Great River Ragnar Relay , We won Best Team Spirit Award (Read 727 times)

Great River Ragnar Relay= HOT + HUMIDITY + FUN + HILLS

Love this race, from the start to the finish it is a beautiful course very hilly course and find myself wanting to run it again just because of the scenery. 

911 had to be called at the first exchange. We saw  a runner booking up a hill HARD, and the she collapsed 100 feet from the exchange and was carried to the finish. She was awake and then she was completely out. 911 was called, but we are in the middle of no-where and I think with all the runners and vans on the road it just took ambulance a long time to get there. There was no-one with medical experience and it was her team holding her and they were shook-up. I put my arm around one, who was crying and we prayed and I told her she was strong and that she would be okay, but I've never seen anyone look so near death in a race. Our teams game plan changed, and all decided to slow the pace. I don't have an update on the girl that went down, or if their team continued.

Our van offered water and Gatorade to every runner we saw. We got lots of takers, because not all vans were doing a great job of supporting their runners in the heat. This was a great PR move as the race continued when we cheered for runners, we got cheers back from the runners like, "Ya Destination Divas", "Divas Rock", "We love you guys." We had a huge fan club by the end of the race!

I got to race with speedy FAST Candice! What a surprise to see her at the start, and our teams saw each other at many of the exchanges. She ran rocket fast .  She got 2nd in a marathon last weekend and she was still running like her shoes were on fire. Saw her pass many guys (who didn't look too pleased to be passed) as all they could do is huff and puff while reading her singlet which back said, 'Suck it Up Buttercup". BTW, Ben won a marathon last weekend, and I think his Ultra team was won. AMAZING! (Ben's Team started four hours after us, and finished two+ hours before.)

Opt'd to pay $3 in a school gym, instead of sleeping bag outside this year Best 2 hours of sleep in my life and woke up ready to run.  I think the hardest part of this race is the waiting to run. By the time you can run you're a little stiff.  Would have been so much easier just to run 18 miles at once.

My first run was just too hot. I ended up taking walking breaks the last two miles, 8 miles 9:12 average= I was pist. 2nd run felt great, 6 miles + moderate hills 8:14 pace. Happy to finally run like a runner. Third run felt great, 8:45 average, 3 moderate hills at 8:20 pace, and then 1 mile of a tough hill and was very happy to have not walked that damn hill. Each days were very humid, and I know our van 2 Leg 3 had as bad of conditions as our Van 1 - Leg 1 was.

If you have never done a Ragnar race highly recommend it. Be prepared to be very stinky at the end.

MTA:

Just found out, we won Second Place in our Divsion, and Best Team Spirit and our Volunteers won best exchange point!

Hey Bugs-

We saw a lot of you guys out there.  I was runner 8 on the MN Running Wild(er) team with Candice.   It seemed like our teams stayed within range of each other the entire time.  I heard about the runner that went down.  Scary stuff.  I think we all backed off a little after hearing that.

It was definitely hot and steamy.  The fog I had to run through at 4:30 Saturday morning was so thick it was hard to breathe.

The hills were insane on some of the legs. I underestimated them from the elevation charts. 

Our Ultra team did win the ultra division (by over 4 hours... ) and were 8th overall.  Those guys are crazy fast.

Our mixed open team was not as stacked.  We came in 74th out of 192 teams in that division, so not too bad.

Anyway, congrats to the Divas.  Nice race!

GREAT job Bugs!  We probably crossed paths.  We had two teams in the race.  My team finished 7th overall...