The final runner from Van 2 arrived in Lake Elsinore at 4:15 pm and our Van 1 crew was off again.
Round 2 distances:
1. Louis - 5.9
2. Sam - 8.6
3. Eva - 8.1
4. Aaron - 6.7
5. Shawn - 5.8
6. Birgitt - 7.5
It was a pretty hot day and runners were slowing down a bit as a result. Our start time for leg 13 was about 45 minutes behind our estimates. Due to the heat, we would stop about every two miles to offer water to our runner. Turned out we offered water to any runner that went by. Many were equipped, but some were very grateful for the treat. Our team was surprised that none of us encountered another team handing out water to other teams. Ragnar has some water stations, but not as many as we expected.
This first video is Louis through Lake Elsinore. Aaron is handing him a bottle of water and Sam chases after to get the bottle back. We came across "Master Chef" a few times and he seemed like a nice guy and took some water from us.
One of the fun aspects of Ragnar is that many people dress in costumes. There were lots of tutus, many super-heroes or capes, some discoers and other random things.
Here is Louis coming in to hand-off to Sam.
A water and nutrient break for Sam.
Just horsing around waiting to give water to Eva.
During this round, we had to grab dinner as we could. Runners were getting hungry so after they ran we would stop for something. This a bit of a pain, but necessary especially as the night gets later and you don't know what you will come across that's open.
Here is the exchange between runners 3 and 4 in Temecula.
My turn came at 10:14 pm and was 2 hours behind estimates. Obviously it was dark and one of the Ragnar rules is that during the time defined as night - in this case 6:30pm - 6:30am - runners are required to wear a reflective vest, a headlight and a LED flashing tail light (Shane is attaching my tail light in the photo). Other members of the team must wear a reflective vest anytime they are out of the van.
Sorry about the blinding light. Wasn't expecting a photo.
This leg was all downhill for the first 4 miles and then flat. I tell ya, the grade of this downhill was like floating on a cloud. It was wonderful! I typically run by time, for example I'll run 10 minutes and then walk one. This downhill made it easy to run 15 minutes before taking a short walk break. The funny thing was that I was so spoiled by the downhill that flat now seemed hard. I estimated I would get this leg done in 1:15 and I finished just over an hour. Woo-Hoo! My leg was along Old Hwy 395 in Fallbrook and was kind of a lonely run. I could look in front of or behind me and always see at least one other runner, but it's still weird to be in unknown territory, that dark with few cars passing.
Our van finished round two around 12:30. Van 2 had a nice spot at the exchange in Escondido for us to take a nap, and Louis took advantage for the half hour he could in the grass. But it was pretty cold and wet by the time we got there so we moved on once the exchange was made. I guess I fell asleep for a little bit (maybe 20 minutes) on our drive to the next major exchange because it was only supposed to be about a 30 minute drive and when I awoke someone said we had been driving for an hour. When I woke up we were in a drive thru and I quickly gave Shane my order to make sure I didn't miss out. Groggily eating a hamburger at 1:30 in the morning is not something I recommend though.
At the exchange in Carlsbad where we waited for van 2, there again were not really any sleeping spots. A couple of our runners got some sleep, unfortunately I was not one of them. Things started to turn a little sour at this point as exhaustion was setting in and people were getting testy. I was so tired that I was feeling nauseous. I was able to relax in the front passenger seat for a little bit while two others slept in the two back rows of the van.
As I was preparing this post I noticed I didn't have many photos. Darkness and punchiness aren't very photogenic.
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