2012 SoCal Ragnar Relay - The 203.5 Miles Journey From Strangers to Friends (aka Huntington Beach to Coronado Island) - Van 1 Shenanigans

Date: April 20-21, 2012

Location: Huntington Beach to Coronado Island, CA
Start: 5:45am 6:00am
Finish: 35:06:22 (average pace 10:21) // 413th Overall Place
Bib #: 39
Team Name: So Much Cooler Online // 18th Place in the Regular Women Open Division (Source)
Runner Position: 6

April 19th (4:45am): Van 1 arrives at Huntington Beach to check in. It was so early and still dark outside but everyone was already buzzing with anticipation.

Then we found a Starbucks tent and that buzz grew.

We found our stoic volunteer Josh and thanked him for being so super for taking the 2am shift at the starting area. You rock Josh!

 
Even this blurry photo could not conceal our excitement to get this show on the road.

To conquer this road to be exact.

 
Team So Much Cooler Online officially started the race at 6:00am with runner 1 (Shannon). Since it was still dark outside she had to wear her reflective gear and sexy miner headlamp. See her there? No? She's the one in the skirt right next to that orange cone/pole?

Then I spent the next 30-hours in a van with these lovely ladies. They get two thumbs up from me for being the best van mates ever!

In this artistically decorated van!

We spent 30 hours, morning, noon and night doing a whole lot of this...

Running through these places, just to name a few...

During our breaks we dined at fine places like In-N-Out...

...we bummed some shade from strangers in exchange for popsicles in the 90+ degree heat while decked out in our matching awesome J'Adore Hardcore running tops from Run Pretty Far.

We cheered on our fellow Ragnarians!

We tried to thank every volunteer we could for enduring such long hours in the heat of the day and the dark of the night!

 
We witnessed a marriage proposal at exchange 27! It was emotional. I cried a little bit and I'm made of stone.

And even at 11pm at night, when all the world is probably in their nice warm beds, we were still smiling to be in such good company doing the one thing we all loved...run! At least I think that is why they are all smiling. Right, guys?

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors (Nuun, PRO Compression, Bic Bands, Run Pretty Far, Aspaeris, and Running Skirt) for helping team #SMCOL rock the 2012 Ragnar SoCal relay in style.  

The Ragnar SoCal relay managed to turn a bunch of chicks I met online into 5 of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for. Cheers to that! Special thanks to Sarah (#SMCOL team captain) and Heather (co-captain).

Thirty-six hours and 203.5 miles later we were still all smiles! Even after van "funk", sleep running, real/not real, #SMCOL and #RagnarSocal, fist bumping the Cash4Gold dude (aka Shannon's boyfriend), the internet machine, #eatallthethings and #packallthethings, Shannon getting cozy with me in the back of the van at 3am, leisure start time, "smooth" transitions, Becka shaving in a parking lot in Corona in 95 degree weather, magic pants, wanting cooked food, #VanAwesome, Shannon and her gorgeous Ragnar-induced hair, kills on the hills, something about bottling the van funk into a perfume, and so many other things that I just cannot remember at the moment.

One word: EPIC!!!

So I was runner 6 in Van 1 of the 12-women team So Much Cooler Online and these are my data taken from my Garmin.
Leg 6 (9:52am on April 20, passed 9 runners): 2.7 miles flat, starting to get warm out 80s.

Mile 1 - 8:07
Mile 2 - 10:15 A group of us got stuck for 2 minutes waiting to cross a freeway on-ramp. :(
Last .63 - 5:04 Forgot to start my Garmin until I had already left the exchange, rounded the corner and ran down a couple of blocks. D'oh!
Finish: 23.27

Leg 18 (11:53pm on April 20, passed 26 runners): 7.4 miles, giant terrible 2-mile hill around Escondido w/ 600 ft of elevation gain at midnight. Hated it!

Mile 1 - 9:16
Mile 2 - 11:43 Slow slog up the hill. It was so foggy. Could only see a couple of steps in front of me with the aid of the trusty headlamp. Hated this part so bad!
Mile 3 - 10:21 Still going up
Mile 4 - 8:41 Awful steep downhill. Even worse than the uphill.
Mile 5 - 8:51 Elevation started to go up a bit again
Mile 6 - 9:37 I suck!
Mile 7 - 8:46 Just get to the end so that you can stop running dummy! <-- Note to self
Last .5 - 4:37
Finish: 1:11:54

Leg 30 (9:23am on April 21, passed 19 runners): 4.2 miles, 1.5-mile hill w/ 400 ft of elevation gain around Torrey Pines. Hated it also but not as much as Leg 18.

Mile 1 - 9:04
Mile 2 - 9:58 More hills, awesome! Not!
Mile 3 - 8:39 I'm done with this. Going to just give it all I have left so that I can go shower!
Mile 4 - 8:40
Last .19 - 1:20 Hauling a$$ like there was a shower at Exchange 30.
Finish: 37:43

I was so tired in this photo but so happy at the same time to have gotten the chance to run another Ragnar with a group of amazing blogger friends! After sleeping for 13 hours straight (hey just like the last time I ran Ragnar) I just might want to do this again! Runner for hire!

Thanks Ragnar, Teammates, Volunteers and Loved Ones for making all this possible! I am grateful for everyday that I get to do the things I love surround by great people! Peace out, end of story, the end!

The Ragnar Games

It's like the Hunger Games but not. Remember that scene in the movie where they thoroughly bathe the tributes before they released them out in the woods. Yeah that's how I felt just now. I just took my last shower for the next 36 hours. So fresh and so clean.

Here's one last photo before we hit the road. Our 12-women team So Much Cooler Online (#SMCOL) met up this evening to decorate our vans. Van 1, the van that I am in has a very early start tomorrow morning. I should be in bed. Why am I still typing? I will take some better photos during the race.

Then we had dinner at the Veggie Grill. Then I realized that I had not finished packing so I rushed home and 2 hours later, I am finally done. Now I'm going to go and try to get as much sleep as I possibly can for 4 hours. G'night!

It's Time to Rag & Roll!!

The time has come. I can't even remember when OUAL recruited me for this. It was a along time ago. Long before track parties, before sparkly skirts, before ankle drama, before back problems. It was a simpler time when I thought that I had all the time in the world to get my act together.

Luckily I made a list and will check it twice this evening. I've shopped, laundered and did all the pencil to paper planning I could do. I have another early wake up call tomorrow.

I'm mostly packed! And thanks to Team #SMCOL sponsors Nuun, PRO Compression, Bic Bands, Run Pretty Far, Aspaeris, and Running Skirt just to name a few, I will be running in style! High Fashion!

Check out my legs! No, not those legs...these legs! I have 3. They look tame, except for that jaunt through Torrey Pines. Fun stuff! I eat hills for midnight snack! No, not really.

Follow me on Twitter (@Borntorun77) for Team #SMCOL Van 1 updates. I will be tweeting ALOT because to be honest I have one of the least amount of mileages to run in my van. Check out my teammates blogs for more write-ups about how they are preparing to run this 200 mile relay race through the heart of SoCal. They are like freakin' out! Me too, I'm just not telling you. D'oh.

Oh and in case you're wondering...yeah I'll still be cute after all this, just you watch! Now I have to go and find my MAC concealer. See you on Coronado Island!

Track and Fail

Today's post will be in list format because I am short on time but not on talking about useless info.  

1) Thank you for the nice comments despite my lackluster performance at Carlsbad last weekend.

2) Track workout! Haven't done any in a really long time. Felt like an overgrown slug out there. In an effort to resurrect ORF (Operation Run Faster), I tagged along for some 800s with Sarah and Margot this morning. Let me just say that getting up at the butt crack of dawn to do track work is not my idea of a good time but it helps to have other people there to suffer with. It was all very casual and they did not make me feel bad that I was a giant slug. I did a couple of warm-up laps before Sarah and Margot showed up and then did a couple more with them. We did 6 sets of 800s. Well I did them at my own pace. I've gotten slower since the last time I did track work (even my best lap was about 10 seconds slower than my previous time) but this is a good start to build from. The important thing is that I am looking forward to going back to improve on these.

1) 3:39
2) 3:35
3) 3:43
4) 3:50
5) 3:47
6) 3:40

I guess eating this buffalo burger from Whole Foods last night was a good call. Ok, maybe not. It wasn't very good either.

3) I spent some time last night working on my Tinkerbell Half costume. I am a big arts and craft nerd so this sort of thing is right up my alley. It is almost complete!

4) Finally, if you happen to be looking for some compression wear, head on over to Aspaeris because they are having a 50% off sale this week. Use code "cooleronline" at checkout! 

Perfect Strangers

Remember that show? I do! I use to watch it pretty religiously. I probably wouldn't watch it today if it were a new show but it kept my young self entertained. There is just something funny enough about a guy named Balki from the island called Mypos. I don't know...maybe I liked it because it sounds like "meatballs". Maybe I like meatballs.

I'm telling you all this because somewhere between an email from this gal a couple of weeks ago to me telling you this story now, I somehow ended up joining a Ragnar team for the SoCal 2012 Ragnar with a group of local ladies that I've never met in real life before. You know...as in "perfect strangers". This is a big step for me because I have "stranger danger" fears.

Sarah did a marvelous job putting that post/roster together and honestly I couldn't have have done it better myself. Plus I have no time! :(

As of now, I believe that we are still taking suggestions for a team name. Go over to Sarah's blog to enter your suggestion and win a prize.

The Ragnar SoCal 2012 race will be my second Ragnar. I did the 2010 SoCal race with some co-workers. It's been a while but I seem to remember having a good time. I even wrote up some tips. I'm looking forward to this and will try my best to chronicle this journey to the best of my abilities. Do you trust my abilities? Don't answer that!

I didn't blog yesterday due to busy-ness. Regular blogging will resume next week hopefully. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet about getting my Spinning Certification this weekend. Yes, it's true! I'll post about that next week as well.

Last night I made more cookie brownies. If you are keeping count, that will be twice in one week. :)

I also ate from the Lime Truck twice this week. They have this amazing Ultimate taco made with shredded pork that they cook for 10 hours. Ten hours people!

And because a photo is worth a thousand words...

...Seafood Ceviche...

...and a Lychee Limade. More lychee please! I love me some lychee but I could hardly taste it in this. Maybe put some actual lychees in the drink? Please? No?

Okay, gotta go...I'll be back soon I hope!

Running Team Relay Race Tips

After watching the Hood to Coast movie earlier in the week, it got me thinking about the Ragnar Relay that I ran. Which got me thinking about all the packing and prep work that goes into doing one of these events. These are just some of my personal suggestions. If you have already done one of these events, this post is probably old news. These are just things that I had not even consider before I did one of these events. So maybe it will help someone out.

1) Forming a team: Want to do this event but don't already have a team? Ask around and talk about this with people you like. Why, only ask people you like? Because you don't want to end up in a van for 36 hours with someone you don't like. You never know who may be interested in doing this. School friends, coworkers, blog friends, runner and non-runner friends, social groups you are a part of, etc... Trust me, I've seen teams made-up of the strangest bunch of people you will ever meet.

2) Costume and theme: Really good to establish these 2 things. It will become your identity. When you are a 12-person team, it is hard for other teams to get to know each member of a team individually. So having a team identity is high priority. Pick something clever or funny. Example...I saw a teams with names like Rucking Funners or the all popular WTF (Where's the Finish?).

3) Van decoration: This is important, make sure you decorate your van. Decorating your van to match your theme and costumes is a plus! You will look like a totally lame team if you don't decorate your van. Everyone will mistaken your ride for a delivery van or kidnapping van.

4) Van (your home away from home): it is probably in your best interest to rent a large van. Sure you can use your friend's Explorer or a minivan but based on my experience, renting a 15 passenger van is the way to go. Trust me, you want to have a lot of room to relax in and not be pressed up against your sweaty friend who just came in from running their leg.

5) Showers: this one is purely optional but will make this race a lot more enjoyable. What you want to do, depending on which van you are in is to rent a cheap motel or hotel room along the route during your van break just after everyone in your van is done with their second leg. Even though you and your van mates will likely not get to sleep much in the room, it is still nice for everyone to be able to take a shower. Doing this will make the final leg of the race SO much more tolerable. Not going to lie, the third leg is not pleasant. You are tired and hungry, the last thing you want to be is stinky, chafing or have swamp privates. You definitely don't want that last thing.

6) Misc Items: Bring cowbells/vuvuzelas/pompoms (to cheer your runners on from the van or sidelines), sidewalk chalk and sharpies, gallon size Ziplock bags and heavy duty trash bags. Towels, bring a couple to sit on and wrap around yourself after your leg(s).

That's about all I can think of right now. I was kinda reaching on that last item. The first 5 are important, the last one is if you have space on the van. Except for the trash bags and towels. Those are important.

Ragnar Relay - SoCal 2010 - An Epic Adventure - Part 1!

***I started this post on Sunday and decided to finish it today which is why some text may be dated.

I am back from the Ragnar...and after a long hot shower, a hot meal, 13 continuous hours of glorious sleep, I am finally starting to feel back to normal again.

What an amazing experience it was to run from Ventura to Dana Point with 11 people who are now my friends.

We shared something special...and by special I am talking about lack of sleep, clean restrooms, regular meals, and hot showers. But I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. That is saying alot coming from a girl like me who is not use to "roughin' it". As I mentioned before, I've never been camping nor have I ever missed a night of sleep...EVER! So you can take my word when I say that if I can do this, anyone can! And should...because it is the most fun you will ever have running that much and being in a van full of stinky people. It's not all that bad when everyone smells the same...hahaha.

Our team was called Foxes United (FU - for short)..hahaha, I did not come up with that name...just sayin'!

The team was made up of my co-workers and their friends. So I already knew some people and met some new friends. I was in Van 2 so we didn't start our day until around noon when we all packed up the van from Irvine and headed to the first major exchange point at Moorpark. Van 1 had to be in Ventura by 11am for our team's official start time so they had a much earlier start to their day than we did...so we lov'em that much more. ;)

The starting line!

So beautiful!

As soon as we got to Moorpark, we realized how green we were..as in Ragnar Rookies! Our van was naked, no decor, no van paint, we did not have matching shirts or costumes or even sweatbands. Yeah, we are such noobs! First time for everything. What we didn't have in the way of costumes we made up for with our lightning speed. Hahaha...that was what we were telling ourselves!

 Fuel!

This here is Moorpark, our first van hand-off at a parking lot of a community center. 

This was an exchange point somewhere in Thousand Oaks. 

By the time it came around for my first leg, it was already starting to get dark. Probably around dusk. I can't remember where we were exactly but I was the first runner to have to don reflective gear. Oh joy!

This is another exchange point in Laguna Beach. Sorry I don't have more exchange point photos. I was not sleeping on the job, just caught up with all the excitement. It was literally nonstop! 

This photo was taken by me very close to the finish line. 

Party on the beach y'all! 

The finish line at Dana Point!

The results came out today and Team FU did well for our first Ragnar. We finished 12th of 131 teams in our division and 33rd place overall out of 281 total teams. We as a team averaged about 8:30 min/miles for 200 miles!!

Most memorable moment for me (and there were many) was my 3rd and last leg of 8.8 miles along the Laguna Canyon 133 highway. Running against cars going 60+ miles/hr, seperated only by a a line of orange cones with headwind galore and some hills for good measure, in the midday 80 degree sun. Yeah, good times! I past about 10 people on that highway because I was the little engine that could. Rather I was the tortoise that just kept chugging along slow and steady. Yep, it was amazing to say the least.

I leave you with the most sweet medal ever! It's also a bottle opener. What?!? Oh yes it is.