pretty badly during his leg so Allen finished his leg for him.  


Allen handed off to me and I headed out on boring sidewalks.  It started to get warm and the sun was ruthless.  I got hot pretty quickly.  Thank goodness for my awesome van.  They went and dropped Emmanuel off and came back to get me some more water — the race elevation chart was so deceptive.  Lesson learned, I will never look at an elevation chart for a run and say “this will be easy”.  I got to the hand off and was exhausted! But elated 🙂 (I was very happy to be done, especially since the sun continued to make the temperature feel icky)


Memorable parts of leg #3:

• Losing Tim, again….
• Stopping at Caribou 🙂 mmmmmm that latte was the best tasting latte
• That shower… and brushing my teeth, and using a clean bathroom = AMAZING

Finish!


We parked at the U and headed to the finish line to wait for Tim to get there. We all ran in together and then headed for some beer!  That beer and pizza — definitely the best I have ever had… and probably because I hadn’t slept in 36 hours and hadn’t had a good meal in about that long either. 

Team Medtronic Neurotic Soles

The women!

Van #2