Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage Recap: How to fall in love with running again (Part 1)

Team Superstars: Van 2!

Me and running haven't been on the best of terms since the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon.  I've had a few mediocre runs and one or two pretty good runs, but in general haven't really been doing a ton of running in the past month.  My focus has been diverted to swimming and cycling as I prep for my first half-Iron distance triathlon.

And Seattle heat (lots of days near or above 80) hasn't really helped.  I'm a baby when it comes to running in the heat and hate how slow it makes me feel.

But this weekend, at Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage, I fell in love with running again.  I ran in late afternoon heat, middle of the night coolness, and late morning cloud cover.  I ran on a trail through Bellingham, tree-lined roads of an Indian Reservation, and along a beautiful stretch of coast in Fort Casey somewhere north of Langley on Whidbey Island.  I ran uphills, downhills, and flats.  And I found my fight again in the last couple miles.

I spent 28 hours in a large suburban with 5 other runners and an awesome driver.  I slept very little, ate in fits and starts, and learned how to expertly climb in and out of the back row of a suburban.

And I loved every minute of it.

It doesn't just look like I'm flying.  It felt that way too.

*For those of you who don't know what Ragnar Relay is, here's a quick synopsis that will clear things up.

Pre-race preparations:

It's not easy to pack for Ragnar.  You need 3 complete running outfits, clothes for staying warm in the van, toiletry neccessities, snacks that will give you sustenance but not kill your tummy for the next run, sleeping supplies, safety gear, running fuel, and countless other little items.  You have to remember to pack everything, but not overpack because you are going to be crammed into a van with 5 other runners and all their gear too.

Luckily, before starting to pack, my blogger self searched the internet and found this awesome packing list by a blogger I've never read, but totally appreciated.  Packing each outfit in a separate gallon sized ziploc proved to be extremely useful and the baby wipes were absolutely necessary between runs.  Everything on this list was necessary and nothing was left out.  Huge relief when it came time to pack.

All the essentials.

Race Day: Getting There

From what I could tell (based on bib numbers), there were close for 400 teams of runners that completed Ragnar NWP.  Multiply 400 teams by 2 vans each and 12 runners, and that equals...a lot of people and vans (I only do first grade math).  Smartly, Ragnar staggers team starts over half a day on Friday, with the earliest start time at 6:30am and the latest at 2:30pm.  Start times are determined by the overall pace of your team, with the faster teams starting later in the day and what I assume would be the general goal of getting every team across the finish line within a reasonable number of hours on Saturday.

Our team had a fairly late start time at noon.  Van 1 started off the team (obviously), which put van 2 at an estimated start time of 5pm.  Because of such a late start, the runners in Van 2 decided to meet at a park and ride in Everett to head up to Bellingham around 1pm.  I have mixed feelings about this.  It was weird to hang around all morning, just waiting to get going.  I felt as if the whole day was spent just waiting to start.  I can't even imagine what it must have felt like for Erica as runner #12 not having her first run until about 9pm.

By the time we jigsaw puzzled ourselves and all of our gear into the van and got on the road, we made it up to the first major exchange in Bellingham somewhere between 3 and 3:30.  Once we were there, we took some time to decorate the van.

One of the best parts of the race is seeing all the other decorated vans and
fun team names.  Some teams keep a tally of "road kills" on the side of the van,
adding up all the people they passed along the way.  Some teams even go
around "tagging" other vans (we had about 5 or 6 extra tags by the end).

After decorating, we headed over to our 10 minute safety briefing.  Ragnar is very strict when it comes to safety procedures (thankfully--I could see bad things happening if they weren't).  For instance, EVERY runner/driver outside the van during night hours (9pm-6:30am) must be in a reflective vest.  If you are running at night, you must have on a reflective vest, headlamp, and taillight.  They provide every team with orange flags for crossing the street and are specific about only letting vans pull over in safe areas.  They work on a "3 strikes you're out" system, except when it comes to things like night-time gear.  Your team can be immediately disqualified for neglecting to wear what's required.

After the safety briefing and registration for our van, we did a little more waiting and I started prepping for my first run.  Being runner #7, I was the first one out for our van.  With all the waiting, I actually started to get a little nervous.  My first leg was nothing big, but for some reason the nerves of the encroaching unknown started kicking in.  Would I make a wrong turn?  Get lost?  Get hurt?  Get over-heated?  It's different from a normal race start because you're out there pretty much on your own, occasionally passing or being passed by another runner.  However, I was happy about the nerves.  Nerves are a good thing for me.  Nerves make me run fast and fight harder.

Finally, right around 3:45 van 1 pulled in saying runner #6 was on his way.  I was more than ready to go.

Ready and waiting.  Fake Ragnar tattoo and everything.

First Run: Leg #7, 3.7 miles

My first leg was a short one, but it was hot.  In Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, the real heat of the day seems to hit right around 4 or 5 o'clock.  My starting time.  I could feel the heat just waiting at the start line. But when I saw runner #6 come barreling in, I had to get going, whether it was hot or not.

The first hand-off.  Hans and I had never met before, so we had to rely on
our teammates to recognize that we were on the same team.

To "hand off" to another team, Ragnar uses a slap bracelet (remember those, from the 80's?).  You take it off and slap it onto the next runner to make the exchange.  I'd been warned that the bracelets get pretty disgusting, but as sweaty Hans came running up and slapped the bracelet onto my wrist, it actually splashed.  I tried not to cringe and took off for my first leg.

It started by weaving from the exchange at Bellingham High School through the streets of what I think was downtown Bellingham (pretty cute, kind of reminded me of downtown Buffalo in a way) towards Bellingham Bay.

Corners and turns are marked by waist-high Ragnar markers that tell you to stay straight or turn, and also indicate which side of the road you should be on (most of the time heading into traffic).  There were a couple of intersections right there at the beginning where I didn't see any signs and got a little nervous but just stayed straight if I didn't see anything.  Also somewhat disconcerting while running through the city was stoplights.  I actually had to stop and wait at crosswalks, which felt kind of weird while "racing."  I only got stopped by one or two though and wasn't stopped for long.

As I came up onto Bellingham Bay, I was directed onto a trail that ran along the water and was actually quite pretty.  I stayed on this trail for the majority of the run, before heading back onto the streets in the last half mile for the exchange and a slightly uphill finish.

It took me a while to get my legs going on this run.  They felt stiff and it didn't help that I was hot and drenched in sweat within the first half mile.  Thankfully, I had decided to carry one of the bottles from my water belt on the run.  I drank almost the entire bottle of Gatorade and was grateful to have it.  For the middle half of the run, I started feeling that awful knot in my stomach that plagued me during the second half of the RNR Marathon.  It panicked me for a moment, but I tried my best to ignore it and eventually it went away.  I crossed my fingers that it didn't return on my other two runs.

I saw just 3 other runners on the entire run, and all 3 of them were passing me.  Not exactly an ego-boost either.

I tried my best to keep my power going up the final hill and finished off the run feeling only half-hearted about it.  It didn't feel great, but I was excited to have gotten through the first run without any major catastrophes.  I slapped the bracelet onto Jessie, runner #8, and smiled.

Expert exchange #1.  Also, there's a sample of the
little blue signs that kept me from getting lost the
entire race.

Then came the hardest part of Ragnar.  After you've run your leg, given it your all, and are nice and sweaty, there's no down time.  It's back in the van and on to support the next runner or to the next exchange.  No time for stretching, cooling down, or generally decompressing.  Back in the cramped van you go, sweat and all (this is where a towel came in handy, spread out on the seat underneath you).

Once I was back in the van, I got a chance to look at my watch and check my splits.  As soon as I did this, all doubts about the run vanished.

Turns out, I was running pretty fast. 8:17 overall pace even with the slow-
down on the final hill is something I'm proud of.

All of a sudden I started hoping I wouldn't regret that burst of speed in the next 2 legs, and the nerves reappeared once again.

The In-Between: from leg 7 to 19

After I was back in the van, I got to experience the excitement of getting to the next location in time.  In some instances, this meant a stop for van support along the leg (pulled over on the side of the road or into a parking lot) and other times it meant just going straight on to the next exchange.  We had an amazing driver (Jessie's husband Kevin) who got us where we needed to go in time without any hiccups throughout the entire race.  Most of the time Jessie was next to him in the front seat navigating as he steered around a large suburban packed from top to bottom and filled with nervous, adrenaline-filled runners.  On any given leg, we climbed in and out of the car anywhere from 1-4 times.  Anytime we passed one of our runners on the road, windows were down and we were cheering.

We watched and cheered on exchange after exchange (Jessie to Ana, Ana to Trevor, Trevor to Julie, and Julie to Erica) as I sat and stewed in my sweaty, salt-stained clothes snacking all the way.

Finally, Erica closed out leg #12 at the next major exchange as she passed the slap bracelet back to our first runner in Van 1 and the whole cycle started again.

While Van 1 was out running, Van 2 had some down time.  I was feeling the desire to eat real food as soon as possible because I would have to be running again in a few hours and wanted as much time to digest as possible.  It was about 10 o'clock at night in the middle of Burlington, WA (do you know where that is?  I don't), and most of the restaurants we wanted to eat at were shut down.  So we ended up at Red Robin.  I ate a chicken burger, and Erica, Ana, and I decided some beers would be just what we needed to unwind and hopefully put us to sleep for a couple hours.

Tasty, pretty beers.

We ate as fast as we could then piled back into the van to head to the next major exchange where Van 1 would eventually meet us around 2am.  Each major exchange (major exchange=exchanges between vans) was housed at high schools.  The high schools were opened, gym locker rooms available for changing/showering, cafeterias serving food (wish we had realized this before Red Robin, but that's ok), and large expanses of floor available for sleeping.

This exchange was at a high school in La Conner, WA that happened to have carpeted hallways, which was kind of nice.  After changing into fresh clothes (my next set of running clothes) and wiping down with some baby wipes, we spread out our sleeping bags on the floor, hoping to catch a couple hours of sleep.

I managed some off and on, not-so-great-quality sleep.  I asked Jessie, who was in contact with the other van, to wake me up about a half hour before I had to start running.  She didn't need to though.  As I slept, I kept getting this dreadful feeling that I was sleeping through my exchange, or I was late for the start and Van 1 was all standing there waiting for me questioningly.  And I was nervous about running in the dark.  I'm not sure I ever truly fell asleep.

At one point, Jessie saw me tossing and turning and told me I had about 45 minutes.  So as everyone else attempted a little more sleep, I got up, packed up, put my contacts back in, night-geared up, and filled water belt bottles back at the van.  I wanted to be ready.  Everyone else poured out of the school about 15 minutes before the exchange.  Van 2 came rolling into the parking lot and we all headed to the actual exchange.

And then, all of a sudden, Hans was there slapping the slap bracelet my long-sleeve-covered wrist (so no cringing) and I was off on my next leg.

Which happened to be far and above the most amazing run I've had in my near memory.

You may not be able to see me or Hans, but you can certainly
see than reflective safety gear!

I'll tell you all about it next time.