Ragnar Vail Lake Women's CHAMPS!!!

I admit I was really unsure about this whole trail relay race thing but it ended up being a blast and - the icing on the cupcake - we won the open women's division! Don't underestimate a bunch of cougars!!!!

In case you can't read the back of our shirts, it says "hot on your trail" and Rarr. It was simple but effective. 

Here's the whole team (almost, Brandi wandered off somewhere), and our campsite pre-race and pre-rain.

And yes, we got rain. If you can believe it. It never rains here but of course it did the night we had to run in the dark and sleep outside. I didn't mind though, it cold have been worse and added to the adventure for an adventure-starved mama! 

So the adventure really began before we left San Diego, trying to pack a whole lotta gear in our Element. The way things worked out the San Diego contingent of our team ending up bringing most of the gear and met the Orange County contingent at the race. Seemed like a good idea until we saw the parking lot shuttles:

So we piled on in a mad race against everyone else to get "seats" while simultaneously trying to load air mattresses, camping gear, coolers, bags and even a table. Thankfully some fellow runners were gracious and helpful and piled gear on top of us and helped us hang on so it didn't fall off on the bumpy ride. This photo, incidentially, was not taken by me but by one of our less-heavily-laden OC teammates. I'm still laughing a little that I expected an actual coach style bus. 

The race works by everyone running 3 legs in the same order: green, yellow and red - and we cycled through them. I ran the yellow leg first (supposed to be 7.4 miles but was shortened to about 6.2 by race organizers) at about 5 pm. Then I ran the red leg (supposed to 3.4 miles but was closer to 3.7 b/c I got a bit lost in the dark) at midnight. My last leg was the green leg (3.9 miles) at 7 am. 

Probably the biggest challenge of the race was keeping the stomach happy for the entire duration, while still eating enough to maintain energy. Everyone on the team was keen to avoid "GI meltdown," something probably only experienced by distance runners and people with nasty viruses. Somehow we were all okay. The closest we came was one teammate with a blood sugar crisis but there were plenty of sugar-packed energy gels, chews, blocks and beans around so that was easily resolved. 

We also had these lovely composting commodes to contend with, as the race organizers were trying to promote sustainability:

I don't know how much it cost to put these in but they were so worth it. There were 24 hr attendants just waiting for runners to hang the "service needed" sign on the door. They smelled like cedar and at night the attendants lit them up with candles. It was a surprisingly pleasant portapotty experience. And that's important when you have so many people going potty so many times! 

I have done 24 hr events on mountain bikes but I have never gone trail running in the dark. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Here's my race synopsis:

Yellow Loop: I started out as the sun was setting at 5 pm. I left the race village and took a trail that lead me to the other side of the lake. It was really beautiful running in the twilight and looking back at the lights of the "village." If it hadn't been a race, I would have stopped for a photo. To be honest the other reason I didn't stop was that I hadn't seen another racer or volunteer since I passed by the lake and I was pretty darned spooked. Once I finally saw a shadowy shape in front of me I checked my GPS and it read 2 miles. I had run 2 miles in the dark without seeing another soul. Turns out I only saw 4 other runners total during that loop so I had to get used to feeling alone in the dark with whatever wild critters might have been out there....and hungry.... And my body wasn't really feeling like running. Probably because I'd been down with a cold and wasn't quite over it so there was a battle b/tw my mind and body for the first 30 minutes of that run. But actually I think that helped me from panicking about my isolation on the dark trail. Thankfully at about the 3 mile mark my body started to wake up and I started to feel a bit more like running. The final half of the loop felt more fun as I enjoyed the weird feeling of running underwater. The trail was sandy so there was a fine dust in the air, made more impenetrable by my headlight. I couldn't see where I was putting my feet so every step was a bit of an adventure. Others must have been experiencing the same thing b/c as I passed the fourth and last person I was to see on the trail, she twisted her ankle and filled the night air with expletives. Lucky for her we had just passed the only volunteer on the far side of the trail so she'd be taken care of. I ended up taking my headlamp off and carrying it in my hand which seemed to work a bit better. I took it home into the transition tent where I couldn't find our next runner. We lost a few minutes as I tried to track her down. She had her head in her computer up at the Cougar Den, trying to get caught up on work and had to book it to get down to the start/finish on time. Darn Professors! 

Green Loop: I got to run this loop in the rain at midnight. The race organizers had a big screen where each team was posted as the runner crossed the last quarter mile to the finish. It was powered by people riding bikes (sustainability points). At one point during the night it went out so they had to wake people up and get them on the bikes again. (Not really, but it did go out). It was still going as things weren't that quiet yet at midnight so I stood in the rain staring at the screen and waiting for Team Cougars. It wasn't raining too hard but enough that it looked like snow in my headlamp. I kept reaching out to touch it, just to make sure it wasn't. The green loop had already been talked up in camp b/c it started with a ridiculously steep and long climb. I hadn't bothered to warm up b/c I knew I'd be walking most of it and I was. After that climb it was a really great trail and I wished I could have run it in the daytime. It had twisty and tight single track and plenty of ridge running where I'm sure the views were amazing. I saw more runners on this trail b/c it was shorter and I could see headlamps from the high points. This was reassuring b/c this trail felt more "cougar-ish" than the others. Maybe it was the single track and the bushes tight to both sides. At one point the trail started to close in on both sides of me and I started to wonder where the heck I was going. Straight up again; I actually had to scramble to get up top of a spine where I looked down once and not again as I got vertigo from looking down into the misty dark. Up on that spine I saw no one for long enough to think I'd gone the wrong way. I kept thinking there was no way the race organizers would want people up here in the dark. Then  I saw a tiny green trail marker. I guess they did want people up on a skinny spine in the dark. These race organizers were making a point that their race was serious. I was impressed. My body felt good and I loved, loved the green loop, despite getting disoriented in the dark and getting a little off course in the last quarter mile if you can believe it. 

I had the hours of 1 am until 7 am after this to eat, hydrate, clean up, potty, sleep, get up, clean up, eat breakfast, potty, hydrate and get ready to run again. I managed maybe an hour of sleep, not that I expected much more. But at least I rested and was out of the rain for awhile. I figure it rained from about midnight until 3 or 4 am. 

Red Loop: I started out at 7 am with no headlamp!!! Yay! This was the "black diamond" of the trails, or so we'd been told. Not the longest but the most challenging. My teammate had told me I was going to love it and my other teammate couldn't contain her excitement at being finished so I was in a good headspace as I headed out, sleep or not. Truth be told, I was just excited to run with vision. It was stormy and grey but at least it was light. As promised there was lots of climbing, including a sidewinding goat trail to the highest point. But there was also lots of mountain bike style downhill. My favorite. I was ripping down the trail with a guy on my heels. I offered him a chance to pass, which he declined telling me he liked my pace. I hate it when that happens b/c somehow I feel pressure to go a little bit faster. Last time that happened to me was at a mountain bike poker race last year where I nearly flew off the side of the mountain b/c a few guys wanted to "follow my pace." Talk about riding at my limit. Needless to say, I was relieved when we finally got to the bottom of the descent to see a huge climb in front of us. I'd knew he'd leave me in the dust and I could slow down a little before I puked. Many climbs later I made it to the finish line for the 3rd and last time. I felt good and pushed hard on that last leg. Something that never happens to me in running races. 

Having run a few half marathons, I have to say that 13+ miles are easier to run in 3 parts. I actually felt like I got stronger each leg which was an entire surprise to me. The race was a physical and mental breakthrough, learning that I could do more than I thought I could. 

And we won. How crazy is that? The secret of our success? Consistency. Apparently we all found it easier than we thought to run 3X in about 14 hrs b/c no one slowed down and we all ran really similar times, like within minutes of each other, for each leg. Our overall time was just under 20.5 hours. 

Okay, I've blabbed enough. Here are some photos of the adventure:

The Champs, post-adventure. See that second cougar from the right wearing ears? She actually knocked a piece off this vehicle while trying to climb on it. I think she'd already had too many mimosas!

A Ragnar tradition is to have the entire team run through the finish line with the last runner. So here we all accompany Brandi as she charges the finish for the win! I might have been a bit tired by this point, you see I'm not exactly charging. 

Here's our headquarters after all the rain. 

Here are some of us during some of the wetter parts of the day.

Almost finished!

Mimosa time!!

And this is just a cool photo.

Truly the most dangerous part of the event was the hour long drive home with no sleep. Thankfully I had teammates to keep me awake. We waited til we got home to crash hard. It was an EPIC event and we'll be back next year. Love this stuff!