Ragnar Part I: The Hill

This past weekend I completed my first Ragnar (a 2-day, 200-mile relay race)...I say first because I loved it and hope to do another one soon. That being said, the first of my three legs was a 7-mile nightmare of a hill. I have had this little picture (see below) taped to my wall for the past several months and as I've been training I've been looking at it thinking..."I got this, I can so do this..." The nice little chart does indicate an elevation gain...but as the MONSTER hills were in front of me (and kept coming and coming), I suddenly felt that the cute little chart was a GIANT lie...it should have looked more like the heart monitor of a person in the middle of an acute heart attack...with violent spikes. (Which maybe is was my heart was actually doing during the climbing of said hills). However, when I finally got to the top and knew I was at the 5.3 mile mark and that the rest was downhill, I think I remember saying an out loud "Thank you Jesus" that was as sincere a prayer as I have ever uttered.

More pictures and stories to come...but to summarize, I ran 12.7 miles, biked 13 as a pacer (for the middle-of-the-night legs). It was the hardest race I've ever run and I understand why people say a Ragnar is harder than a half or full marathon...just such a different thing... I loved the experience and am excited to run another sometime soon hopefully.