What a weekend! I am still recovering, but I wanted to start my blog about it before some of the details start to slip away! I hoped to post every day that I was there, but the wifi was not great and my posts would not go through!
Thursday afternoon, my friend Kelly came to pick me up for Ragnar SC. We were allowed to begin setup at 4 PM and we had one more team member to pick up. We somehow managed to cram all of our stuff into her little car and drive to Fort Mill.
We arrived a little early, but the peeps at Anne Springs Close Greenway were kind enough to let us hang at the Dog Park area until 4. We were among the first to arrive at Camp and secure an amazing spot. The 3 of us were able to get us fairly well set up, until some more of our team arrived later that evening.
We had 3 tents, 2 canopies, and 2 hammocks! We were very comfy, although not as comfy as others! Some of the campsites were very swanky! Only 4 of us stayed there the first night, everyone else either set up camp and went home, or arrived early on Friday morning. The 4 of us who stayed got to check out the Base Camp area of Ragnar.
It was quite a setup! They had S'mores, tables with Giant Jenga on them, a roaring campfire, and of course the merch tent. We all scored finisher shirts and then hit the campfire.
Back to camp afterwards, and off to bed. I had my tent all to myself which was nice, it had tons of room for all of my stuff and I could spread out as much as I wanted.
Friday morning I slept until about 7, and then got ready for my first leg.
I was runner 1 and my first leg was the Green Leg. I was a little nervous since I rarely run trails. Lots of the Greenway is made up of wide gravel road but one of our team members said Ragnar likes to use the more...trail-y.... kind of paths. Oh my heck.
While I'm waiting I run into my friend Nicole, who was in my starting group! It was nice to see a friendly face, if only for 5 minutes! We were given our slap bracelet and soon we were off!
The bracelet reminds you what loop you are on. This is more important on red and yellow loops, since they start and end together, but they give you a bracelet for all 3 anyway. You also have your bib on a waist band, and you pass that sweaty sucker to each other all weekend.
Anyway....
The trail was crazy from start to finish. It was full of roots and hilly, but beautiful. I was quickly left behind and never saw another person the whole 3.2 miles.
We ran past the dog park, and just after I got to the last mile warning sign, I ran into this little guy. Ok, he was kind of a big guy.
He just chilled there, so I ran around him, and continued on my way. Just after I joined the other 2 loops towards the finish (they all merged just before the quarter mile warning) we ran past someone from REI offering free photos. Yes please! All of the fasties were blowing right past it, but I stopped!
They printed them out for you, how cool is that?
After running up a ridiculous hill (that we had to run up during all 3 loops) I came out into the clearing and could hear the announcer at the finish. Awesome! It was humid and I was worn out.
I handed the bib off to Heather, gave my slap bracelet to the staff, and met up with my team. After changing into my pajama pants and tee, we went back to the Base Camp to wait for Heather and make a free keychain!
Thanks REI!
I can see that this is going to be a long long post, so I am going to end it here. I will write about Leg 2 and 3 tomorrow.
Have you ever run Ragnar? Trail, Road, both?
Thursday afternoon, my friend Kelly came to pick me up for Ragnar SC. We were allowed to begin setup at 4 PM and we had one more team member to pick up. We somehow managed to cram all of our stuff into her little car and drive to Fort Mill.
We arrived a little early, but the peeps at Anne Springs Close Greenway were kind enough to let us hang at the Dog Park area until 4. We were among the first to arrive at Camp and secure an amazing spot. The 3 of us were able to get us fairly well set up, until some more of our team arrived later that evening.
We had 3 tents, 2 canopies, and 2 hammocks! We were very comfy, although not as comfy as others! Some of the campsites were very swanky! Only 4 of us stayed there the first night, everyone else either set up camp and went home, or arrived early on Friday morning. The 4 of us who stayed got to check out the Base Camp area of Ragnar.
It was quite a setup! They had S'mores, tables with Giant Jenga on them, a roaring campfire, and of course the merch tent. We all scored finisher shirts and then hit the campfire.
Back to camp afterwards, and off to bed. I had my tent all to myself which was nice, it had tons of room for all of my stuff and I could spread out as much as I wanted.
Friday morning I slept until about 7, and then got ready for my first leg.
I was runner 1 and my first leg was the Green Leg. I was a little nervous since I rarely run trails. Lots of the Greenway is made up of wide gravel road but one of our team members said Ragnar likes to use the more...trail-y.... kind of paths. Oh my heck.
While I'm waiting I run into my friend Nicole, who was in my starting group! It was nice to see a friendly face, if only for 5 minutes! We were given our slap bracelet and soon we were off!
The bracelet reminds you what loop you are on. This is more important on red and yellow loops, since they start and end together, but they give you a bracelet for all 3 anyway. You also have your bib on a waist band, and you pass that sweaty sucker to each other all weekend.
Anyway....
The trail was crazy from start to finish. It was full of roots and hilly, but beautiful. I was quickly left behind and never saw another person the whole 3.2 miles.
We ran past the dog park, and just after I got to the last mile warning sign, I ran into this little guy. Ok, he was kind of a big guy.
He just chilled there, so I ran around him, and continued on my way. Just after I joined the other 2 loops towards the finish (they all merged just before the quarter mile warning) we ran past someone from REI offering free photos. Yes please! All of the fasties were blowing right past it, but I stopped!
They printed them out for you, how cool is that?
After running up a ridiculous hill (that we had to run up during all 3 loops) I came out into the clearing and could hear the announcer at the finish. Awesome! It was humid and I was worn out.
I handed the bib off to Heather, gave my slap bracelet to the staff, and met up with my team. After changing into my pajama pants and tee, we went back to the Base Camp to wait for Heather and make a free keychain!
Thanks REI!
I can see that this is going to be a long long post, so I am going to end it here. I will write about Leg 2 and 3 tomorrow.
Have you ever run Ragnar? Trail, Road, both?
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