What is this Honking? - Another Ragnar Story

~ Ragnar Relay Los Angeles 2009 - My second leg (leg 22) near the Palos Verdes area - 4.5 miles ~

At around 1:00am I'm readying for my 2nd leg of the race. I was getting pretty darn tired since we'd been up since 5:00am so I planned on trying to keep a pace around or a little faster than 11:00. Just before the exchange, one of my team members from the other van, Cassandra, told me she'd like to run the leg with me. Cool! I liked the idea of having a running partner for this middle of the night run. Safety in numbers!

Not sure I mentioned before that Van 1 had all of their 2nd legs of the race eliminated entirely the DAY BEFORE the race because CalTrans did not provide permits for that stretch to Ragnar. :( Lame for Van 1, so they wanted to make it up by running with Van 2 on their 2nd legs. As a side note, this actually turned out to be awesome! Van 1 got to hang out with Van 2 for once during a relay! There were even times I was riding in Van 1. Built up the team and we all got the chance to get to know everyone on the team rather than just our van-mates. Usually the other van needs the rest and they only meet up for a short time at major exchanges. Blessing in disguise!

So this leg was about 4.5 miles through a pretty nice neighborhood. I thought it was fairly cold out so I went wearing running pants, a sports bra, long sleeve dri fit shirt and a light windbreaker type running jacket with my snappy safety vest that they make us wear at night over the top. All of this was a big mistake! I heated up within the first mile and thought I would die. This was partially because I was trying to keep pace with Cassandra's 8:30/9:00ish pace. Had no idea she was that fast! I was HOT and felt trapped in under that safety vest. With all of my fumbling Cassandra had gotten well ahead of me with her iPod blasting, so my yelling for her wouldn't even work. She turned around in time to realize what I was doing and came back to grab my jacket from me. I really wanted to take off my long sleeve shirt too, but didn't want to bare the belly. I forgot that I would have had the vest partially covering me, but oh well. Pants were also a bad idea and I knew better! When I have my knee braces on, that's enough to warm the lower half. Next time I must follow my own advice of not trying something new on race day! At this point I just had to get through.

We saw the team a little bit down the road and I threw my jacket at them to hold on to. Cassandra was zoning to her music and would look back to check on me every so often, but we didn't really run together. As I'm trying to keep up with her I realized my breathing had gotten heavy. I was making a bit of a honking noise. It was odd - never heard myself involuntarily making that noise at home even when I'm pushing it. In fact, I sounded like my poor wheezy little dog who has bronchial issues. I said to myself as I'm running, "I sound like Lady!" Not sure what to attribute that to...the coastal wet night air, the extra humidity unlike home, the additional body heat, the tiredness? Anyone ever experienced this along the coast?

Anyways, we finished up and Van 1 was waiting for us, but no Van 2??? We had seen them less than 1/2 mile from the exchange and wondered how they would make it to the exchange in time...well, they didn't. One of the guys from Van 1 took the initiative to carry on so I slapped the bracelet on him. Van 2 came shortly after the handoff (they miscalculated mileage) and they just drove on up to get Pete, who was supposed to be running at that time, dropped off to run the rest of his leg. Van 1 stayed at the exchange so I could catch my breath and use the restroom. The exchange was outside of a 24 Hour Fitness - YAY! - real bathrooms. I was happy because I felt ready to puke! ;) I didn't though - after I was able to wash off my face and get cooled off I felt better - tired, but better. Cassandra seemed to feel good and she did AWESOME! It was great having her out there with me to at motivate me to keep going. I felt bad that I was holding her back, but it's nice to know that she has power and stamina even without sleep! She's one to follow when you aren't sure you can press on!

After that I barely remember anything from Pete or Caitlin's run until morning because I crashed out when I got back in my van (except I remember countin' the people Caitlin was passing like she was lightning!!!) . Pete drove around after our handoff to Van 1 until he found us a motel near the next major exchange and we got to shower and get about 2 hours of sleep! Thank goodness for Pete doing this for us! Felt so refreshed in the morning! Doesn't sound like much rest, but it was great! Up and at 'em again in the morning waiting at Huntington Beach for Van 1 to finish their last legs. We enjoyed our morning there with a great view and some good breakfast croissants from the corner donut shop. Brandi, Pete and I walked down to the water with Caitlin for her first time stepping foot in the Pacific Ocean (she's from NY). Nice morning hanging out with the team and soon Tracey arrived to our cheers as we sent Nick off from our van for his final leg! One more for me to go and it was my big one...8.5 coming up in a few hours!

Here is a picture of me (left), Caitlin (center), and Brandi (right) - the AZ girls bundled up at the Huntington Beach exchange on Saturday morning just before a wave came up behind us and sent us running away with wet pants! That Ragnar hoody is my new favorite sweatshirt, by the way! When you gals get to do a Ragnar make sure you bring $25 for one. So soft and fuzzy inside - it rocks!