Ragnar Tennessee Race Day 1 Recap (the first part!)

Luckily we have some creative people on our team!

Race Day!!!! Finally! We were all up early because we were too excited to sleep. Honestly, I'm surprised that I slept as long as I did, thinking we got about 6 hours of sleep. We hit the buffet for breakfast and coffee, packed up and headed outside. Since we ran out of time Thursday night for decorating the vans, we had to get creative and get the dew dried off in order to decorate it before heading to the starting line. 

The starting area was so exciting! There were lots of other teams around and different groups starting their race experience every half hour. We had to attend our safety meeting, check in, get our flags, etc. 

We took pictures and waited for our 10:00am start time. Some teams ran in their team shirts, some teams wore costumes, some were sponsored. There were runners of all ages, too. 

The team!

As runner three, I luckily didn't have to wait too long to start my run. I was able to experience the fun at the starting line seeing Melissa off, then supporting and cheering along the way for runners 1 and 2. I know Melissa was surprised to see us during her run as we weren't sure where we would be able to stop. Since we were all first time Ragnar runners, we had no clue what was acceptable and what wasn't by the rules. We were quick learners though from watching everyone else!

We were able to help cheer Jamie up the mountain and finally we reached exchange 2 for my first leg. There were people everywhere waiting for their runners to get up the mountain. Ragnar was so well organized that it was easy to figure out what we were supposed to do, where we were supposed to be. The "look-out" or spotter, finally called "16" for our team meaning that Jamie had been spotted and I was next up in the exchange. 

Being the prepared runner that I am, I had studied the map of my first leg. I had trained as much as possible for the downhills, but really, in FLAT central OH, how much could I really do to mimic a mountain?

Here I am, clueless.... waiting for the exchange.

Jamie handed the "baton" (actually a slap bracelet) to me and I was off. The first half to 3/4 of a mile were up, then I was over the top of the mountain and headed down the other side. I was FLYING! I was also afraid to look at my watch at one point, thinking I would lose control of my feet by hitting a hole or loose gravel. The scenery was gorgeous. It was a perfect day for running. I was really enjoying the run. Well, for the most part. At times the continuous downhill was very painful, but just looking around and the fact that gravity really helped out made it super fun.

The hand-off! Here I go!

Can you tell I'm FLYING?!

At this point, I said "ouch!"

Unfortunately, there were no other runners for me to pass. I did get passed by a few men that were definitely going at the speed of light---I don't know how they did it! Sadly, there was no way that I could catch them to make them my "roadkill", but watching them run was amazing.

I got to the bottom of the mountain and the road started to level out a little bit and I saw the runner spotter. I made my legs go as fast as I could and got to the exchange.

I handed the bracelet off to Kate and she took off for her run. At this point, I finally looked at my time. Holy cow! I couldn't believe it. Originally, I was hoping for 45:00. My team, especially our driver Kurt, said they thought I'd go faster than that and would come in at 40:00. Little did I know....

My legs were shredded at this point, so my fantastic team helped me over to a grassy area, got me more water and I sat for a minute. Then we loaded up to go cheer for Kate and provide support for her run.

Garmin stats:

Distance: 5.1 miles

Time: 40:26

Avg pace: 8:00mm

Elevation Gain: 139ft

Elevation Loss: 1,362ft

Yeah, we don't have hills like that in Ohio!

My legs weren't working too well at this point, so the van was helping me out!

**Thank you to everyone on the team for sharing your photos and letting me use them. Day after we got home my phone (and all pictures on it) died***

**11/15 update with my pictures as I was finally able to retrieve them!***