ragnar baby! (aka: i am a runner now!)

so, i'm very behind in updating this blog.  one of the reasons for this is my recently acquired fitness-hobby: running.  i have spent the last 6 months training for the So Cal Ragnar Relay.  what is Ragnar you ask?  oh, well, let me tell you.  it is a 12 person relay race from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island.  yes, that's right, 12 people running 3 legs each of the 203.5 mile race!!!!  if you are exhausted reading this, then you can imaging how exhausted I am, having completed 14.5 of those miles over 36 hours. 

my weekend started with a morning flight to my homeland, with Ali picking me up for a little pre-race shopping trip.  after picking Sawyer up from school, having lunch and Fashion Island, and shopping at South Coast Plaza, I was begging her not to drop me off with my team!!!!!  i could not wrap my head around the idea of trading a cushy girls' day out for waking up at 4am to spend 2 days in a van with 5 other sweaty woman, and running over 14 miles!  i was on team "so you think you can run?!" but i wanted to trade to team "i've made a huge mistake!"

but, hanging out with these ladies, and decorating our van gave me the team spirit i needed to pump me up and get me ready for race day.

so, between the 12 of us on team, "so you think you can run?!" we abandoned 38 kids to run 203.5 miles!  the husbands were acting like we were headed to a spa weekend, i'm not so sure this was a good trade off.  (ps: can you see the "kills" window?  that's how many people we passed.  wanna know how many that ended up being?  114!  oh yeah, that's right, triple digits!)

race day started about 4:30am!  but we look bright eyed and bushy tailed right?

starting line!  they pumped up the jams and got us excited about our grueling next two days!

were you wondering which of the 12 runners i was?  well, i was #6.  how did i get assigned to the most difficult hills in the whole race?  i was afraid of the higher mileage!  what a silly novice runner i was!  give me a flat 20 miles any day!  the hilly 14 was a beast!

ps: it was so fun to tackle the first half of the race in my hometown.  my first leg started right in my old backyard.  in fact, i took off right out of my parents' church parking lot!

we thought it was fun to have posed hand off pics.

here's me giving a big thumbs up as i ran down the road in high temps.

at the finish....of my first leg.  just two more to go, yikes!

people like to get all kinds of crazy at Ragnar.  these little beach bunnies actually ran in these get ups!  we opted for matching green tanks.   who looks better, us or them? you be the judge.

last leg.  i noticed there are no photos from my second leg at 2 am.  i wonder why?  here i am showing off my Ragnar tat.  i was really super tough and intimidating, no?  i bet the 14 people i passed on this leg thought so!

i was surprised how much fun we had in the van.  i mean, i was among friends, but the idea of hanging out in a sweaty van for 36 hours, throw some running in the mix, i didn't think "fun" was going to be a component.  but look at all that love!

the finish....the real one!  look how happy we are to be out of the vans!  our kids were all universally impressed with our medals, though they were all confused about who we were "versing". 

all i can say is my biggest opponent in getting this thing done, was me. so i kicked my own tush!

long live van 1!  we had so much fun!  and we got to shower and nap before the finish line!

can't forget our awesome nails.  thanks to Julie for blinging us out!

so, it's been a week since i boarded the plane for Ragnar.  i had my reservations, i exhausted my physical resources, and battled a little head cold, but i feel confident now saying it was fun and i plan on doing it again someday.  the biggest surprise to me is that i don't think i'll give up on running.  i will keep it up. i think i see a half marathon in my future.  me?  a half marathon?  sounds like fun.  wait...did i just say that? 

thanks Ragnar!