The Journey that was Ragnar

D-Day had arrived. It was finally time for Ryan and me to join our friends in Las Vegas to run Ragnar. We jumped on this team about six weeks ago. Perfect timing, really. Just enough time to train and not enough time to really think about it and back out. Erika and I were on board immediately, so the boys really never had a say :)

We all arrived at the Lowes at Lake Las Vegas on Thursday night, hoping to get a little sleep before our 6 a.m. wake up call Friday morning. We were all in van 1 together, so we had to meet at the starting line for a 9 a.m. start time. Also in our van were Julia (our friend, Hugh's mom) and her friend, Randi. 

After getting checked in, briefed on safety rules and decorating our van, it was time to cheer on Randi as she got things started for our team.

The start of the race - still lots of smiles on everyone.

And they're off!

West Warriors - that lion was our little logo

Waiting for Randi at the first exchange to start my run.

Ready to run baby!

Our first run was in the desert, but luckily we had the morning time slot and didn't get hit with too much heat (well, not until Erika and Ryan's runs).

Barely breaking a sweat and all smiles, Kurt was making a ton of kills throughout his run

Erika powered through the increasing heat to complete her 7 mile run

And here's the man, the myth, the legend - looking like he's been running his whole life. Nice job, babe!

And here's Julia finishing up our first leg before we handed things off to van two

After our first run, we went back to the Lowes to try to get some rest and food. This is also where our second team exchange was, so we were able to just walk out the front doors to start our next set of runs.

Erika and I ready to start our first set of evening runs. This was at about 6 p.m. The next leg started at 1 a.m.!

That's Kurt on the left sagging Ryan on the right

Hand off to van 2 - me, Erika, Ryan, Randi, Julia, Hugh, Caitlin, Kurt, Britt and Natalie

After our second leg, we drove out to Jean to the Gold Strike hotel and casino where we had a room to rest before the next exchange. This place was so ghetto and gross, I don't think anyone was able to rest while we thought about the last time this room might have been cleaned.

A glimpse at the condition in which I was about to start my run at 2 a.m. I had a headlamp, of course, and luckily other vans would drive by every few minutes to provide some light. However, in those moments when I was completely by myself, I often wondered what the heck I was doing running through a desert canyon in the middle of the night. My mom would have been freaking out... 

It was during my run that my team and I  got a little disconnected and by disconnected, I mean we totally lost track of each other. The last time I saw them was the last half mile of the hills I had been running up for about three miles. Once I reached the top and started going downhill, I was feeling great and started cruising. At some point, I must have passed our (black) car because I didn't see them again until 20 minutes after I got to the exchange. I don't know what happened, but they didn't see me pass and I didn't see them. So, I ran to the exchange and they were somewhere a few miles back waiting for me to run by and check in. After a little while of not seeing me, they got a little nervous and started back tracking the route and finally drove through the exchange where I was waiting. Sorry for the scare, guys!

This is about how most of us were feeling through this last leg of runs.

Although, after the ibuprofen, alka seltzer, a 5-hour energy and my 7 mile run, I was feeling quite energized and ready to party...

Erika, Ryan, and Julia had some rough terrain during this section - rocky, dirt roads... uphill. Not ideal!

We finished around 7 a.m., and met our team at the final exchange before we would see them again at the finish line later that day. Here's the whole team together for the first time: Randi, me, Ryan, Britt, Julia, Rachel, Natalie, Kurt, Erika, Caitlin, Hugh and Jeff.

That night, the hills and lack of sleep caught up with us. Legs were in pain and heads were spinning. I couldn't wait to get into bed. We slept in the next morning and then drove back to Valencia to pick Westin up from grandpa and grandma Rich.  He was so cute - when he saw us, he said, "You're back! From Las Vegas, where you ran your race!" Then once I showed him our medals, he went around to everyone in the house and told them, "This is my mom and dad's medal. They got it in Las Vegas for running a race." 

Thanks for being so proud of us, buddy! We missed you!!!