The Long and Winding Road
So, it’s been almost a week since I departed for the Ragnar Relay. I’ve wanted to write an entry about it, but I wanted to wait till I had a better fix on my post-race health. Now that it’s been a week and I’m mostly fine, I’m ready to write about it.
As I previously stated, I signed up to run the Ragnar Northwest Relay. Seeing as how I had a good time doing it last year (even though I managed to hurt myself), I figured it was only logical to sign up for it again. Of course, this year, I had more than a month to prepare myself for the actual event. Instead, I knew I would be running it six months prior, so starting at the beginning of February, I began to train for this event.
Now, in a great example of “oh how go awry the best laid plans of mice and men” I managed to, not be able to run for the months of May and June. This was caused by a high ankle sprain suffered by over training at the end of April, and a standard sprain at the end of May. As I remarked at the finish line, these were things I did NOT tell my friend Amanda, who was our captain. Anyway, I still had a good month to make sure I was ready. (During my non running months, I hit the bike and the elliptical to make sure I was at least keeping my endurance up).
All of this training turned out to be a very good idea, as I had quite a few miles to cover. My first leg was a fun 6.8 mile romp which i completed in 1:07:48. I was actually pretty happy with the time, especially since I was shooting for 10 minute miles. I know that’s not the fastest time in the world, but I wanted to be able to keep it up for all of my distances. Regardless, this leg was definitely a good one as it got me feeling confident for my last two legs, and I knew I was going to need it.
Now, my second leg was a bit more interesting. Besides the fact that it was on a hill, I was also running it at about 2:45 in the morning. It definitely added a degree of difficulty and I forgot just how off some of the hours can be. I can definitely say that this was the hardest leg to complete, at least mentally. What didn’t help was that I didn’t recognize the fan, so I didn’t acknowledge it as I ran past at my second relief stop. So from miles 1 to 3, I felt kind of alone. But, I kept up, and finished in 1;11:50. While not on my ten minute mile pace, it’s still pretty good. Especially when taking the elevation change into account.
Finally, there was leg three and, honestly, this leg was really just a slog. It was hot, I was tired, I had already run a crap-ton of legs, and I just kind of wanted it to be over at times. I didn’t finish nearly as strongly as I had wanted, but it was still a respectable 37:58. So just barely off my pace.
All in all, it was quite a good experience for me. I had fun, got a lot more into running than I ever thought I would be, and I met some cool people. I’m definitely looking forward to doing it again next year, and maybe, I can run another beastly set of legs.
