Ragnar legs 1, 13 and 25 with some running around before each leg to get ready. The course watchers were a lot more tense about things this year, looks like somebody told them to tighten things up or else. Lovely. Anyway, the first leg started out with a smart uphill and then a trail flat/downhill, then through the canyon and town to the first exchange. I got out in front of the other six teams who had our 2:30 start by about mile 3, and widened my lead to 200 yards or so by mile 6. I somehow misread an arrow half a mile out from the exchange and turned left early, going off course. To make things worse, the Gatorade I was drinking combined with my first afternoon run in a while to turn my insides to greased rocket tubes, so I was having to hold my butt cheeks together with a truly Herculean effort, making odd Herculean noises as I went. I finally found the course again after adding .4 to it and ran from the exchange to the portapotties, where freedom promptly rang. Loudly. Ooog. I had to visit portapotties in five additional exchanges before I started seeing tomatoes from lunch and things finally started to settle down. Leg 13 was a leg I had wanted to run for a while, the one that descends Snow Basin to the gas station. It started off well marked with reflective arrows placed with loving care every 20 or so feet into the well manicured lawn of the lower ski slops, but quickly changed to arrows hidden like valuable Easter eggs in the tufts of grass. I was quite resolved to not get lost again though, so a bit of tiptoeing through the tulips andI found my way back to the trail and on to the road, where I Monster Mashed down the 8 miles of rolling hills and finished with a tremendous sprint that was straight from the heart. What fun! The Nazis had decreed that if they saw our 27 foot sleeping arrangements anywhere on course we would be DQed, so I ended up sleeping in the car with Toni and Spencer. I suppose sleeping is a strong word, we each caught about eight winks or so. I finally saw dawn begin to brighten the east and waited until 5:30 when I could start to stir. Unbelieveably I still had enough in me to generate a sizable morning offering to the Honey Bucket, making what must be a record seventh successful portapotty exchange. I forgot to hydrate before my final flat 5 mile tempo run but it did not matter, I was spent and barely managed to squeeze out a 6:30. But nothing else thankfully. We met up with SRC at the finish and it was a drama to the end as to who would come in first, but they beat us by two minutes or so. Plus the 90 minutes they started after us. Now I shall sleep.
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