I don't consider the Ragnar relays races, but here's my race report nonetheless.
I really wanted to do this relay for the selfish fact that I would get three medals out of it. First would be the Vegas finishing medal. Second would be the Saints and Sinners for finishing the Wasatch Back relay this year. Third would be the Deuces Wild for finishing the Del Sol this year. I asked Rae at Ragnar to hook me up with a team, and she found me one with a mix of people from Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico. As it turned out, they were a fun group. Our name was Reno 911. We all met together for the first time at the carbo-load dinner the night before the race. We donned our costumes so that we could get the maximum use out of them.
I was in van #1 with Betsy, her brother David, Kaylin, and Mariah. We had a runner drop out the week before and could never find a replacement. Of course you all know that, and you may now look away in shame for not stepping up. Our start time was 6:30am on Friday morning in the Valley of Fire. The Valley of Fire is pretty. I've been there before. Unfortunately it was still dark out at 6:30 in the morning.
The race announcer asked who was doing Ragnar for the first time. A bunch of people raised their hands. Second time? More people raised their hands. Third? About 10 people. Fourth? A couple. Fifth? One person. "Okay, you get to do the countdown." Then Kaylin piped up and said, "Hey, Burt's done it 6 times." So he made the other guy go back with his tailed tucked between his legs, and I got to do the countdown. I counted from 10 to 2 and instead of saying 1, I yelled "Reno 911!"
Dave started us off as he, Betsy, and I split up runner #1's legs amongst us. He passed 7 people. That means he was passing people from the 6:15am group, and possibly earlier. Only two people from the 6:30am group beat him. Then Betsy ran. She passed 20 people! I was like, "Save some for me!" After her Kaylin ran and passed one person and got passed twice. Then Mariah ran and got passed by three or four people. Next it was my turn. I knew this was going to be my easiest and fastest leg. I predicted I would run a 7:45 average. I had a 7:37 average. My splits were 7:47, 8:11, 8:02, 7:06, 7:02, 7:44, 7:31 and a 7:30 pace for the last 0.23 miles. It felt good. I got passed once by this speedy dude, and I passed 4 people. Then Dave ran us into the first major exchange. This is where I found out there were only a few teams ahead of us.
Rae at Ragnar was announcing the teams as they came in on the microphone. I said hi to her, and she totally put me on the spotlight. She told the whole crowd about how I just finished P90X in 90 days and that I looked great. It was rather embarrassing. My teammates were like, "I didn't know we had a celebrity on our team." Ha!
I had a feeling our next speedy runner, Chris, would be able to catch the teams in front of us. I'm pretty sure he did. Amazingly, by the time it was our turn to run again, we were out in the lead. I've never been on a team that was out in front, although we got close in Del Sol before the accident happened, but it was kind of exciting. Betsy ran her two legs and kept the lead for us. Then Kaylin ran, and got lost on the trail that wasn't well marked. A team was able to pass us at that point, and she felt so bad. I told her not to worry. Poor Mariah never had a chance to pass anyone just because we were always so far out in front. But I'm so impressed with the two of them because they only started running two months ago. A few more teams passed Mariah, and then I got to run again.
It was 7:12pm, so I had to wear the night gear. My last three legs were night runs. This was another 7.2 mile run for me. There were a couple of long hills. I was going for an 8:00 pace and was able to do it for the first 4 miles, but the uphill started to take its toll on me. My splits were 8:12, 8:41, 7:22, 7:36, 9:01, 9:07, 9:58, and an 8:44 pace for the last 0.17 miles. Right at the end of mile two I came to the top of a hill. It was a beautiful view of the Vegas lights. In the third mile two real fast dudes came zipping by. I decided to run with them for a bit. I told them I was going to draft off them for a while. They laughed. They also had BO. Anyway, it didn't last long. They were running 6 minute miles, maybe faster. Garmin clocked me going at a 6:06 pace. They burned up the pavement, but guess what. I caught them. Oh yeah. Uh huh. It's my birthday. So what if they got stopped at a stop light? They should plan better. I didn't pass anybody on this leg, but I did get within 10 yards of a girl in front of me. She sped up when she heard me coming, and I wasn't going to hurt myself just to say I passed someone.
After our van had finished our second set of legs we drove to the next major exchange to wait for van #2. We tried to get some sleep, but I couldn't. It was my turn to run again. I was surprised that no teams had come in yet. I figured the faster teams should be catching up soon. The first team came in, but their runner wasn't ready. The next thing I knew Jamin was right behind him. So he handed off to me, and now we were out in the lead again. Wow! What pressure. I felt like I had to keep the lead. At the same time I knew I had a killer hill coming up after the first mile. So I decided to run my own race and find a pace that I could maintain for 3.67 miles. I predicted a 9:25 pace. It ended up being a 9:57 pace. My splits were 8:45, 9:53, 10:47, and a 10:38 pace for the last 0.67 miles. I think that strategy paid off because I never had to stop and I put a gap on the guy behind me. But that hill. Oh that hill got steeper and steeper. I just kept climbing it like the Little Engine that Could. I finally reached the top and last 0.2 miles was a steep downhill. That felt good. I opened it back up to a 6:18 pace tops.
I handed off to Betsy who was ready to be done. She had 3 miles with an 869 foot elevation drop. She ran a sub 7 minute pace down it. You should have seen those little legs moving. To give you an idea of how small she is, later when we were going up an escalator, I was standing on the step behind her. I was still about two inches taller than her. :D She increased the gap even more. That was the last we had of the lead as now some of the fast teams were catching up.
Two and a half hours later at 5am I was running my last leg. This leg should have been easier than my previous, but I was wiped out. This was 4.35 miles climbing up 535 feet. My pace was 10:22; way off my predicted pace. But my strategy again was to find a pace that I could maintain, and the mid 10's seemed to be what it was on that last set. My splits were 9:47, 10:27, 10:29, 10:38, and a 10:46 pace for the last 0.35 miles. I got passed once, passed no one, and I was glad to be done. Dave ran his last leg, and our van was done. I wondered if van #2 could work their magic again and make us be the first team to cross the finish line. It didn't happen by a long shot because the fast teams were caught up and no longer in danger of being penalized for reaching the major exchanges too early. But it was fun to be out in front on the course while it lasted.
We finished within a half hour of my overall projections. Spot on as usual. Our van tried to go to our hotel room so we could shower and change, but they would only let the team captain, who was in the other van, check in. So for the second time I showered in the swimming pools' shower. I changed into my costume and hung out on a lounge chair by the pool for a while. Hanging by a pool? Hot tubs to soak in? Cabanas to watch TV? I think I might like this race more than Del Sol. As we were waiting for Jamin to come in eightkidmom spotted me. She always spots me. At all two races we've done together. LOL. I gave her and Ben (see the picture below) a high five as I ran by and some other random dude on their team that didn't want to be left out. We took our team photo, collected our medals, and marked another Ragnar in the books.
If the rest of my team ever reads this, I just want to thank them for their hard work and the great time I had with them. You guys (Captain Jess, Clint, Syd, Melissa, Chris, Jamin, Betsy, Dave, Kaylin, and Mariah) were awesome!
| 