Ragnar Relay Reflections

After a few group shots with our Ragnar medals, it was time to get my stuff from the van and head to our hotel near the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego.  I told Jim he was in charge of getting dinner while I showered.  He wasn't to ask me what I wanted, just get something.  Unfortunately, I was so exhausted that I couldn't really eat much of what he got for us.  I was in bed by 8:45 and sleeping has never felt so good!  It was very restful.  I woke at 6:30 to go the bathroom and stumbled against the wall and accidentally turned on the light waking Jim.  So now we were awake.  We made our way to getting some breakfast and was back in bed from 9:00 to 11:00.  Then we could finally start our day.

We walked to the Seaport Village which was a little less than a mile away.  It was tough to walk, but I knew it was probably necessary.  Every incline was a challenge and if I took too long of a stride my right leg would give out.  My right leg hurt the worst and I later learned from my chiropractor that my ankle was out of alignment.

The experience of the Ragnar Relay was incredible.  It's impossible to describe it adequately.  I was lucky to join a completely random team and end up with such a wonderful group of people.  They were genuinely kind and supportive.  They were much better and more experienced runners than me, but there was no arrogance about it.  I never felt bad for being slow.  But I am proud that I was so close to my time estimates for each of my legs.

I don't know why I was surprised, but I was surprised to hear our van talking about next year.  I guess I just wasn't even ready to think about it yet.  But it might be fun to try again and become a better runner in the mean time.  Collectively we learned that we need to be more intentional about sleep and food.  We must have thought it would fall into place better than it did.  Otherwise we managed it all pretty well.

Unfortunately there was one member of our team who made things a little difficult.  I won't go into detail, but it was a matter of attitude more than anything else that just caused friction.  It was tough, but I think still pretty lucky for that to have really been our only problem.

The lack of sleep was the hardest part for me.  In the middle of the night during the race I was so tired that I was nauseous.  I was really having a hard time and for a little while my mind was stuck in how much this sucked.  And my last leg was so thrown off timing-wise that I didn't eat at the right time and I was having a hard time finding my happy place for that final run.  My foot was hurting, it was getting hot, I was becoming increasingly hungry and agitated and needed to find a way to get through.  But even through all of that, the fun far outweighed any of the challenges.

Of all the runners, I had the lowest mileage in our van and the third lowest mileage overall.  At this point I can't imagine tackling a higher amount of mileage, but a lot can change in a year.

And through it all... my pedicure survived. =D