Ragnar Relay Adirondacks – Leg 3

Leg 1 Review – rain, cold, tears, lost friends.

Leg 2 Review – happiness, joy, speed, teamwork, cracked out, I love running!

A few photos from my girls during the Leg 2 night runs…

Erin won a prize after completely the HARDEST leg! Chyea

We all crushed our second leg. I cannot even describe how proud I am of the girls in our van. We passed the bracelet off to Lora so they could take over around 1ish am (maybe?), seriously pounded some pasta at the exchange and drove to the next major exchange in order to get some freaking sleep.

Sleep (n): A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body

What I did: Roll around in the front seat of the RAV, kick the radio 73 times, jolt up in the seat to see what time it is, text Lora every 15 minutes to see when they would be there to make sure I was ready to run, pass out for an hour so when they did get there at 4:30 am, I was completely unprepared, had to search for the bathroom, change, put contacts in and have a panic attack.

I got dressed in anything neon yellow (so cars, deer and/or bears could see me coming) that I had (which happened to all be from Lululemon). I was so delirious, I mumbled something incoherent to the Ragnar worker and to the girls and I took off into the night.

YIKES

Leg 3: 9.6 mi, 1:36 (10:00/mi avg – hill walking)

I didn’t look at the race map before starting this leg. I actually didn’t look at anything except Erin telling me to calm the F down. I got a nice surprise when I turned the corner off the “main” road onto a pitch black side street directly up a mountain. I had about three feet of visibility with my headlamp due to the rain coming down. I was already exhausted at one mile in.

The girls drove along side of me for a while then would drive in front of me to light up the road a bit. It helped squash my fears that an axe murderer or bear was going to kill me. My stomach was not in a good place and I almost threw up and continuously had to walk up the big hills. When we passed the “One Mile Left” sign for the first portion of the run, it hit me that I only had to run FIVE more miles and I was going to be done with Ragnar. An ULTRA Ragnar. There were other vans driving by (although I only saw one runner during this portion of the leg) so I parted ways with the girls for a little while, put my music on and DUG DEEP.

The second portion of the run was 4.1 miles (labeled easy by the Ragnar folks) so I worked hard and clocked miles all under 9:00. My goal was to finish strong! Of course there was no “One Mile Left” sign for the second portion so my mind wandered into BAD territory thinking I was going to have to run well into the next week in order to finish. I pushed forward and saw the Ragnar support staff and the orange flags for the exchange! I WAS THE HAPPIEST PERSON EVER!

PURE JOY. RAGNAR COMPLETE.

I got a GINORMOUS hug from Erin and we sent her on her final leg while I chugged water and sat in the back of the car without pants on for about 30 minutes.

More pics from the girls KILLING their final legs (early morning into dawn)!

RUNNING ISN’T ENOUGH FOR ERIN

RAGNAR DONE! Let’s jump so high and make Ashley jealous!

SO FAST. Running to the free pizza.

I am beyond proud of all of us, and obviously the girls in Van 2 (I just don’t have pictures of them). We went to the final exchange to wait for the other van to run their final legs and slept in the car while snuggling bags of candy corn pumpkins and free pizza we got from some amazing Englishman.

The wake-up call resulted in the follow outfit decision:

Awesome sidenote: Lora made these skirts

Dana killed her final leg and we had an epic run through the finish line (with rose petals and chanting). Celebrations were in order.

Olympic ski jumps in the background. Pretty sweet.

VAN 1

VAN 2

ULTRA RUNNERS!

Beers from Lake Placid Brewery 🙂

I learned a lot, and experienced many emotions. This relay helped me regain confidence that I can cover some serious distance (at a respectable pace) just 3 weeks after starting to run again after being injured. I have no doubt in my mind that I will be able to complete the NYC Marathon (for enjoyment, not time).

BE STRONG. RUN STRONG.

Maids of Dishonor Leg 3 Recaps!

Erin

Lora

Ragnar Adirondacks Relay – Leg 2

Leg 1 Recap – If you didn’t read, I ran in the rain, my friends got lost. It was cold. It sucked ass.

All of the ladies in Van 1 also ran in the rain (champs). Before it was time for Lora (first runner of Van 2) to take on a hefty 15 miles, she took a minute to dance with these buttcheeks.

Lora dancing with a team who probably chaffed A LOT

When Van 2 was running their first legs, we decided it was time to decorate the RAV….

Five seconds after we were done it started raining again and our car looked like we dumped Pepto all over it. Oh well, it was a good effort.

We drove to the next major exchange so we could relax, not sleep, but eat, get out of the car and walk around a bit! Exchange 12 was at Lake George and it was freaking beautiful! We were shacked up at a beach club and already relatively cracked out.

I was in straight panic mode from the moment we got there about my next run. I ate. Panicked. Ate again. Took pictures….

Ate again. Had a 5 hour energy (my key to success) and it was time to go!

Meeting Dana for the slap bracelet exchange!

Leg 2: 11.9 mi, 1:48 (9:04/mi avg)

Outfit: Under Armour Tee, Lululemon Speed Short, Pro Compression USA Socks, Mizuno Elixirs (New and perfect shoe)! and RAGNAR TATS

I started this run around 5:30 pm on Friday. I felt great and I was happy to be running WITHOUT RAIN!

The first portion of my run was along side Lake George (with van support, WINNER)! The girls leapfrogged me and gave me water a few times. It was perfect. I wish I had that on all runs.

The second part of the run was tough (and in the dark, and up the mountain, but with some streetlights). I climbed a significant number of hills but still felt strong. The only scary part was when I would climb a hill and meet an oncoming car at the top (there was a 3 inch shoulder for me to move into when this happened, 2977 times).

The best part of the run? I looked at my Garmin, saw there was about a 5k left and said out loud to myself (I didn’t see any other runners during this run, go figure) “WOOHOO 5k left!!!!” and then I tripped in a pothole, rolled my ankle on my recently injured foot, fell into a guard rail and hit the pavement hard. I got up, shook it off, walked for a minute to see how I felt (and to see if my foot was needed to be put into a bright pink hard cast) and realized I was completely fine so I took off running! I still cannot believe I do not have a mark on me from that fall. Straight Miracle.

I felt insanely strong during the entire run. I maintained an average of 8:30-8:50 pace for the entire time unit the last half mile where I had to walk up a serious mountain. There was no way my quads would have made it and my walking speed would have been much faster than my running.

When I gave them my team number (about a hundred feet before the exchange, to get the next runner ready) I heard Erin scream! I sprinted to the finish and gave her a big hug! What a difference from the first leg. THIS FEELING is what RAGNAR is about. HELL YES.

Leg 3 Recap (Tour of the mountains in the pitch black alone) coming tomorrow!

Maids of Dishonor Leg 2 Recaps!

Lora

Erin 

 

Ragnar Relay Adirondacks – Leg 1

The last I left you lovely people, I was explaining how I barely spoke to anyone about Ragnar because I was petrified about running 32.8 miles.

We drove up to Saratoga (start of the relay) on Thursday night after work in a hot ass Toyota RAV 4 rental car (I’m still upset about parting with it after 24 less-than-fresh hours in it). We divied out all of our amazing swag from our sponsors and I rolled around and pretended to sleep (scared, again).

5:30 am came too quickly and with the early hour came the POURING RAIN.

VAN 1 goodness! Laura, Kara, Erin and Me! 

Maids of Dishonor!

We went to the start, went through the safety talk and it was time to start. I was in Van 1 with Erin, Kara and Laura!! Van 2 included Lora, Annie, Susan and Dayna!

Team photo before the start! Erin, Susan, Dayna, Lora, Annie, Me, Kara and Laura

Let’s GO!

Outfit 1: Bondi Band Headband, Running Skirts, Pro Compression Socks! Also wore a jacket and gloves that made me sweat to death.

Leg 1: 11.5 mi, 1:40 (8:42/mi avg)

I started off quick, not ready, and confused. It was pouring and it was not going to stop. I ran a few miles before I decided to start chatting with some other runners. I met some awesome women who have done other Ragnars and who were training for marathons!

Sorry ladies of Van 1, but I am going to discuss what happened during my leg. I came up the first exchange (5.3 mi) expecting to see my friends (and needing water) and also wondering why I hadn’t seen them already. I did not see them and kept running. I stayed focused on the AWESOME view of Lake George rather than my thirst and the weather (I had to take a mental picture because it was raining too hard for me to take my cell phone out to take a picture).

I was about 8 miles in when I tried to call the girls to see where they were. Of course there was shitty cell service and the rain fucked up my phone. I yelled into the phone that they sucked as teammates (I’m not sure that they heard so if they didn’t, sorry about that). I tried to suck it up, put my headphones in and finish the run strong but because my phone was broken (the rain ruined the headphones and the sound in general) the music died out in one minute. I could not believe that I had to talk out loud to myself in my first leg and had to dig deep to get through my first leg!

I got through the mileage and to the exchange and was greeted by no one. I stood on the opposite side of the street of the vans for about 15 minutes before the woman working the exchange would even let me cross the street (we weren’t allowed to cross without the flags we were given, which were in the car). I was freezing and couldn’t get in touch with anyone. I was crying so another team let me get in their van and gave me water and Gatorade and used their phone to call the girls (I felt homeless lol). When I got in touch with them I accidentally cursed at them a lot (I didn’t want to or mean to but I was cold and furious). Turns out they had gotten lost during my run and when they found their way they accidentally went to the next exchange and were waiting there for a while. Mistakes happen, I understand. I just wish it didn’t happen in the freezing rain when I had no shelter.

First run = not the best experience. We had about a 40 minute delay by the time I was able to pass off the stellar slap bracelet to Erin. I was a bitch for about 20-25 more minutes (I couldn’t help it). I wanted to cheer for my teammates so I knew I had to get the f over it and I did (besides a few snide comments throughout the day), sorry again.

I am happy I was able to maintain a good pace for my first run in a downpour! I am not happy that this little mishap happened, but I am almost positive it is what drove us all (in Van 1) to perform the way we did (to our absolute maximum abilities) for the rest of the relay!

Leg 2 recap tomorrow!

Maids of Dishonor Leg 1 Recaps!

Lora

Erin

Kara

The HUGE {Ragnar Relay} Elephant in the Room

I haven’t posted about the Ragnar Relay (Adirondacks) that I am about to embark on this weekend because I have been trying to hide my fear of it.

Let me backtrack a bit. Many months ago I saw some random blogger (ahem, my now close friend Kara) tweet about needing other blogger runners for a Ragnar! New to the blogging world (and twitter), but desperately wanting to run a Ragnar, I sent her a message and a few emails later I was part of the team. As the months went by the team changed a bit and we ended up with 8 girls. I signed up to run 2 legs per each run (3 runs in total). When I signed up I was excited for this amount of mileage. I was going to be at the top of my game from NYCM training. Then I got hurt, didn’t run for 5 weeks, and completely ignored the fact that I had this HUGE 32 mile task in front of me (I think my teammates did as well). Luckily, I healed up right on schedule and got some runs in! However, I am STILL hoping for the best.

Here are the details:

Course: Saratoga to Lake Placid – 192.7 Miles (on a mountain)

Team: Maids of Dishonor – Lora is getting married shortly after this relay. She is the bride. We are the bridesmaids. ONLY runners like to celebrate an upcoming nuptial by running 200 fucking miles.

Runners:

Runner 1, 2 – Ashley

Runner 3, 4 – Erin

Runner 5 – Kara

Runner 6 – Laura

Runner 7, 8 – Lora (bride!)

Runner 9 – Annie

Runner 10 – Susan

Runner 11,12 – Dayna

My Legs:

Leg 1,2 – total: 11.5 mi

• Leg 1 – 5.3 mi, Moderate – Net elevation change of –97 ft.
• Leg 2 –  6.2 mi, Hard – Net elevation change of 28 ft

Leg 13, 14 – total: 11.9 mi (Climb begins)

• Leg 13 – 4.1 mi, Moderate – Net elevation change of 95 ft.
• Leg 14 – 7.8 mi, Very Hard – Net elevation change of 151 ft.

Leg 25, 26 – total: 9.4 mi

• Leg 25 – 5.5 mi, Hard – Net elevation change of 292 ft
• Leg 26 – 3.9 mi, Easy – Net elevation change of 91 ft

Total Mileage for me: 32.8. This will be the first time I am ever running that much in a 24 hour period so check back on Sunday to see if I have kneecaps or ankle bones left, or if I am still alive. I did a rough estimate of everyone’s paces and I will be running at 7:00 am (starting it out for everyone), 4:00 pm and 3:00 am. I’ll let you know how that goes as well (Samsonite – I was WAY off)!

Sponsors: We were 100% hooked up. We are going to be clothed, fed, fueled, refreshed and washed by some amazing products.

Big shout out and a huge thank you to all of our sponsors!

 

 

Last but not least (but probably most appreciated by other teammates to get rid of stank odors)….

Wish me luck guys. I will most certainly need it on this amazing adventure! I will be videotaping, taking pictures and hopefully everyone will be tweeting about our adventures 🙂

Please follow @MaidsofDishonor on twitter or #MaidsofDishonor and #RagnarADK for updates!!

Have you ever done a Ragnar Relay, or any relay race? I would LOVE to hear about it!

PLEASE leave some last minute tips/advice for me!

JSRC RunAPalooza

Saturday was the Jersey Shore Runner’s Club 16th Annual RunAPalooza marathon relay. More importantly, MY FIRST RELAY. My sister Shelley tie dyed shirts for our team (Team Nacho Cheese).

The course started on the Seaside boardwalk and the legs were COMPLETED as follows:

1. Shelley – Seaside to Brick Beach (6.4 miles – 9:00 pace)
2. Ed – Brick Beach to Point Pleasant Beach Inlet (6.0 miles – 9:00 pace)
3. Alisha (and Shelley for extra mileage for half marathon training) – Point Pleasant Beach Inlet to Manasquan (4.5 miles – 11:00 pace)
4. Ritsa (and I ran the first 1.8 with Ritsa) -Manasquan to Belmar (5.5 miles – 8:30 pace)
5. Me -Belmar to Asbury Convention Hall (3.8 miles – 7:49 pace) I was running 7:20 at certain points all caught up in holding a blue baton I guess. I had to keep telling myself to slow down, that I have a marathon in 2 weeks and I should not do anything to hurt myself. In the end it was ok, I took a water break for a few seconds around the third mile and slowed down a bit to the finish.

Exchange 2 (Ed to Alisha)

Leg 3 Teamwork (Alisha & Shelley)

Exchange 3 (Alisha to Ritsa)

Exchange 4 (Ritsa to me)

 

Team Nacho Cheese – 3:48:23

The best thing about the race being a basically along the beach the entire way was that we were able to drive ahead and cheer each person on at least two times during the route. There was also free Coors Light and pasta (and Mike’s subs for others) at the Convention Hall afterward.

The RunAPalooza was such a fabulous introduction to a relay race. I had such a great time, it was fun the whole way through. But I clearly have my sights set on the Ragnar now…..

TEAM NACHO CHEESE moving on up?