Go, you chicken fat, go away!

This was my first Ragnar Trail race.  The way it works is all the teams set up their tents at a base camp.  There are 8 people on a regular team.  Start times are staggered throughout the day.  We started at 2pm.  I was runner #1.  I ran the green loop.  When I finish I hand off the race bib which is attached to a belt, to runner #2, and runner #2 runs the yellow loop.  Then runner #3 runs the red loop.  Then runner #4 runs the green loop.  You continue in that order until everyone on the team has run all three loops.

My first loop was pretty tough because of how hot it was.  And that set the tone for my remaining loops.  The green loop was 4.6 miles with lots of up and down hills.  I knew it was hot so I decided to take it very easy because I didn't want to carry any water with me.  I had just drunk a full Gatorade so I figured I wouldn't dehydrate.  I was right, but I probably should have brought some water just to dump on my head.  The hills were really working me because I hadn't really trained for them and I was using muscles that I don't really need to running on the road.  After a while I could feel the cotton mouth coming on.  I knew I was going to be quite a bit slower than what I'd hoped for.  Oh well.  All the time I kept thinking about when I ran Ragnar So Cal in 107° heat and wondering how I would be able to complete my next two legs, but then it was much cooler and they were no problem.  So I figured I'd be ok.

My next loop was the red loop.  It was 7.6 miles and had the most elevation change.  But the nice thing was that it wasn't as much up and down all the time.  It was just a gradual climb up and then back down.  By this time it was 11pm.  It had cooled off considerably.  I was still recovering from my first loop, but I had no problem running the whole way.  This time I carried water with me and my phone so I could use Endomondo to know how far I'd gone.  After about 1/2 mile I took my headlamp off and put it in my pocket and ran by the light of the moon.  It was a risky maneuver, but I enjoyed it.  I didn't fall at all like 90% of the runners out there.  Probably because I was going slow.  I did have a couple times where I would step in a depression and jar my back, but it was a pretty good run.  They had the course well marked with colored lights on the markers.  After I finished I pretty much slept until my final leg.

The last loop, the yellow loop, was the shortest distance, 4.3 miles, but everyone said it was the hardest.  They were right.  It had the toughest hill and the most rollers.  I was pooped.  But I kept a pretty steady pace.  Steady and slow, don't you know.  I forgot to put Body Glide on this time and started feeling my sensitive areas getting uncomfortable, so I took my shirt off.  At one point a girl passed me and I apologized for what she had to see.  She laughed.  Hard.  Despite how hard it was I managed to finish strong.  The nice thing was that the sun had just come up and it wasn't too hot.  Unfortunately for the rest of my team they had to run in the heat again.  We ended up being 5.5 hours behind our projection time.  Little Old Lady!

Most of the people I talked to said they preferred the trail relay to the road relays.  You don't have to worry about driving all over the place.  You get more sleep.  You get to hang out with the whole team all the time.  I still think I prefer the road races just because I much prefer running on the road.  Trails are tough.