This is the third year I have participated in the Ragnar Relay Event, but the first time I have done so as an ultra team of six. I must admit, this was pretty tough. We had a runner that got sick in the heat, and because we all had to do 26+ miles already, it didn't give us much wiggle room to add miles to runners. The whole stopping for several hours and then starting long miles was much more difficult than just relentlessly moving forward, which is what we usually do for our typical ultras. Then on one of our final legs, Kristi caught her toe on a 2-inch raise in the concrete and fell right onto her right arm, possibly breaking her wrist. Beast that she is, she finished the final two miles of that before getting in the van to get it iced. And to top it all off we made a rookie mistake and left Darcy at one of the exchanges and added about another thirty minutes to our time that we really didn't need with our slower pace.

The night runs, as usual, were kind of tough, but all of us agreed that these were our favorite legs because of the milder temperatures. The heat during the day, while relatively mild at under 80, but the sun was blazing and it was pretty humid. This slowed down our time even more.

​We knew we would be cutting the time limit close because we are not the fastest runners, but the injuries, the missed exchange, and the heat had us behind our finish time limit. Luckily Ragnar allowed us to leapfrog meaning that instead of us running one runner at a time, they allowed us to have two runners at a time. This meant we were doubling our miles in half the time so we could actually finish with the other runners. It was so sweet to cross that finish line as a team of six and we actually got a special ultra ribbon attached to our medal.

It was an amazing experience, and we are all so glad we took on this challenge! We are tired and ready to shower and sleep in our own beds, but we wanted to share our final thoughts with you:

Pat: his favorite part of the race was running the last leg of the race with his wife Darcy. They led the way as the whole team crossed the finish line together. He also thinks that it's probably not the smartest thing to run 21 miles at 12:30 pm--as you can probably guess, Pat was the one who got so sick and almost couldn't finish his miles

Darcy: she enjoyed the adventure with her friends and her husband and even though her last leg was uncomfortable and long, she was happy to do that last leg with her hubby. She learned not to stay on her feet when she wasn't running, because it made her actual run more painful on tired legs. She also says she'd do another Ragnar with us again even though we have left her twice now at cold, dark nighttime exchanges.

Kristi: she thinks this was the best first race she's ever had! Despite her fall, she is so happy to have accomplished so much under such difficult conditions. She ran over a marathon with no sleep and was so excited that she could do something she never thought she could accomplish.

Karrie: despite the challenge involved in completing this ultra, it was one of her most favorite experiences because she was able to do this with her friends. In addition, she was so excited that her husband Dave was able to see first hand why she loves doing these crazy races.

Dave: After driving somewhere near 1,000 miles over a 32 hour and 52 minute period, Daves final thought is, "YAWNNNN!"

​Gabby: she has so many amazing emotions going on right now that it is difficult to put it all into words. She had a lot of fun, and as usual she had that beaming smile on her face for the entire journey. She is ready to do it all over again tomorrow!

​As for me, I am so thankful for this experience to push my body to its limits and do it with an amazing group of people. It is remarkable that despite being in such close quarters for the last two days, there were smiles, kind words, and helpful gestures to the very end. As I've said a million times before ...I am a lucky girl!! Thank you team Ultra 5150, and a special thanks to my family for holding down the fort while I went out and played on the streets from Huntington Beach to Coranafo!

 So, my friends are mean (well, not really)! I was about to take off for my 10.2 jaunt and decided to hit the port-o-potties before I headed out where the only bathroom is a bush. When I arrived back at the support van, I noticed my running team looking at me seriously. "Something terrible has happened! Karrie fell and she thinks that she may have broken her arm." While I was worried about Karrie, I'll be honest that at the front of my mind was, "How many more miles are each of us going to need to take on so we can finish?" When they saw the look of panic on my face, they mercifully shared that they were playing an April Fool's Day joke on me. Not funny!

​Once I had calmed my nerves again, it was time to go meet Karrie at the end of her run to start the first leg of my ultramarathon journey. Gabby and I went to cheer Karrie in and by chance we ran across an inspiring set of runners. They were a team of living kidney donors and kidney recipients celebrating life. We watched the kidney donors and recipients embrace at the end--so emotional and inspiring!

My 10-miler was a hot and dry route that mostly went along the Santa Ana River Trail, but on the opposite side of the river than our EC 100. It was a fairly flat route but I was planning on my music playlist to keep me entertained, however, my phone decided to play the same three songs, Sam Cook, Bruno Mars, and Pitbull were my phone's artists of choice. Coach Ed taught us never to count on anything outside of ourselves, so while I was disappointed, I just pushed on. I felt strong throughout my run, and then I was running in to switch with our next runner, Kristi!

Kristi, our virgin Ragnar runner, had almost fourteen miles to complete, including one of the steepest legs of the entire race. She did great and came back with a huge smile on her face. She still looks strong and is ready to tackle her next legs later tonight.

Pat had the longest and hottest legs of us all. He is doing over 21 miles total, and the temperature is nearing 80. Darcy and Gabby are our final runners, and then it all starts over again.

We are all still in good spirits and ready to tackle Part 2. Hopefully I will be awake enough to post later tonight, but I also know at some point we might need to actually get a little shut eye.

We checked in at the Huntington Beach Ragnar start--picked up bibs, flags, and they checked to insure we all had reflective vests and two headlamps and rear lighting. While we were there we ran into team Revenge of the Ragnerds, our team members from our last two Ragnar events.

Karrie is off for her 6-mile leg and then I will take over to do my first legs, 10 miles total. I am having a sense of dejavu. Karrie is running on the HB portion of our EC100 course, and I'll be running on the Santa Ana River Trail we raced on, only I'll be doing it backwards. We stopped at the Carl's Jr on Brookhurst and Hamilton that was one of our check-ins for EC100. Gabby and I are in 7th Heaven remembering the amazing experience we had, but super thankful that we are not leaving Carl's Jr to run another 65 miles!

This year, just to makes things a little more difficult, we decided to run the Ragnar as an ultra marathon team. So, as a team of six runners we will be running from Huntington Beach to Coronado, a total of almost 200 miles. It seemed a good idea at the time we signed up, but it will be interesting to see how our bodies reacting to the long breaks between our runs.

For a typical Ragnar team there are twelve runners, six in each of two vans. When one team of six runners finishes running their miles, they rest while the other van takes over. We have no second van, so it will be interesting to see how much rest each of us actually gets. I am going to try and blog as we go so hopefully you can feel what we feel as we go. We have one runner that has never run Ragnar, and only Gabby and I have ever run an ultra marathon before today, Here is how we are feeling:

Karrie: Is super excited about running Ragnar with us, however, she is more excited about being able to hang out with her friends than actually running. She is our social butterfly!!

Gabby: is excited about the challenges of today's race. She is also happy to be able to hang with her friends. She has nervous butterflies in her stomach, which I am sure will carry her through her miles.

Darcy: is tired but excited for the journey. She is ready to conquer her miles, but is trying to wrap her head around having to complete 11 miles as her final leg.

Kristi: is our virgin racer and is super excited about the journey. She is so anxious about completing her miles that she hardly slept last night. She is glad we talked her into this challenge--we will see if she feels the same tomorrow night.

Pat: has the longest miles of the whole journey--over 40 miles! He is our zen runner--his motto is "Lace 'Em up and just run!" He is not at all worried about his miles including his first legs which have him doing 21 miles.

Dave: is our driver and has to navigate to each check in point and make sure we get there in time to drop off and pick up the runners. He is proud of our team. He plans to drive true and straight and get us to our stops in time. He is most looking forward to resting in his sleeping bag on the grass, ground, wherever. Not sure how we actually get to rest at all--sorry Dave!

Right now we are driving up to the start line. We will be beginning our race at 6:15...let's go team!