April 20th-21st

Ragnar = a 203mile overnight running relay from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island.

Huntington greeted us all overcast & grey... a delightfully cool morning...

Van 1, all ready to rock...

Our I.E. RoadKiller team (minus one who was flying in that morning from Boston)...

And we're off...

First exchange... runners 1 & 2... our relay "baton" was a bright orange slap bracelet...

Exchange #2... runners 2 & 3...

We ran along the Santa Ana River Trail... heading inland towards Corona...

Our first leg was hot baby hot... 

The black tarmac insistent on driving the afternoon's 110degree heat index straight into us... 

We ran our little hearts out...

Had Nike known we were doing this, I'm confident they would've sponsored us ;)

At exchange #5; Van 1 passes the baton to Van 2 two--they run the next six legs...

Van 1, all together, 1st legs complete!

@ lunch...

run... drive... eat... drive... repeat...

From 6:30pm - 7:30am all runners were required to wear reflective vests...

We were also required to use bright orange safety flags to cross the road...

An absolute highlight of this race = the "team-ness" factor...

& we all agreed another highlight = our night runs...

My night run itinerary = up Rainbow Canyon Road... towards Fallbrook...

It was a trip...

The route diverted us onto a golf course,

down a lengthy stretch of cart path...

It was seriously pitch black out there at 1am...

no street lights... no houses...

just black, as far as my eyes strained to see...

The course took us from the cart path... across an expanse of grass... onto a dirt path...

where we had to run up, up, up...

I kinda liked running under the stars...

However, I did not like getting blasted by the golf course sprinklers...

although I was in need of a shower...

We ran with headlamps...

& from their glow I could see my breathe hesitate in the cool night air...

I was digging the night run thing...

it made the seven miles fly by quickly...

 

This is our team captain for you... 

She never slows down... never...

 Not even in the pitch black...

Our 3rd and final legs took place early Saturday morning...

Did we sleep?  No...

Never...

We didn't know these people, but I thought it was sweet...

I'm guessing she said yes...

As we passed other runners, they became our "roadkill's..."  

Next year we will have to tally our "kills" on the van windows...

The van... on the inside... 

After our third leg we had some downtime... 

not really enough time for a nap... 

but there was room stretch and relax in Kristen's RV...

which I think we should've driven the whole time...

Ragnar was a BLAST!

We ran across the finish line in Coronado as a team... 

Truly a wonderful experience... 

So glad to be apart of this team...

So glad for all the FUN memories...