Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat!

The unofficial slogan of the Ragnar Relay race sums up in 4 words what I did for some 33 hours of my life as I ran with 11 other friends from Huntington Beach (Los Angeles) to Coronado Island (San Diego) in a grueling 203+ mile race.  Who wouldn't want to be in a van with sweaty runners for 33 hours with no showers and no sleep?



I realize that blogging about this AWESOME experience is going to take more than a single blog post.  So you'll have to keep coming back for more as I continue recording this adventure.

First, meet our van.  These are the 6 brave, crazy, tough, ... & unusually silly souls willing to spend 33 hours in a van together with little sleep.  At the moment of this photograph, the other van on our team has already run a few legs of the race.

Also, take note of the awesome vinyl on our van.  My wife continues to get the credit for the vinyl - while I was actually the one who designed and cut everything.  I guess nobody actually believes I can be crafty.  I don't blame them.  I thought the feet were pretty cool and clever to put everyone's name into a footprint of their own.



While the first van was out running - we slept in (or at least tried) and had a hearty breakfast at the Embassy Suites.

[caption id="attachment_1284" align="alignnone" width="428" caption="Top: Ashby at the omelet station. Bottom: Cousin & Me"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1293" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="J and me at Breakfast"][/caption]

We headed over to exchange 6 to check-in.  This is where runner 6, the last runner in our first van, hands the "baton" over to runner 7, the first runner in our van.  I was runner 7.

I was so nervous, I couldn't pin my bib onto my own shirt.  Ashby had to do it for me.



Here we are awaiting for the exchange to occur.



When the time finally came to get the baton and start running, I felt GREAT!  Great, except that the baton turned out to be a slimy sweaty slap bracelet that had slime on it from the previous 6 runners.  Oh well.

My first leg was 8.8 miles, all uphill.  The first 5 miles I did great.  I ran my race pace, between a 7:00 min/mile and a 7:15 min/mile.  But the heat was intense.  It was over 90 degrees and humid.  No clouds.  No breeze.  No shade.  Somewhere in the fifth mile, the heat started to take its toll on my body and my stomach started aching.  I drank 2 cups of water at ever water station, and there were 4 water stations in this leg.  Still, I could tell I was getting heat exhaustion.  My next 3 miles I kept running, but more at an 8:00 min/mile pace.

Here I am getting water from K8.  Rather than drinking it, I'm dumping the water on me to cool down.



I was disappointed at my slower speed, but encouraged greatly by my cheering teammates.  Also, in some strange way, I was motivated by all the people I passed (we call a pass a "kill").  I estimate a third of the runners I "killed" (passed) were walking at this point.  On this leg I collected 48 kills.  And nobody ever passed me *grin* :)  My last mile had this killer hill, which you can see me making a kill and getting water from my teammate K8.  Once again, the cheering of my teammates helped me tremendously to keep moving strong.



Fortunately most of my leg wasn't residential like in this picture.  Most of it was on a bike path along a small river.  Here is a collage of "J" waiting for me to come into the exchange.



He's smiling now, but will he be smiling during his quest to conquer some big hills in the heat?



[caption id="attachment_1298" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="While we wait for J, Ashby enjoys the shade and Cousin is all ready to run!"][/caption]

J comes in hot and sweaty, but still smiling.



Cousin takes off with fanfare, blowing all her fans kisses and waving at the crowd to see her off.

[caption id="attachment_1295" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Cousin takes off with fanfare"][/caption]

It was great to have "Cousin" here running with us.  She is a great runner and very experienced at long-distance running.  About a month before the Ragnar, we needed another female runner (we have to have 6 on the team) because one had to drop out.  I put out feelers to family members who run and Cousin reacted with much enthusiasm.  The only trick was I needed to fly her out across the country for the race.  Fortunately I had enough airline miles on American Airlines for a single ticket.  It had taken me a third of my life to accrue enough miles for just one ticket on that airline because I rarely fly on American.  And when am I ever going to use a single airline ticket?  It was an easy choice; and well worth it.

See our sweaty van.



Ashby, J and I await for Carol to arrive in any shade we can find.



Cousin arrives strong at the end of her leg.



TO BE CONTINUED...

In my next post, find out what is the deal with this "Ashby" character, see more heat exhaustion, Ragnar stalkers, and find out what happens to 6 runners as sleep deprivation starts to set in.