Ragnar - Part Three

I was doing my best to stay in contact with Van 2 but it was hard. Time was going by so fast and it was easy to get lost in the excitement. Luckily, Van 2 was keeping an eye on our Facebook updates and knew when it was time for them to head to the major exchange point. Major exchanges were where Van 1 would hand off to Van 2, so these exchanges were bigger with music, free stuff, etc. It was hectic and I decided that I did not like them!

Here's where things got tricky. See... we had never exactly met anyone from Van 2. I had communicated with them on email and I'd become friends with one (Jody) on Facebook. But other than seeing a couple pictures of Jody, I had no idea who we were looking for. The exchange area was PACKED and it was a total madhouse. After several frantic text messages, I recognized Jody in the crowd and ran to her. We did quick introductions and suddenly the announcer said "here comes Team 236!" Yikes, that was us! We literally shoved Cindi into the exchange chute and said "That's Tiffany wearing black! Go!" We really came down to the wire on that exchange!

We chatted for a few minutes with Van 2 and then it was time for them to catch up to their runner. It was about 1:30pm and our van loaded up and headed to Mt Vernon, where we had hotel rooms booked. We had enough time to take showers, rest (if you could call it that.. I don't know that any of us got any sleep), and eat. Again, I'm glad we had our trusty Facebook page because we were able to keep an eye on Van 2. At one point I sent them a message saying "Slow down! We need more time to rest!" :)

We jumped back into the van and arrived at the next major exchange around 5pm. It was sunny so we grabbed our sleeping bags and snoozed in the grass. It felt so nice! Soon I received a text that Jody was nearing the exchange so we packed up and headed in that direction. Soon we saw her... Jody handed the bracelet off to Jason and we started the whole process over again. Jason handed to Maria, who handed to Chris, who handed to me. And here is my second leg report.

Since Ragnar is an overnight race, runners are required to wear safety gear (reflective vest, headlamp and tail light) between the hours of 8:30pm and 5:30am. I was beginning my leg around 8pm so I was the first teammate to wear the gear. I looked like I was heading into a mine or something :) This leg was 4.1 miles and shouldn't have been a problem, but about 100 yards into my run things started to go wrong. My right calf tightened up and began to hurt. It was tight after my first leg so I spent lots of time stretching it. I figured I'd be fine but I was wrong. It just got worse with each step. I stopped for a second to stretch but it didn't help. Well, I didn't have a choice but to keep going.

I looked up ahead of me and saw people crossing a bridge over the river. Ragnar does a fantastic job of marking the course but I've heard horror stories about people becoming very lost. People steal signs or move them, or if you're not paying attention you could miss one. Anyway, I looked up and saw people crossing the bridge and I wasn't sure how they got up there. I saw a street approaching that led to the bridge, but there was no sign. If I continued under the bridge, it looked like the road ended. What to do? I looked behind me and didn't see anyone. My calf was hurting pretty bad by this point and I knew that making a mistake on the route would be agonizing. So... I just kept going. After I went under the bridge I saw that the road curved back up toward the bridge and that I was indeed going the right way. Whew!

Unfortunately, climbing the hill was just about unbearable. My van passed me and I waved to let them know I was fine, but secretly I was thinking "Can't they just drive me ahead a mile? No one would ever know!" Hahaha! They pulled over a little ways up the road with water and encouragement. They knew I was hurting. But I kept going.

Eventually, the worst thing happened. I passed our hotel. Our hotel with the comfortable beds, with the adorable elderly couple at the front desk who were so happy to be hosting a team running Ragnar, who had fruit in the lobby and told us to take whatever we needed... Running past our hotel was the absolute worst part of the entire race for me!

Okay, it was time to distract myself. I turned my music up and started to listen to the individual instruments. I looked at license plates. I started reading street signs. I stopped at a crosswalk and realized that Ragnar was making us cross illegally. What the heck? It was a busy intersection and the route we were supposed to take had no crosswalk and no signal. To legally cross, you'd need to cross the other way first and go around. Are you kidding me? I could barely walk so my choice was: go around because it's safer but longer, or hobble across illegally and hope I don't get hit. Hell, getting hit would have put me out of my misery so I went with the shorter route.

I caught up with my team a little while later for some much-needed encouragement and made my way toward the exchange. I had to run up a gigantic hill which hurt like hell but I did it. Going up a big hill meant I got to go down a big hill into a small town. I crossed another bridge and came into the exchange where I handed off to Will. Yay for being done and not quitting!

Will ran his leg and handed off to Tiffany. By this time it was pretty dark and everyone was decked out in safety gear. It looked cool to drive down country roads that were dotted with reflective tape and red flashing tail lights. It made me think "This is what makes Ragnar so cool... look at all these people running as hard as they can for 200 miles, day and night."

We met Van 2 at the next exchange but I can't tell you how it went. My calf was so tight by this time that I could hardly walk. Plus, I was exhausted. It was 10:30pm and we'd been up since 4:30am (although remember that I had only slept about an hour the night before). I grabbed a sleeping bag and napped in the back of the van while our team watched Tiffany hand the bracelet off to Cindi from Van 2. Ahhhh, we were done with our second legs!