A few weeks ago I ran the Las Vegas Ragnar. For those of you who know me you know how much I love my sleep and don’t really enjoy running. A Ragnar relay was close to the top of my list of things I don’t really care to ever do. But a friend from high school messaged me a couple weeks before asking if I wanted to join the team because they needed a couple spots filled. Saundra and I ended up working out our schedules so we could go down for the weekend. We ended up having a great time!
I was in van 2 and runner 11. I was in a van with Saundra (my bff), Kent (my good friend from high school) and Nellie (his wife) so it was a lot of fun to chat with them and the new friends I met.
Since we were in van 2 we didn’t run at first. The runners from van 1 took their turns running through the Vegas heat from about 10am to about 3pm. We leap frogged with van 1 and cheered on our runner, gave them water and whatever else they needed. At each exchange one runner passed the “baton” which was a slap bracelet to the next runner and off they went.
Our van started in the late afternoon on Friday. Our first couple runners had the worst of the heat. By the time it was my turn it was close to sunset. My first leg of the run was about 3.7 miles. It was at sunset and by the end of my run it was dark. The run was on a paved path through the hills. It was really pretty and really uphill most of the time. I was feeling good though and pushed it up the hills.
Our van finished around 9 pm or so and we were starving so we passed off to the other van and went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was nice to eat a good meal and just relax and sit there and talk to other adults without being interrupted.
Sooner than we expected (around midnight?) we got the call that we needed to go meet van 1 at the next van exchange. We finished dinner, changed our clothes and headed off to meet them. Our 2nd leg of the race was in the middle of the night. I tried to sleep while our other runners ran but I couldn’t. It was cold and I was tired so I told my teammates I might be a little slow for this leg. This leg was 3.9 miles for me. I started running around 2:30am. I felt GREAT! The weather was cold at first but it felt good for running and my leg was slightly downhill. It felt awesome. It was a little scary at times when there was no one in front of me or behind me and no vans driving by and it was pitch black out but those times didn’t last long. I finished about 5 minutes earlier than I thought so Nellie wasn’t quite ready for me. But the other team mates saw me and Nellie ran over to me, I slapped the bracelet on her and off she went! It was almost time for us to go sleep!
When she finished her leg it was about 3:30am and we headed to Kent’s sister’s house to sleep for a few hours. We woke up somewhat refreshed after 3 hours of sleep and left to go do our last leg of the relay! This was the longest part for our van with our legs totaling 39 miles.
We started about 9 am, I think. There were some crazy hard runs during this one. One runner in our van had a ten miler, mostly up a steep hill in the Vegas heat. I was second to last in our van and even though it was super hot, my leg was mostly down hill so I felt great running it. It was such a great feeling to finish my last leg. I handed off to Nellie, we cheered her on and then headed to the finish line where we would cross together as a team. Even though my legs were short (all around 4 miles) I had such a feeling of accomplishment. I did surprisingly well on the lack of sleep. The energy was great and it was fun to see all the vans and runners and everything. I am so glad I did it, even though it was on my “hope I never do in my life” list. That’s the opposite of a bucket list… I hope to do another one someday!
