Running the Las Vegas Ragnar relay seemed like a good idea when I signed up, but a terrible one as it grew close. Life had gotten in the way of training sufficiently, and I had a deep sense of dread as the date approached. But I knew that the team of twelve wouldn’t quit or give up, and I wasn’t going to be the one ot let everyone else down.
The day before the event, I told Kim if it was a solo event, like a marathon, I would have bailed. I meant it with every ounce of my being. But I couldn’t let everyone else down, and it was soon I was picking up the van, my other 5 running vanmates and our driver/helper Tommy.
The drive to Vegas flew by with laughter and stories and we went an checked in, meeting up with Van 2 after for dinner and then heading to the house.
It was a fitful night for me, with little sleep before getting up at 3 to head out for a 5 am start time. We drove high into the mountains outside vegas, and it was freaking cold, in the 30s. A warmup, and Tavo started with a strong run that would set his tone for the weekend, a focused fast pace that would pass dozens of other teams. It wasn’t long before Tavo handed off the baton to me, and I enjoyed a run through high dessert scenery.
We each had a run, with Alicia tackling the longest leg of the entire race, a rocky road that left every runner looking beat. In between runs was a crazy game of hurry up and wait, with attempts to nap, inhale food, find your runner, find the next exchange, etc. etc. It was unlike any other event I’ve done in a weird and interesting way, and the company made it awesome.
We handed off the baton to Van 2 after each of us run, and headed to the house to scarf some food, clean up, and attempt sleep.
Each runner on our team of twelve ran 3 times. I ran about 16-17 miles I think, Van 1 totaled about 110 miles, and Team Fangle in total ran 204 miles.
Since I was runner 2 of Van 1, my final run was in the morning of Day 2. I was dreading it. 8 miles. Rated VEry hard. But I couldn’t let anyone down, so I put my heart and soul (sole?) into it and trucked along. I got to the finish and felt like I’d given my all. As I lay, gasping, Tommy told me I was within minutes of my goal pace, and I was stoked to go mark my last boxed as finished.
10 more runners still had to run, with some long legs, so it was a busy day of playing support to the other guys, then eating the best tasting pizza ever, before heading to the finish line to run across as a team of 12.
RAGNAR was pretty cool. Different and interesting from any race or event I’ve done before. I had a great time.
RAGNAR LAS VEGAS 2016
