My husband made this video after Ragnar last year, but I never ended up posting it. Soooo, here's a little re-cap on the anniversary of Team Bling! 2012...
Showing posts with label Ragnar Relay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ragnar Relay. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, June 6, 2011
I AM A MANIAC!
Well, tonight is filled with some excitement for me! After finishing 4 full marathons last year including my Marathon Maniac Bronze level qualifying back to backs within 16 days (St. George and Long Beach), I submitted entry into the unique club and can now call myself Maniac #3597. I've had this "title" since I submitted back in March, but today it just feels official because I just received the hat and arm warmers that I finally ordered last week! I wanted to make sure I had some MM swag to wear in a couple weeks at the Wasatch Back Ragnar, so I could wait no longer 
to purchase my "elitist" gear (LOL). I cannot wait to wear them and with the crazy weather in Utah right now, the arm warmers will come in handy for sure! The hat will be worn as early as tomorrow!!! :) Thanks to many of you that I was able to join in training many early summer mornings last year! Couldn't do it without you!
The arm warmers are some of the nicest I've ever tried on. Very nice bands at the top that don't pinch but have non-slip rubber. The hat is full mesh with a sweatband on the inside. I'm quite pleased with the quality of both! Next time I'll order a shirt or some shorts, but I figured these are perfect for my upcoming running trip. About that...
If some of you don't know, I'm captaining a Wasatch Back Ragnar team. The race is June 17th and 18th. 8 of us are driving from Phoenix in a 15 passenger van and we have 4 Utah team members as well. Our team name is Sofa King Awesome Runners...don't say that out loud if the kids are around. ;) Fun group of runners of all abilities. I'm also very excited to again be sharing another Ragnar with Al (the amazing man in my life for those that haven't heard from me in a while). It's awesome to get the chance to share your
hobbies with your partner! This weekend Al and I went up to Flagstaff to get some elevation training in. We did some major hill repeats on NAU campus on Saturday evening and hiked on Sunday (see pic of the view from the hike - we watched elk grazing in the distance!). Gearing up for this mighty race has been a challenge since we haven't run much since Del Sol, but it feels so good to be getting back into it! We are packing in the training this week especially and will likely travel to Flagstaff again on Saturday. We may hike Lockett Meadow which is even higher elevation than Ragnar's 8950 foot high point. Anyone been there?
We are still hoping all the passes for the Ragnar race will be open and the 192 mile route will go as planned. The biggest part of the race - "The
Ragnar" leg - goes over Guardsman's Pass which isn't scheduled to open until late June. Ragnar says they are working closely with the state, hiring excavators, etc to assist in the repair process after already reworking the course routes to avoid the current damage to Old Snow Basin Road (see picture). We shall see! Always an adventure no matter what roads they send us down (or UP)!
More Ragnar updates to come later! Hope everyone is doing well out there in WeLove2Run Blog Land! Happy running!
to purchase my "elitist" gear (LOL). I cannot wait to wear them and with the crazy weather in Utah right now, the arm warmers will come in handy for sure! The hat will be worn as early as tomorrow!!! :) Thanks to many of you that I was able to join in training many early summer mornings last year! Couldn't do it without you!The arm warmers are some of the nicest I've ever tried on. Very nice bands at the top that don't pinch but have non-slip rubber. The hat is full mesh with a sweatband on the inside. I'm quite pleased with the quality of both! Next time I'll order a shirt or some shorts, but I figured these are perfect for my upcoming running trip. About that...
If some of you don't know, I'm captaining a Wasatch Back Ragnar team. The race is June 17th and 18th. 8 of us are driving from Phoenix in a 15 passenger van and we have 4 Utah team members as well. Our team name is Sofa King Awesome Runners...don't say that out loud if the kids are around. ;) Fun group of runners of all abilities. I'm also very excited to again be sharing another Ragnar with Al (the amazing man in my life for those that haven't heard from me in a while). It's awesome to get the chance to share your
hobbies with your partner! This weekend Al and I went up to Flagstaff to get some elevation training in. We did some major hill repeats on NAU campus on Saturday evening and hiked on Sunday (see pic of the view from the hike - we watched elk grazing in the distance!). Gearing up for this mighty race has been a challenge since we haven't run much since Del Sol, but it feels so good to be getting back into it! We are packing in the training this week especially and will likely travel to Flagstaff again on Saturday. We may hike Lockett Meadow which is even higher elevation than Ragnar's 8950 foot high point. Anyone been there?We are still hoping all the passes for the Ragnar race will be open and the 192 mile route will go as planned. The biggest part of the race - "The
Ragnar" leg - goes over Guardsman's Pass which isn't scheduled to open until late June. Ragnar says they are working closely with the state, hiring excavators, etc to assist in the repair process after already reworking the course routes to avoid the current damage to Old Snow Basin Road (see picture). We shall see! Always an adventure no matter what roads they send us down (or UP)!More Ragnar updates to come later! Hope everyone is doing well out there in WeLove2Run Blog Land! Happy running!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ragnar Las Vegas in October
Since Cynthia just asked about signing up for a relay together I wanted to let you all know that I'm pretty sure I'm going to register and captain a team for Las Vegas Ragnar. I'm just too pumped up after L.A. that I just can't wait until next February for Del Sol (don't worry Lindy, I'm still down for Del Sol too!). Las Vegas is October 9th and 10th, so I know that is likely way too soon after St. George for those of you doing that if you win in the lottery. But I'm putting it out there...for those of you not signed up for St. George and if it so happens that the team is not selected in the lottery :(.
Not many details on the Ragnar site yet, but it is from from Valley of Fire, NV to Las Vegas, NV. A nice in between meeting point for the Utah girls and the AZ girls to meet up. I was just going to find a team to tag on to, but I really think we can get enough people together ourselves that would want to do it and form our own team.
Let me know if you are interested in being on the team. Just an up front notification - Ragnar gets expensive with van rentals, gas, uniforms, etc. Registration is $85-95 per person plus we will need anywhere from $30-100ish a person additional to cover expenses plus travel costs driving up or flying. That number all depends on our planning and how much fundraising we can do. Do we rent vans in AZ or UT and drive over? Do we individually make flight plans? When/where do we need to get hotel rooms? Etc. Lots of planning yet to do, but we have plenty of time to do fundraising and it is quite possible to raise ALL of the funds we need other than registration.
We can wait to see what is posted May 11th for St. George. Still crossing my fingers for all of you that are signed up for that! And hey, you can always be crazy and do both if you think you could handle it (no pressure during Ragnar if you want to be there for the fun and take it easy on the runs). Hard to say just yet how hard or easy the LV course will be since they don't have the route or elevation posted. Someone is always there to help you out on your legs if you can't make it through or just need a friend with you along the way!
Keep it in mind and comment back if you think it's a possibility for you. :)
Not many details on the Ragnar site yet, but it is from from Valley of Fire, NV to Las Vegas, NV. A nice in between meeting point for the Utah girls and the AZ girls to meet up. I was just going to find a team to tag on to, but I really think we can get enough people together ourselves that would want to do it and form our own team.
Let me know if you are interested in being on the team. Just an up front notification - Ragnar gets expensive with van rentals, gas, uniforms, etc. Registration is $85-95 per person plus we will need anywhere from $30-100ish a person additional to cover expenses plus travel costs driving up or flying. That number all depends on our planning and how much fundraising we can do. Do we rent vans in AZ or UT and drive over? Do we individually make flight plans? When/where do we need to get hotel rooms? Etc. Lots of planning yet to do, but we have plenty of time to do fundraising and it is quite possible to raise ALL of the funds we need other than registration.
We can wait to see what is posted May 11th for St. George. Still crossing my fingers for all of you that are signed up for that! And hey, you can always be crazy and do both if you think you could handle it (no pressure during Ragnar if you want to be there for the fun and take it easy on the runs). Hard to say just yet how hard or easy the LV course will be since they don't have the route or elevation posted. Someone is always there to help you out on your legs if you can't make it through or just need a friend with you along the way!
Keep it in mind and comment back if you think it's a possibility for you. :)
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