Race day morning came and I got to meet some of the coolest people ever that I was going to be come great friends with over the next 36 hours. So, here's a breakdown of how Ragnar works. 12 man teams, 2 vans split 6 and 6. Van 1 is full of the first 6 people and they drop racer 1 off at the starting point, cheer him on while they run, and then drive ahead to the next exchange where racer 2 gets out stretches and then preps to receive the slap bracelet that is used as the baton (which I was glad about, I really didn't want to be holding something while I ran). Rinse, repeat, for the first 6 racers. Once racer 6 passes off the bracelet to racer 7, the baton is in Van 2's jurisdiction. Van 1 can either continue to cheer on the racer, or go find a house where you can sleep/eat/change. Vice versa for Van 2. There were three major exchanges as each team member runs 3 legs, the longest being 8.8 miles the shortest being 3.5ish. Often they averaged around the 4-6 range. Varied in different degrees of hardness.
I was racer number 6. Which meant I got to be the one to pass off the baton to the Van 2's first racer, and have the WHOLE team cheering for me. My fav? Eh, not so much. Being the center of attention is not my favorite. But it wasn't bad, because mostly I was too tired to care. And the race was so much fun! We probably had the coolest van ever. Probably. We had three boys from BYU come down and they were FAST! The slowest of them all probably consistenly ran a 7 and a half minute mile. Oh, I'm sorry, did I say slowest? I meant cheetah. These boys were ridiculously fast, but it was a good thing, because as it turned out, my pride came back to bite me on the heiney. Hello slowest in the van. It's a good thing I had my personality going for me. And these boys were crazy cool, excellent taste in music and just fun to be around. They kept whipping out this accent that I think comes from the Godfather. And once one guy said it the rest would pick it up for a minute. "hey, hey, why would you do that to me? huh? huh, punk?" Do I sound like a mobster? Shoot. I tried so hard.
Then there was my lovely self, and Breanna, and then Breanna's friend Michelle, the only true Arizonian of the van. We used her navigational talents a lot. But we still managed to get lost like twice. Sometimes maps are hard to read. That's all I'm going to say.
So, first leg, 4.5 miles, relatively flat. I'm nervous as a rock. Because rocks get nervous :/ bad analogy. Here's my goal. No stopping. Run slow, fine but don't stop. So I started out the first leg having watched all my compadres book it and make it, I've got my pump up music blaring, and it was so hard! But my team was there for me. Every time someone was running they'd go out a little ahead figure out the runner's favorite song and just blast it from the car. Two of the guys even got up on top of the car to dance once.
It was so great! Totally motivating. And then other teams would cheer for me while waiting for their teammate and I would awkwardly avoid making eye contact. Hello! Stranger danger. Jeez. Just kidding, but it was awkward. Plus some of the teams dressed up. We had a speedo man (ew, not-love) and a team that dressed up like leggos! So cool! Some teams got really into it. We were the cycling sunbeams. Beez made me an awesome shirt with chinese characters on it. It said go sunbeams!
This was the best pic I took all race. And it was an accident. My finger slipped trying to focus the camera, but it turned out great anyways.
(editor's note: this is Carlee handing off to the next racer whom you will hear about later. he wanted the slap bracelet to go around his neck because he's a crazy man, so this is their attempt at a passoff. the shutter being partially open is not on purpose)
So way fun, finished the first leg. Then went and slept. Which was good because guess what? I got freaking SUNBURNED! Lame, right? I had even put sunscreen on. I guess I'm just to fair to make it through a race without getting burned. Or something like that. Regardless, I slept like a rock. Then the second leg came. And by this time we had gotten a bit of a theme song. We would listen to pump up songs right before we would begin running and one of the BYU boys picked 4 Minutes by Madonna? the one that goes "4 minutes, 4 minutes, 4 minutes to save the world!" That one. And by the end I decided I loved that song. It's my missionary theme song that I'll never be able to listen to. 4 minutes to learn the language, 4 minutes to talk to people, 4 minutes, 4 minutes! It's a good analogy, trust me.
The second leg was the most epic adventure of my night. There were four teams that came up from Tucson, green, pink, orange, and yellow. By the second leg we (yellow) were ahead of pink and I wasn't going to let my team down. So I start running at my 12 min/mile race (look at me go! turtle, turtle) and 2 miles in I get passed by the pink team runner! I was all "No way am I going to let that happen!" So I picked up my pace. Originally I tried to re-pass him, and then immediately decided if I did that I would pass out on the side of the road without completing the race. No good. So I decided to match pace. Except sometimes the pink runner would walk, so i would get excited and try to pass him, and then he would start running again when I was three feet away! I was so frustrated because he did this like 7 times. The last time he passed me was about .25 miles from the exchange point. So I kept pace and decided that at the turn (about .15 miles) I would sprint and beat him at the very end, knowing the next racer was super fast and could regain our lead. So I start sprinting and I'm dying, so tired, but I'm running as fast as my legs can carry me and I am two seconds behind this man......and the next racer wasn't there!! I was so mad for like 30 seconds. I put all this effort, huge adrenaline rush and the guy wasn't even there. Beez was all "Don't panic! I'll get him). And the guy comes racing up, half his gear on, the night headlights not even on (did I mention this was at 3 in the morning? My bad.). I was happy as soon as he came, but man for those 30 seconds, I was upset that my hard work had been negated.
And then the last leg, 11:30 ish in the morning after little sleep, I get to my last leg to find out the Ragnar directors have been cursed with lack of insight. Pure hills. Seriously. Beez had the unfortunate leg of 8.8 miles all up, no down. Mine was at least rolling hills, so I got to go up and down. But man those hills hurt. Finally got it done though. Afterwards I was so tired I literally fell asleep stretching. Sometimes stretches just shouldn't be done lying down. Because then you don't complete them. I know this now. Our last runner crossed the finish line at 4:30 p.m. So, starting at 11 the previous morning, we ran for about 30 hours straight. Which was about an hour shorter than our projected time. Boo-yah! That's all I have to say.
Great experience. I'm excited to use it as an analogy in my mission. And I'm so happy that I had a real adventure as my last hurrah. I got to meet some great people, I pushed my body harder than I have ever before, and I did it. I ran 16.6 miles! Well, mostly, those last hills I walked a bit, but I figure it was less than .25 miles so it doesn't count. And those hills were steep.
And now, onto a very different, but equally (if not more) satisfying adventure.
Hermana Reed, over and out.
P.S. Sorry this was so long, just so much to tell! Most letters won't be this long.
