The Story of My L.A. Ragnar Team

This is a motivating story that I wanted to share with all of you as an introduction to the team I'm co-captaining for the L.A. Ragnar at the end of this month. I think that it is great for all to read this inspiring true story as written by Tracey Martinez. It is a real life story that rings true the quote on the blog home page from The Penguin - "The miracle isn't that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start." After reading this I know that one day I could do a full! :) Hope you enjoy!


This is a story about me (Tracey) and my best friend (Mike). We are both in our late 30’s and up until last year neither of us had ever thought of doing a half marathon or "several" half marathons or a 178 mile Ragnar Relay let alone anything else that required "that" much exercise. In May of last year Mike had the "lap band" surgery and he started losing weight. His progress was doing great but at that point he was not exercising much. In June I found out about the Disneyland half marathon coming up the end of August and being a huge Disney fan I mentioned I was going to sign up. When I told my "athletic" friends they chuckled and said "you know that is 13.1 miles right?" When I told Mike he said "great so lets sign up" and that was how this whole fun, crazy idea started. High school injuries destroyed Mike’s knees years ago so we knew he would not be able to "run" but he did start walking and training to maintain a pace under a 16 minute mile. We hear that people train for months to complete just one of these events and we did to but that is not where the story ends. By the time the Disney half marathon was here we now had the great idea that we should do the half marathon at Disney World in January of 2009. We had not even completed our first half and we were already going to do another one in 6 months. I completed the Disneyland one in just under 3 ½ hours but around mile 10 Mike was having trouble taking in water and keeping it down so his pace slowed down. He crossed the finish line in just over 4 hours so he did not receive a finisher’s time but more importantly HE FINISHED IT. At this point he had lost 75 lbs, I was so proud. I knew he could do it and even made up a t-shirt to give him at the end that said "THERE WILL BE DAYS I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN DO A HALF MARATHON, THERE WILL BE A LIFETIME KNOWING I HAVE." With our feet blistered and muscles aching we limped around Downtown Disney and plotted our next event. We decided we would do a "half marathon a month between now and Disney World in 6 months". Somehow this seemed like a great idea for the guy who started out at over 300 lbs and the girl that considers chocolate a major food group. (Did I mention I had a brownie the morning of the Disneyland half marathon (-: cuz it was yummy.)

The Lompoc half marathon was the third week in September and our feet had almost healed so we were ready to do it all again. The week before Lompoc my right leg had a horrible pain that kept getting worse. On Friday I went to the Doctor and they diagnosed me with a blood clot behind the knee. The next day Mike completed the half marathon with another friend of ours. This time he not only "completed" it but he finished 30 minutes faster then Disneyland. The Doctor informed me I could not compete until I am no longer on Coumadin (blood thinner) and that would be about 6 months. By now we had already decided it would be Long Beach in October, Pasadena in November, Las Vegas in December, and then Disney World in January. This was Mike’s big chance to back out and wait until "we" could do them together but he decided to finish what we had set out to do.

He completed Long Beach and with that he had done 3 half marathons in 7 weeks. On the morning of Pasadena the race was cancelled due to the Loma Vista fire and with such short notice he could not find another half marathon in November.

By around November I started looking for half marathons that "I" could do once the Doctor cleared me hopefully the beginning of April 2009. Mike decided he would keep doing these half marathons up until April and then "with me" after that. Each event we went to I would be there at the beginning, middle, and end cheering him on. I mean how many "big" people do you usually see at a half or full marathon. Mike and I decided even if we came in last it was more important that we tried in the first place. Since I no longer worried about the pain and blisters I had the time to look for new races and challenges :-). Then I ran across this race called a "Ragnar Relay". From the moment I opened the page I loved the story about "beach bunnies...and you and 11 of your friends....going 178 miles....and how the rest of them would support you with water, cheers, and love". I told Mike about it and showed people we work with the web site. I told them how fun it looked and they said yes until I explained it was 178 miles in 24 hours then they said I was crazy. I explained how we (Mike and I) would need team mates and again how "fun" it would be. About this time they started to remember I (me) had this blood clot but I promised I would be better by then so I would be participating.

In December we went to the expo for the Las Vegas marathon and there it was...the Ragnar van. I am sure the nice young gentlemen and ladies there thought Mike and I were crazy but we stopped and chatted their ears off about how much we wanted to do this. We said we were not sure if we could complete all 178 miles with our "semi" in shape team. I explained to the people in Vegas that we are "looking for some really fast runners that are willing to lose". They were so nice and encouraged us to go for it. We came home and told our co-workers and friends that we just had to do it. We have watched so many of those videos and my favorite quote is from "Friends, family, and a fool" when this lady is holding a water bottle to her head and she says "this is fun except for the running part". I kept telling our team just don't think about the running part. Our team keeps pointing out to me that all "those people" are skinny and in shape. So we have decided to bring some "bulk" to the race. We know we won't come in first and we will be thrilled to come in last because at least we will know we made it. Signing up for this race has inspired some of the team to join a gym. I am proud to say I will be the biggest cheerleader out there because I think it is awsome that my friends are doing this with me as we push ourselves beyond what we thought we could do.

As for Mike....he completed Las Vegas but somehow I ended up with a cheerleader outfit?? :-) I believe he said if he is doing these half marathons then I get to wear the cheerleader outfit. I even have a picture of me next to the Ragnar van while wearing it. January came and Mike could only sign up for the FULL marathon at Disney World so that is what he did. He was a bit disappointed because he got to mile 24 and they picked him up. He had 7 hours to complete the marathon and at mile 24 he was at 6 1/2 hours so he was really close but the blisters were slowing him down. This was his FIRST full marathon and if your keeping track that was 5 half marathons in the prior 6 months. At this point Mike has lost 115 lbs. He does not realize how much he inspires myself and his friends. He is someone with 2 bad knees that was once classified as "super morbidly obese" but yet he has not let that slow him down. He may not be "running" but he is definitely an inspiration for people to get out and start moving.

In February he finally took a month off to let his feet heal but he has decided to make up for it in March by doing 2 half marathons a week apart.. Come April you will see us at the Ragnar. We plan to start doing half marathons together again from May to Sept when Disneyland comes around again. After Disneyland the only one definitely planned is the Goofy challenge (a HALF marathon on Sat and FULL marathon on Sunday) at Disney World in January 2010.

I have walked in five 3 day 60 mile events to raise money for breast cancer and I know how much I enjoyed ALL of the people I walked with then. I am so excited and can not wait to experience the Ragnar Relay with over 60 other teams.