SIMPLY JOCE: ragnar: las vegas

the more and more i think about ragnar the more and more i feel the need to do another one. its tempting to see if you can join a group somewhere but that is also scary. people say ragnar is not fun, but they must not be runners and they must not know the right people or they are just not fun. because what makes ragnar is that one your a runner and enjoy it. two your fun and know how to have fun. three your running with a great group of people.

this trip was exhausting.

some people in my van left salt lake at 1:00pm. we got to nephi around 4:00pm it took us THREE hours just to get out of utah county. after that is was easy breezy. we finally go into st george around 7-8pm had some dinner at the brick oven. i ate all you can eat salad, soup and pasta. yuck. i hate pasta and i really dont know why i eat it. finished up. got some last minute things are target like paint to decorate our car. then headed off to las vegas. to the LV around 11:00pm and checked in and went straight to bed.

woke up early in the morning and headed to Lake Mead to check and have our first runner start. since we got off pretty late we barely made our start time which was 9:00am. our first runner started and the rest of the group 6 out of 12 got back in the car and headed to the first exchange to start my first leg. thinking that our first runner had our wrist band. btw this wrist band must be with the runner at all times, lose it and your done. well our runner came up to the exchange. didnt have the wrist band. went back to the car. no wrist band. thankfully they are so nice, they let me run while our van went back to get a wrist band. my leg was rough at first. kinda flat then started to go up hill. some people passed me. but i eventually passed them again because i was keeping my speed that same and it really benefited me when we really started running uphill. because those people started to walk while i kept running, running for 7 miles. oh and did i tell you. the heat at 9:30-10am was unbearable. i finished my run and relaxed till my next leg. all our runner finished up and passed the running onto van 2. while waiting for them to finish we went to walmart to stock up on water, gatorade, salty foods and ice then headed to the second major exchange so that our van can start our second leg. van 1 started our second legs around 5:30pm, way ahead of schedule. i didnt start my second run till about 6:15pm. it was just under 4 miles and the map of my run did not do justice on how hilly my run was. up and down and up and down oh and they were steep! finished my second leg and watched our next 4 runners. we were way ahead of schedule and we actually were getting towards the front of the pack. because around runner 5 van 2 called us saying that if we came into the 3 major exchange before 9:15 pm they were going to hold us till 11:15pm because we either were running too fast or because they didnt have the next exchanges up. so instead of pulling our runner off the road to wait we decided to finish up and head back to our hotel to sleep. we slept probably for a good five hours before we got the call from van 2 that runner 11 was half way through their run. we all got up and packed into the car to head to the fourth major exchange, our last major exchange. our first runner started at about 2am and finished around 3. i heard his leg was one of the worst ones. no support, pitch black and a dirt/rocky trail. so people were tripping, spraining their ankles, etc. after taking a 5 hour energy drink, a banana and waiting for about 20 minutes at the exchange it was finally my turn. i was kinda dreading this last leg because it went straight up 812ft then straight down 930ft for 7.3 miles. but man, like my first leg i kept my pace at around 9-9.30 minutes mile and finally 3.5 miles later reached the top. then i just booked it down hill for the last 4 miles. i think i clocked in at about 6.2-6.3 minutes per mile. i was listening to people as they drove by. "WOW" i think people thought that i was on the elite team. which i could pretend that i was for those last few miles. 60 minutes later i was finally was done with my leg and i was dont with the las vegas ragnar. now i just had to wait till my runners were done. the only bad thing is, i couldnt sleep because of the darn 5 hour energy drink. after our van was done we went out to for breakfast and then headed back to the hotel to shower and sleep and to wait for the call from van 2. finally the call came, we went to the finish line and finished at 12:30pm took our pictures, grabbed my saint and sinners medal and then skedaddled.

Ragnar has our time down as 27:30hours but minus 2hrs and 15mins we finished 188 miles in 25hrs and 15mins.

its all because of the shinglets the three teenage boys wore in van one.

just look at a picture, youll see.

till wasatch back ragnar.

im getting excited to run "the you got to be kidding me" hill or the "ragnar"

i have the possibility of being on an ultra team.

whats that?

6 people instead of 12 people finishing 196 miles.

yes

that means i run about 30 miles instead of 15.

until june!