My second leg was the Red Loop.
I was nervous about this one because everyone was saying that they had fallen during this loop, and I would be doing it in the dark. I ate an Uncrustable at 6 and at 7 I headed over to Base Camp to wait for my turn.
It was just starting to get dark when I left the Barn to make my way to the Red Loop.
It was pretty hot, and I was a little nauseous, probably from being so hot for so long. The Red and Yellow Loops start together and after close to a mile, they separate.
It was full on dark now, and I was carrying a hat I had picked up for about a mile. I dropped it with a volunteer and continued on my way. There were tons of bridges and lots of roots, and I basically kept my head down and tried to maintain a decent pace. I pretty much failed there. My pace was almost 3 minutes slower than when I ran Green Loop.
It was a special kind of dark. At almost exactly mile 5, I tripped over a huge root and went down hard. Really hard. Ouch! I used my hands to break my fall, and was lucky that I didn't get hurt! I brushed off as best as I could but now I was run shy and mostly walked. My foot was also starting to ache and I was stressing about Yellow Loop in the morning.
Best.sign.ever.
I texted my team and made it to the finish. My teammate's wife kindly got me some ice and the two of them helped me get my dinner and sat with me while I ate.
After dinner it was time to try and get some sleep. We figured that my final leg would start somewhere around 5:30 am so I wanted to sleep for 4 or 5 hours before I had to get ready. This is where my only bad experience happened. Our neighboring campers were not at all considerate. They had roped off their own site, but sat in ours. They set up their chairs right next to my tent and talked all.night.long. I heard all about their feelings on beer, Nascar, and their balls. Seriously. Quiet time is between 12 and 6 am but when I got up at 4:30 they were still at it. They were horrible. My 5 hours of sleep became 3.5 hours of disjointed sleep. Thanks neighbors.
Back to Base Camp, in the dark, again!
I hit the trail in the dark, very carefully, but knew it wouldn't be dark the whole time. I was looking forward to the "Creepy House" I was hearing about and hoping it would be light out when I got there.
It wasn't. It was almost maybe kind of light out, but I still had my headlamp on.
This loop was 5.6 miles and had many bridges and obstacles! It was tons of fun but I was still worried about falling in the dark so I was going super slow. I knew I was on track according to the pace chart Ragnar had for us, but I was still stressed. I wanted us to finish on time, without having to double up.
Woohoo one mile to go! It was getting hot and I was ready to be done.
The Red and Yellow Loop join up at about this point and all run the last mile together. I was not looking forward to that hill just after the quarter mile warning at all.
REI was at the quarter mile mark again so of course I got another pic.
Almost done. One giant hill and a jog to the Barn and I'm done!
Now comes the hard part. I'm done with all 3 legs but since I'm Runner 1, my 7 teammates still had to run. And so we wait. I finished around 7:30 am and our final runner came in around 5:30 PM. In the meantime, we all packed up the campsite a little at a time and at one point the hubs drove me to Starbucks for an iced tea.
Before long, we all went to the Barn to wait for Kelly to finish, so we could run her in and get our bling!
Kelly finished like a rock star and our adventure was over.
We celebrated a little....
Collected our bling....
We are Ragnarians! What an amazing weekend! When can I do it again?
I was nervous about this one because everyone was saying that they had fallen during this loop, and I would be doing it in the dark. I ate an Uncrustable at 6 and at 7 I headed over to Base Camp to wait for my turn.
It was just starting to get dark when I left the Barn to make my way to the Red Loop.
It was pretty hot, and I was a little nauseous, probably from being so hot for so long. The Red and Yellow Loops start together and after close to a mile, they separate.
It was full on dark now, and I was carrying a hat I had picked up for about a mile. I dropped it with a volunteer and continued on my way. There were tons of bridges and lots of roots, and I basically kept my head down and tried to maintain a decent pace. I pretty much failed there. My pace was almost 3 minutes slower than when I ran Green Loop.
It was a special kind of dark. At almost exactly mile 5, I tripped over a huge root and went down hard. Really hard. Ouch! I used my hands to break my fall, and was lucky that I didn't get hurt! I brushed off as best as I could but now I was run shy and mostly walked. My foot was also starting to ache and I was stressing about Yellow Loop in the morning.
Best.sign.ever.
I texted my team and made it to the finish. My teammate's wife kindly got me some ice and the two of them helped me get my dinner and sat with me while I ate.
After dinner it was time to try and get some sleep. We figured that my final leg would start somewhere around 5:30 am so I wanted to sleep for 4 or 5 hours before I had to get ready. This is where my only bad experience happened. Our neighboring campers were not at all considerate. They had roped off their own site, but sat in ours. They set up their chairs right next to my tent and talked all.night.long. I heard all about their feelings on beer, Nascar, and their balls. Seriously. Quiet time is between 12 and 6 am but when I got up at 4:30 they were still at it. They were horrible. My 5 hours of sleep became 3.5 hours of disjointed sleep. Thanks neighbors.
Back to Base Camp, in the dark, again!
I hit the trail in the dark, very carefully, but knew it wouldn't be dark the whole time. I was looking forward to the "Creepy House" I was hearing about and hoping it would be light out when I got there.
It wasn't. It was almost maybe kind of light out, but I still had my headlamp on.
This loop was 5.6 miles and had many bridges and obstacles! It was tons of fun but I was still worried about falling in the dark so I was going super slow. I knew I was on track according to the pace chart Ragnar had for us, but I was still stressed. I wanted us to finish on time, without having to double up.
Woohoo one mile to go! It was getting hot and I was ready to be done.
The Red and Yellow Loop join up at about this point and all run the last mile together. I was not looking forward to that hill just after the quarter mile warning at all.
REI was at the quarter mile mark again so of course I got another pic.
Almost done. One giant hill and a jog to the Barn and I'm done!
Now comes the hard part. I'm done with all 3 legs but since I'm Runner 1, my 7 teammates still had to run. And so we wait. I finished around 7:30 am and our final runner came in around 5:30 PM. In the meantime, we all packed up the campsite a little at a time and at one point the hubs drove me to Starbucks for an iced tea.
Before long, we all went to the Barn to wait for Kelly to finish, so we could run her in and get our bling!
Kelly finished like a rock star and our adventure was over.
We celebrated a little....
Collected our bling....
We are Ragnarians! What an amazing weekend! When can I do it again?
I am not a huge fan of trails but I love camping so I really want to try one of these!
ReplyDeleteIf I organize a team next year you should come!
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