Go, you chicken fat, go away!

These are the gingerbread houses my wife and her best friend made last year.  They are patterned after our own house near allie's sugarhouse loop.

Just Friday I was thinking about how silly it was that time I saw Bruce RUN2DAY running towards me and thought it was a dog.  So this morning I saw this coyote running running straight towards me from across the road.  But then it seemed to get bigger.  A big dog is coming right toward me.  Is it a wolf?  Fight or flight?  I stopped dead in my tracks, clinching my fists, getting ready to fight a dog when I saw that it was indeed RUN2DAY again.  I said, "That's the 2nd time you've done that to me!"  He had no idea what I was talking about.

Time - 1:27:16 (avg. pace 8:44)

Splits - 8:39, 8:39, 8:42, 8:43, 8:48, 8:49, 8:38, 8:45, 8:47, 8:49

Standard deviation - 4.3 seconds

Curse this vow to not have sugar for the month of February.  I had to put bananas on my pancakes last night instead of syrup.  Here are some of the goodies I had to pass up last week.

Last run before Ragnar.  Just wanted to shake the legs out.  Must write all incomplete sentences.

Time - 25:35 (avg. pace 8:32)

Splits - 8:34, 8:31, 8:32

Another year, another Ragnar.

I've done this race (I use that term loosely) all four years they've had it here in AZ.  Some people call this a slumber party with running involved rather than a race.  That's an accurate assessment. 

I tried to put a team together with the regulars from the last three years which have consisted primarily of people from work, but with the economy that way it is and people going their separate ways, we're not a big happy family like we used to be.  Glen from last year had declined an offer of a team from his work, Rio Salado College, to be on my team.  So when I bagged the idea to get the band back together we joined the Rio team.  I even offered my services to be their captain.

Being captain for a team of people I didn't know let alone work for was a bit intimidating.  Would they like me?  Would they be able to see right through me, that I'm a phony?  Would they end up resenting me when it was all over?  I soon found out that they were all a bunch of fun and awesome people.  Hey, they're runners for goodness sake.

I of course gave myself the longest overall distance.  That worked out because I really wanted to be in van #1 this year, and I wanted the bragging rights.  We had one guy drop out early.  He was replaced quickly by the Sebastien, the husband of Teresa already on the team.  Both of them are Boston qualifiers.  They were going to be in van #1 with me.  Like every year, Ragnar changed the course; not by much, but enough to where now a runner from van #2 had the longest overall distance.  So I rearranged the vans to put the BQers in van #2.  Now van #1 consisted of Glen, Jennifer, me, Eddie, Shannon, and Andy, and van #2 consisted of Destinie, Seb, Kristin, Teresa, Corena, and Michael.

With a couple of weeks to go until the race Jennifer had to drop out due to a knee injury.  I didn't think it would be so hard to find a replacement, but it was.  Finally 5 days before the race we got Nathan who is Bethany's husband (Bethany ran with us last year) to join us.  He was a welcome addition and a lot of fun.

The team name we voted on was Rio's Ruthless Runners.  We were assigned a 7:40am start time.  Because of that, it made sense for us to stay the night at a hotel in Prescott.  I booked a suite that I thought was going to have two separate rooms, one with two beds, and one with one bed.  All it had was one nice queen size bed and a pull out sofa bed in a tiny little room.  We gave Shannon the luxurious bed while the men slept in the tiny room.  At 2:30am I woke up drenched in sweat and very uncomfortable.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  At 4:45am I got up and started getting ready hoping the lack of sleep wouldn't come back to haunt me. 

The plan was to eat the complimentary oatmeal or pancake breakfast.  It took forever for them to make it.  Now we were running late.  And it was cold in Prescott.  I had to scrape the ice off my windshield with a reflective vest.  When we got to the starting line, I grabbed the gear needed to check in and ran to the line.  It was 7:30am.  I knew the line was too long and we were going to miss our start time.  So I cut to the front and told them I that our team started in 8 minutes.  They just gave me our bags and we barely made it.  (Thanks Ragnar.)

With such an early start time I knew that the other teams had to be as slow as us.  I wondered if our first runner, Glen, would be able to give us an early lead over the other teams that started at the same time.  Indeed he did.  Because we were such a steady team, we seemed to pass a lot of the other teams.  In fact, after we finished our second set of legs, there were only 14 teams ahead of us.

My first leg was 6.57 miles.  It was an 829 foot climb and an 879 foot descent, the highest elevation of the course near 6200 feet.  I estimated that I would run an 8:29 pace.  The climb up was killer.  I was trying to figure out where all the oxygen went.  But I did manage an overall pace of 8:25.  My splits were 7:47, 9:03, 10:03, 7:45, 7:27, and a 7:18 pace for 0.57.  I got killed twice by TTKA and L.A.M.O., and killed two teams.  My legs were sore, but I felt good.  Everyone was hitting the projections I made right on.  That's some good captaining. 

After our first set of legs we drove to the second major exchange point so we could eat and wash up in the cold tent showers.  They never did set the showers up.  I ended up wiping myself down with baby wipes.  My second leg was 8.72 miles at 7:20pm.  It was dark out, but the headlights from the cars along US93 lighted my way pretty good.  I had a 100 foot descent in the first 4 miles and a 250 descent for the remainder.  I projected an 8:08 pace, but like every year I started to get stomach cramps.  I don't know if it's that the runs are too close together, I'm not eating properly, or the sleep deprivation.  My first two miles were good, but then I started to bonk.  My legs were getting more sore, the stomach cramps were causing my breathing to become labored, and the top of my right foot was starting to hurt.  I was wondering if I was headed toward a stress fracture.  My average pace was 8:27 and my splits were 8:03, 8:05, 8:17, 8:21, 8:21, 8:29, 8:39, 8:58, and an 8:55 pace for 0.72.  Getting to the One Mile to Go sign wasn't comforting.  It was still another mile!  But at least none of them were over a 9 minute pace.  I got killed twice by the Kingman Krazies and Dude Where's My Van and killed one team.

Now I was really sore and wondering how I was going to finish my last 7.1 miles.  We went to Teresa and Seb's house to shower up.  Finally, a shower.  It felt so good.  I also got some sound sleep even though it was only about three hours.  As we were getting ready to go I got a phone call from the other van.  Someone had been hit by a car...

Story continued here.

See here for the race report on legs 3 and 15.

...I don't know all the details, but I what I do know is that a participant was struck by a vehicle while trying to cross the Carefree Highway to support his teammate.  I hear he's in critical condition.  The race officials stopped the race and had everyone collect their runners and meet at Exchange 24.  From here, the race started again.  Teresa had about a half mile to go when they picked her up.  Michael didn't get to run his second leg.  I assumed they wouldn't be handing out awards, but they did ask us where and when we stopped running.  I gather they're trying to figure something out as for team placing. 

Like I said in the previous entry, we were ahead of most of the 350 teams until then.  Now we had to start running again 1 hour and 40 minutes behind schedule.  At least there were a lot more teams to see now, and we could play the passing game again.  I was still worried about how sore I was.  I had massaged my foot real good at Teresa and Seb's house.  Then I put Icy Hot on my legs.  Thankfully everyone in the van loved the smell of Icy Hot.  My legs did start to loosen up a little.  But would my foot hold out?

I projected a 7:52 pace because I had an 887 foot descent with hardly any ascent.  I figured I'd get passed by the customary 2 teams again, but was only passed by the Cobra Kai.  They showed me no mercy.  I'm just glad they didn't sweep my leg and send me home in a body bag.  I got three kills myself even.  My first mile was 7:46.  Although it was nice that I ran faster than what I wanted, it was hard because the stomach cramps were back.  The next mile was worse at 7:57.  Then I started feeling better.  I'm not sure when the cramps stopped, but I found myself moving pretty good.  The third mile was 7:49.  Next was a 7:53.  Now I was thinking to myself that I only had a 5k to go.  I ran the fifth mile in 7:41.  The sixth mile was 7:56, and I was getting worn out.  Then I realized that I had just run 21.5 miles.  I only had 1.1 miles to go.  I pushed it a little faster and ran a 7:34.  My Garmin measured the route a little short, so the last 0.01 miles was a 5:50 pace.  I had got outkicked by a guy that I had just passed.  I'm not sure where he pulled that kick out of, but it must have come from some smelly orifice.  My average pace on that last leg was 7:48.

Anyway, I was done and actually felt good; no stress fracture.  Everyone in the van was so fun.  Eddie wore his turtle costume the whole time.  People loved it.  We went to Andy's house after our third legs to shower and freshen up.  It was nice of his wife to allow us in and let us raid their cupboards.

Another fun thing was seeing so many people I knew.  I saw Dan, Margene, and Jacob from Athlinks.com.  I saw Ran, Chris, and Dion from my hometown of Kingman.  I saw Br. and Sis. Teuller, Br. Lorsch, and Br. Causey from previous wards I've been in.  I saw Drew from last year's team.  I saw Jennifer, Emma, and Todd from my team two years ago.  I'm not even that popular!

After almost 32 hours, Rio's Ruthless Runners finally crossed the finish line in the Tempe Marketplace.  Tired and stinky, we were elated to be done.

We said our goodbyes and wondered if we'd ever see each other again.  It was all together happy and sad and every other emotion in between.  I can't wait until next year, but I call the easy legs!