Ragnar Relay - Las Vegas 2010

I had much more fun than anticipated at Ragnar Vegas over the weekend.  I left for Vegas on Thursday, just after work. Five of us went down together in our crew vehicle that we’d decorated the night before. Here are a few pics of the vehicle..

I went to bed just after we arrived, and got about 4 hours or so, with some tossing and turning mixed in there. Woke up, ate some breakfast, and went to the start. I was in Van 1 and our first legs were all fairly long so we were out there for quite a bit of time. We had fun with it though. The tough thing about this race was I was amped to get started, but I had to wait 4 hours before my first leg.

 Debbie crewing Brent during his leg

Tara running hard on her first leg

Scott showing his "kill" count with Kody crewing

When my run started I blew out the gate and knew I needed to slow down. All this nervous energy was releasing a little too quickly. I was never able to calm down and relax for the whole 7.2 miles of this leg. For road running, this had quite a bit more climb and descent than I’m used to, but all my mountain training gave me an edge over everyone else out there. I was getting roadkills (passing other runners) left and right. Once I hit the final mile mark I thought I had a shot at 20 kills for this leg so I took off. I passed number 17, then 18, and finally passed my 19th runner with about 300 yard to go, but number 20 was just hitting the exchange. Oh well, I kept up my pace and had a final mile split of 5:53. Yikes! Didn’t know I had that kind of speed anymore. It was definitely encouraging.

 "Thing 5" just before the start of his (my) run

Puttin' the hammer down

My second leg was in the dark. Some of the directions were a bit confusing and there were no runners in sight. My lower legs were also hurting me terribly since most of this run was on sidewalks. I kept telling myself one of my favorite quotes: “Become friends with the pain and you’ll never be alone”. It took me almost 15 minutes of running before the first person in front of me came into view. Then, I started picking them off one by one. I kept a close eye on my time for the final mile, but about 1/3 of a mile into it I got stopped twice at a stoplight (since I had to end up on the opposite corner I was standing on) . So I gave up on timing my last mile and just hit it hard all the way to the exchange. Racked up 15 more kills on this 7.2 mile leg. Not bad considering all the pain I was in!

My final leg started in the dark and finished with the sky starting to light up. It was 4.2 miles, all uphill, all on a dirt jeep road. I knew this would play to my benefit! Problem was, I started the leg 4 ½ minutes after the previous runner came through. I knew I had a lot of ground to make up to catch anyone! After about 12 minutes though, the first person came into sight. I knew I’d have a hard time passing too many people since I only had about 20 minutes of running left. I continued to push though and was up to 8 kills when I hit the final mile mark with no one left to pass in front of me... Or so I thought. I cruised the final mile fairly easy, but noticed one runner quite a ways in front of me. He was moving pretty good and I knew I’d have to push it to catch him. I came around the final bend and saw the exchange 300 yards or so in front of me, with the runner less than 50 yards ahead. I put it into stealth mode so he couldn’t hear me as I closed in on him, then blew his doors off with about 100 yards to go. He let out a big grunt and tried to chase me, but I just sped up and beat him fairly easily to the exchange. Now that was fun!

I finished the race with 43 kills; more than the rest of our van combined. It felt good to get out and really open it up. That’s something I haven’t done for a long time since I try to conserve a bit more energy while I’m out there running longer distances. Overall, the experience was really fun! The atmosphere is great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves out there. I realize that most the people aren’t very committed runners - which is probably why I had as much success as I did - but it still felt good to at least feel fast!

The Post-Wasatch Blues

Not much has been happening over the course of the last month.  After Wasatch I was relegated to a bare bones running schedule.  In fact, I didn't do much running at all the first 3 weeks after the race as my knee would not allow it.  Depressing!  I was going through some anxiety as well and I'm sure I was driving Lydia absolutely crazy.  I was finally able to start running more regularly just a few weeks ago and I'm finally on the mend.  My knee's still only about 90% or so, and while I'm not able to push the hills - or much of a pace for that matter - I'm able to run and that keeps me sane.

To keep me in line, I put together a new schedule to keep me running through winter.  My next real race isn't until next year, but I find that a schedule keeps me on track much better than having nothing to look at.  One of those psychological tricks I use to keep me going.  Whatever works I guess!

I actually shouldn't say that I don't have any "real" races til next year.  I do have a "real" race coming up this weekend.  My friend Scott that helped pace me at Wasatch, invited me to join his Ragnar team since he had several people drop after the Wasatch Back Relay.  So I'm heading down this weekend to do Ragnar Relay Las Vegas.  Should be interesting since Scott is the only person I know on the team.  Looks like it could either be a really long, or really fun weekend.  I've also never done a relay so I'm not sure what to expect.  Looking forward to the unknown!