Ragnar - Part Four

We headed back to our hotel and arrived around 11pm. My teammates were hungry and wanted to head to Denny's for a little Moons Over My Hammy. I didn't want to look like a bum but I was thinking an extra hour of sleep was more important than food at that point. So I stayed behind and crashed. An hour later they came back and we slept 2 more hours. Jody called at 2:15am to let us know they'd be done in an hour, so we got up and drove to Deception Pass. Jody passed the bracelet to Jason and Van 1 was back in business!

Here we were... our third and final legs of Ragnar. Jason hauled ass and posted a fantastic time. Maria and Chris also did well. And then it was my turn. Luckily, Chris came into the exchange at 5:32am which meant I got to ditch my reflective gear. I had accidentally left my Garmin on after my last leg and the battery was about to crash. I couldn't reset it but did have just enough juice to start it from the time I took off. So at least the stop watch and mileage were working.. I just had to do some math to know where I was at (which was a good distraction in hindsight). I took off on what should have been a very easy, very leisurely 2.9 miles. But my favorite calf muscle had other plans for me!

I felt fine for the first several minutes until I reached a hill. And pop. There it went... I pulled my muscle. And I'm glad it was 5:30am because there was no one around to hear the string of 4-letter words that came out of my mouth (and would continue to come out of my mouth for the next several minutes). Tha pain was miserable. I tried to make myself feel better by thinking of other times I'd been in pain: playing basketball with broken fingers, giving birth after a failed epidural, playing baseball with pulled quadriceps... I figured if I could do all of that, I could run a measly 2.9 miles.

So I pushed on. I went slow. I tried to not limp when I heard a van or another runner approach from behind. Fellow runners knew I was hurting and said some very encouraging things to help me along. My van stopped to give me water and offer support and then took off for the exchange.

At one mile to go, I saw a familiar face standing on the corner. It was Chris, and he was there to run the final mile with me. And I'm so glad he was there because that last mile went by fast. We climbed a final hill and looked down to see the exchange ahead of us. My leg was burning from the pain but I could handle downhill, so I told Chris "I'm taking off now.. see you in a couple". I sprinted to the exchange so I could finish strong and slapped the bracelet onto Will's wrist and that was it. Ragnar was over for me.

Halfway through Will's leg, the fog really started to roll in. We saw another van pull over to put a safety vest on their runner. I said "That's a good idea, let's do the same." We pulled over and the van ahead of us said "Did you get your text? Ragnar is requiring everyone to put vests on." (Ragnar will send texts out with important messages, and it's a great system.) So we got Will set up and drove ahead to the next exchange. Tiffany ran her final leg and did a great job, and finally we were finished!

We drove back to our hotel in Mt Vernon to shower and check out. It was a lot of extra driving, but we knew we'd want that final shower. We changed into our team shirts, ate a quick lunch, and drove back down to the finish line in Langley. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare and met up with the rest of our team. They allow (and encourage) teams to finish together so I was stretching like there was no tomorrow. I could hardly walk but I definitely wanted to cross the finish line! Jody approached, I grabbed Chris' hand and we all ran through the chute together as the announcer said "Here comes How The West Was Run!" The music was loud and the cheers were even louder. I wish we'd had someone there to videotape it for us. What an amazing experience!I was sure that I'd cry at the end, but I didn't :) Instead, we put our medals on and had our picture taken, then headed for the beer garden. We celebrated with our new friends and enjoyed the sun. Maria and I signed up for massages, which were wonderful. Painful (because she was working on my calf) but wonderful nonetheless.

I ran the equivalent of a half marathon. Sure, it was over the course of 25 hours, but still. I have to be honest, I didn't train very well for this. But I still finished, and I'm very proud of myself for that. I did something that not many people have done before. The lack of sleep was tough but not as bad as I'd feared. I suppose years of basketball and baseball tournaments taught me to play through the exhaustion.
We said goodbye to Van 2. I hugged Jody and told her I'd like to keep in touch. I have a feeling our paths will cross again. We began our long drive home... we talked about our favorite parts of the course, our aches and pains, what we did to distract ourselves... turns out I'm not the only one who worried about taking a wrong turn. Each of us had one moment at some point where we worried if we were still on the right path or not. But it all worked out in the end.

We dropped Maria off, and then Jason. We arrived at Will and Tiffany's to pick up our car and then went home. Logan was in bed for the night but Owen greeted us with big hugs. Maybe he will run Ragnar with us someday.

I know we will do it again. Chris and I are actually looking into the Vegas race in October. I don't know if we'll be able to swing that one, but it would be fun. They also have a race in the Florida Keys that I'd love to do. So we'll see... we're definitely not finished :)